Woh! Wait a minute. We turn the page to chapter 6, and suddenly we need to see what's come before in a new light. Why? Because now we get the beginning of the story - Isaiah describes his call to prophecy. Which makes what's gone before ... what? A prologue?
The themes we have encountered so far - the people's unfaithfulness, their forgetfulness of God, their preoccupation with pleasure and wealth instead of righteousness, and God's simmering anger about it all, begin to make more sense when we realise belatedly what sort of person Isaiah was.
He's an insider - a member of the royal court, casually dropping the names of kings as if he saw them every day. He is a religious man - maybe a priest or a Levite - someone very familiar with the Temple. Not a person who just came up once a year for the festival, but a regular. The sort of person who would notice when the building needs a clean.
And one day, perhaps when he was going about his daily duties (maybe even with a broom in hand) his view of the Temple shimmers and changes, and the peace of the half empty building is replaced by a clanging, roaring aural onslaught of angelic worship: the sound is turned up to 11 and the doorposts shook.
A dazzling throne has replaced what was normally in his field of view, and clouds of incense obscure the sight of the Majesty seated upon it. Whirling overhead are strange six-winged creatures booming out their praise to God.
Isaiah crumples to his knees. He feels ruined, dirty, unworthy to witness this spectacle. Then a burning coal singes one of the most delicate parts of his body, and a mighty seraph tells him that his sin has been burnt away.
Now he can understand an urgent question that is being asked in heaven: "Who is there who will go for me? Who can I send?"
Here I am Lord.
Send me.
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