Isaiah 29:9-16
9 Pause and wonder!
Blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk, but not with wine;
They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.
10 For the LORD has poured out on you
The spirit of deep sleep,
And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers.
11 The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, "Read this, please."
And he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed."
12 Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, "Read this, please."
And he says, "I am not literate."
13 Therefore the Lord said:
"Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths
And honor Me with their lips,
But have removed their hearts far from Me,
And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,
14 Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work
Among this people,
A marvelous work and a wonder;
For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden."
15 Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the LORD,
And their works are in the dark;
They say, "Who sees us?" and, "Who knows us?"
16 Surely you have things turned around!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;
For shall the thing made say of him who made it,
"He did not make me"?
Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,
"He has no understanding"?
This message given to disobedient and distant hearted Israel is just as applicable to fallen man today. Their hearts were far from following God instead of being devoted to Him, which added to their blindness that the Lord had given them in that rebellious thinking and sinful living. It would take God’s work to change them and us; we are all deaf, dumb, and blind as dead men walking due to our inheritance of sin from Adam and Eve, and need divine work to intervene for us. Just as Isaiah’s words to God’s people then, so we need to pause and wonder at these things in this book. We all are born stumbling around in the dark with spiritual blindness and act as if asleep to the things of God and as a drunken man falling all over the place, unable to find the way without vision or the divine guidance of grace. When the scriptures are put in front of us, we are like those spoken of here, either saying it is not comprehensible or accessible to us, or that we are simply unable to read and understand the word of God. God’s word is therefore not read and we cannot understand unless given eyes to see and ears to hear what He is saying until He opens our eyes to unseal it and gives us spiritual understanding to be divinely literate. Just as people then gave God lip service without putting their heart into following Him, so it was when Jesus walked among us as Emmanuel and spoke these same words to the Pharisees (Matthew 15:7-9) who placed religious tradition above understanding and obedience to God’s word. It is no different now either because we are all born in sin and disobedience to the truth which is near to us but hidden from us. The fear of man’s religious regulations has masked the true fear of God and faithful following of Him. The Lord therefore told us through Isaiah what He would do, that He would do a wonderfully marvelous work for us (1 Peter 2:9) to pull down our own wisdom and philosophical understanding that we might be given spiritual understanding to be divinely literate (1 Corinthians 2:9-10, 12-13) with opened eyes and ears to see clearly and hear Him distinctly. We cannot hide from Him in what we do or what is in our hearts. We cannot make God in our comfortable image as one serving our desires as if we were the potter spinning Him on our wheel of our good fortune. He has made us and not we ourselves. He alone has the understanding to create us in His image, male and female and not in our own imagination of other forms. If we deny our Creator to honor His word and work, He will hand us over to our own delusion and destruction as Romans 1:18-19, 24-25, 28, 32 describes for us in no uncertain terms. Our blindness and deafness of such disobedience are only healed by the gospel of His work to forgive and reconcile us to Himself (John 6:29) if we accept and trust His living Word telling us these things. God sees. God knows. He gives understanding eyes and ears to accept this good news to deliver us from darkness and bring us into His marvelous light with new hearts and minds! Do we try to "make" God in our image, questioning why He does not do as we would? Or do we see that He is God in heaven who does as He pleases? God made us, and remakes us in Christ, so we need to yield under His mighty and loving hand of grace and guidance for His, the Master Potter's, good will and purpose. He gives understanding as we need it and are able. God wants our hearts, and faith that takes Him at His word, trusting and serving with actions that reflect the thoughts and intents of the heart. He did such a wondrous work in His Son up to, on, and from the cross! This is marvelous and Christ now is our wisdom and understanding that we lack without Him.
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