"Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." Isaiah 6:10
When you read this it looks kind of like Isaiah is being sent to those who are blind, deaf, and hardened people, but I don't believe God ever hardens hearts that would otherwise be soft. He simply brings the hardness to the surface ~ He does not make the heart hard! He also does not make the eyes blind of those who want to see, but apart from His intervention will never see. Nothing but the foolish talk of men would say that God hardens hearts or causes blindness to eyes.
Isaiah's job was to take a message of light to the people. Light merely reveals the blindness of the people. In darkness they do not know if they are blind or not. Listen to the words recorded from our Lord in Matthew 13:14-15: "And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." God blinds nobody. He hardens no heart. When the light shines in, it reveals what an individual is, and that is what Isaiah means.
If you go into a church a lost person, and reject the invitation to receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, how is it you will go into the presence of God and say that you never heard the gospel? How many times this happens Sunday after Sunday in churches all over our nation! It saddens my heart and brings tears of sorrow for many many folks. Paul wrote, "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?" (2Corinthians 2:14-16). You will not go into the presence of God and say you have never heard the Gospel if you have stepped foot in a Bible teaching church! May I also say, instead of us boasting of the number of people being saved, let us instead concentrate on the number of people hearing the Word of God. Our business is to sow the seed ~ the Word of God! It is the business of the Spirit of God to touch the hearts of those who hear. Now thanks be to God Who always causes us to triumph in Christ!
May your day be wonderfully blessed in the Lord.
Love in Christ Jesus, Sandy |
