Isaiah 6-8: Sanctuary or Stumbling Block

Isaiah's encounter with God in Isaiah chapter 6 are some of the more poignant words ever written.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" - Isaiah 6:1-8 NIV

What follows is God's indictment of His chosen people, who were 'ever hearing, but never understanding, ever seeing, but never perceiving.' (Is. 6:9):  their cities will be laid waste their crops devastated.  But still the people failed to respond.  When Uzziah's grandson, King Ahaz, did not respond, he was told that God would give a sign, an unmistakable sing that would be impossible to ignore.  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and  will call him Immanuel. -Is. 7:14 NIV  They were promised a sign that could not be missed.. 

Assyria, the nation that they were so afraid of, would become a tool of the Lord.  They were fearful of the wrong thing.  They should have been fearful of the one that Isaiah saw, the one that caused the seraphs to cover their faces and cry 'Holy, holy, holy."  They should have been afraid of 'The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread,' - Is. 8:13

Even today, we miss all of the signs and still fear and give power to the wrong things. The one who is waiting to be a sanctuary is the stone that causes men to stumble.