Isaiah 6:8-13--Isaiah's Commission from the Lord

Isaiah 6:8-13
English Standard Version
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Isaiah's Commission from the Lord
8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull,
    and their ears heavy,
    and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
    and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
    without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
    and the land is a desolate waste,
12 and the LORD removes people far away,
    and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 And though a tenth remain in it,
    it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
    whose stump remains
    when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump.

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This passage, and others like it are difficult for us to come to, as we think of God as light and His light revealing everything to everyone.  However, the Bible clearly teaches that there are times in which the Lord causes people who have willfully rejected the truth to not see the truth and may even send them strong delusions and cause them to believe lies and fables.  The children of Israel and specifically the people of Judah had been afforded every opportunity with the Law, the prophets and the priests that the LORD had given to them to hear the Word of the LORD and respond correctly to it.  However, they continually rejected the message and the messenger.  Now the LORD is proclaiming judgment on them.  He will send them another prophet, but they will not listen to him.  He will proverbially paint the message for them in living color, but they will refuse to see it.  Jesus would say that this word of judgment was also pronounced over the people of His day who saw the fulfillment of this prophecy and hardened their hearts and closed off their ears and shut their eyes to the truth.  (See Matthew 13:14-15).  Paul also spoke this about the Jews in Acts 28:26-27 and proclaimed this as the reason that the gospel must go to the Gentiles--"They will listen."

But there is hope.  There seems to be a breaking point that the children of Israel will reach.  They will hit "rock bottom" and the Lord knows when that will happen.  It will cause their hearts to break and turn back to Him (see verses 11-13).  Isaiah asks, "How long O LORD?" There seems to be an answer that indicates that this time of judgment is temporary.  There will be a time when it will be enough, and the blinders will be removed, and the people will once again worship the LORD.  I don't know exactly when that will be as it appears we are still in the time of blindness, but I know from the book of Romans that the day is coming when all Israel will recognize Jesus as their Messiah and will look on Him for salvation.  I look forward to that day.  Since the blindness is not universal though, we should also be faithful messengers that should go even if it seems no one is listening to us, for we never know who it is that the Lord will allow to see and hear the gospel and respond to it.  Without His intervention, we are all deaf, dumb and blind (spiritually speaking).  In fact, Ezekiel will compare Isarael to a valley of dead dry bones that are about to turn into dust that have no sense of life and no ability to help themselves.  In the same way, God must intervene to regenerate all of us and make us spiritually alive and able to see, hear, and understand the truth before we can respond to it.