Hello again. This time, I want to share insights into just one passage, as it is a little longer and more complex than usual. However, I think it is important that we understand this passage of Isaiah because it says important things about the nature of God, yet the way it is commonly translated nowadays is confusing.

Isaiah 6:9-10 “Go! Say to these people: Keep listening, but do not understand; keep looking, but do not perceive. Dull the minds of these people; deafen their ears and blind their eyes; otherwise, they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their minds, turn back, and be healed”.

(From Holman Christian Standard Bible.)

When I first read it, this passage confused me. Isaiah had just said to God that he was available to be sent by him to the nation of Israel to speak as his prophet. God then commissioned him to tell the people that Yahweh would dull their minds so that they would not understand what God was saying to them. Why? Because he did not want them to turn to him and be healed?? Say what now?! This doesn’t sound much like the redemptive God I know. You know, the one the prophet Nehemiah interceded for because he knew that the Almighty was gracious and merciful? (Neh 9:31)

However, all I needed to do to clear my confusion was to see how Jesus understood the divine commission to Isaiah. When the Lord walked among the people of Israel, he used a lot of parables to teach them. On one occasion, when his disciples asked why he spoke to them in stories, Jesus answered: “The reason I use parables in talking to them is because they look, but do not see, and listen, but do not hear or understand. So the prophecy of Isaiah applies to them: “This people will listen and listen, but not understand; they will look and look, but not see, because their minds are dull and they have stopped up their ears and have closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them.” Jesus quoted the passage from Isaiah that puzzled me, but now, thanks to him, I could understand the meaning of what Isaiah recorded. The Prophet was not presenting God’s will for his people, but simply stating their recalcitrant condition.

Even his disciples did not understand the intended meaning of the parable. It is also clear that he was not saying that their lack of understanding was God’s will for them, because he immediately taught them what his parable meant. Because: “Now here is the explanation of the story I told about the farmer sowing grain …” (Matthew 13:18).

There are untold numbers of professing Christians today who also do not understand the Isaiah passage, and the reasons for this provide two important lessons for all of us. Here they are:

1. They lack understanding of the Triune God’s nature and character. If we read Isaiah 6:9-10 as it is translated in the NIV, HCSB, and ESV, which are three of the most widely read versions of the bible, without raising immediate objections, it reveals our concept of the Almighty. If God is good all the time, perfect love and light, then would he really say what these translations say? The option that God had judged his people and was now imposing punishment is just not tenable. In fact, that same prophet, Isaiah, spent the last seventeen chapters of his writings setting out the most wonderful promises of a future hope, God’s love and comfort.

So, foundational to sound biblical interpretation is the truth that the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100:5) God is GOOD and JUST all the time.

2. The second lesson for us is that failure to grasp that Jesus is central in everything, even biblical interpretation. In the current case, Jesus quoted the exact passage, and so it’s easy to see how he understood the Isaiah passage. Sure, we could argue that Jesus was quoting from the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), but that doesn’t make any difference. In Matthew, Jesus frames his response to the disciples in the context of the people of Isaiah’s day not having revelation, whereas they, the disciples, did have revelation. This revelation is, of course, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Even when we cannot match a passage of scripture to something Jesus addressed directly, we can always deduce it from what he said, did, and revealed about the nature and character of the Godhead. You see, all who are born again of the Spirit of God have been given access to the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven through the written Word of God (the bible) and the living Word of God (Jesus Christ). “As for you, how fortunate you are! Your eyes see and your ears hear. I assure you that many prophets and many of God’s people wanted very much to see what you see, but they could not, and to hear what you hear, but they did not.” Matthew 13:16-17 TEV