Isaiah 6:9 "He said, "Go and tell this people: 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'"
Isaiah has this vision. He wasn't yet a prophet, but its likely he was a student of the word of God. He knew that seeing God was lethal, and his fear reveals it. He was terrified. It's really a strange scene...seraphs were flying above him, and they were chanting "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." Why earth? Anyway, they were loud, and their voices shook the temple, filling it with smoke.
They each had six wings, two covering their faces, two covering their feet, and with two they were flying. Even they had to cover their faces, in spite of being in the throne room of God. There was an altar there, and one of the seraphs took a live coal and touched it to Isaiah's lips after he freaked out. This touching of the coal to the lips served to cleanse Isaiah of guilt and sin, and he could stand before God.
God calls out and asks, "Who will go for us?" I don't know if there were others there, but I don't think so, it was Isaiah's vision. Isaiah volunteers for what he must have known was going to be an extremely unpopular job.
God gives a command to Isaiah in verse 9, a rather cryptic one. Be hearing, but never understanding; be seeing but never perceiving. Why would God want that callousness of heart? Because he needed to discipline them and discipline them good? If Israel turns and is healed, maybe they wouldn't get it, and they would only make these "deathbed confessions" under the threat of devastation. God didn't want that from his people all the time, that's not sincerity. That's not the change of heart God is after. And I don't know how Isaiah himself was going to make people's hearts calloused...maybe he was supposed to play "bad cop." I don't think he had the power God did when he hardened the Pharaoh's heart. So Isaiah had to keep this up until Israel was totally devastated.
Monday, September 14, 2009
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1 comment:
Thanks for linking me to your blog, Jon. I agree with your interpretation about this verse.
If you analyze the words closely (of course, we are talking about words that have been translated many times, but it still works), "hearing" and "seeing" are fairly passive verbs - you naturally have eyes and ears, so if there is an external stimulus, you're not going to be able to avoid it unless you close your eyes and plug your ears. You will see and hear, as you should.
But to understand and perceive - those are strong action words. Now you're getting involved. Your heart is absorbing the situation, and your mind is busy trying to figure it out.
Without noticing, you're also now deviating from God's path, and retracing footsteps and recovering lost time and opportunities aren't so easy. Especially when you have an important mission - there is no time or energy to waste.
So of course, a calloused or cold heart is not the intended outcome. Rather, you get an energetic shield that allows you to continue doing God's will.
This has been a topic of a spiritual study I've done this year - learning to separate our energy from others'. Our modern culture tends to confuse compassion with total servitude: if someone close to you has a problem, you are supposed to drop everything to lend an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on, or even your money.
As we know from experience, rarely does our "compassion" ever solve the problem. In fact, it usually makes it worse - because that person's problem is now our problem too. Our hearts, energy and bank accounts are left depleted. And the person has lost an opportunity to take care of the problem for themselves.
I don't know enough about it to place it in biblical context, but it looks like you already have, and have arrived at the same conclusion. If Isaiah had become distracted by his surroundings, even though they're out of his control, he wouldn't have been able to perform important work.
I think a modern day summary of this verse could be "mind your business, and let others mind their own."
My spiritual counselor's suggestion when someone is demanding your energy... simply say "That does sound like a problem. I have full confidence that you will be able to handle it successfully."
You are free to get back to work, and the other person is hopefully empowered or will at least go bother someone else. haha.
Great lesson! I look forward to reading more of your posts.
~Sarah
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