The Judgment of Blinding
In Isaiah 29:9 Isaiah again describes the condition of God’s people, the sad moral condition that makes God’s intervention by the Assyrians necessary twice. In the previous chapter he denounced the mocking spirit and unbelief (Isaiah 28:14), here he points to the spirit of blindness. He tells them to continue in blindness on their foolish, self-chosen path. In spite of all the revelations of God’s will, and in spite of the constant messages of His prophets, they have turned away and followed the counsels and imaginations of their own hearts.
As if drunk by wine, they are mired in human traditions that invalidate the Word of God. Thus the Word has become unintelligible to them. This is not because the Word of God lacks clear statements or because teaching is too complicated, but because they have become blind because of their unbelief (cf. Matthew 13:14-Ezra :). It is the path of hardening. In their spiritual intoxication they stagger towards judgment.
Blinding and anesthesia are also a judgment of the LORD (Isaiah 29:10). After the people have chosen to be blind and their hearts have hardened, comes the moment when the LORD respects their choice as it were and says to them, ‘If you choose to be blind, you will be blind. If you choose to harden your heart, I will harden your heart.’
This verse is quoted by Paul to show that the hardening of the people still exists in the present day (Romans 11:7-Ruth :; 2 Corinthians 3:14). They do not want to understand, therefore they will not understand. Their spiritual state is like a deep sleep, through which voices do not penetrate them. Their prophets, those who are the eyes of the people to see what the LORD wants of his people, have closed their eyes. Their heads, the seers, cannot see anything either. Those who are to lead the blind people are blind themselves. And how can a blind man lead a blind man (Matthew 15:14-Ezra :)?
The revealed will of God has become for them like a sealed book. The one who can read does not understand its message (Isaiah 29:11). The other cannot read and does not understand its message either (Isaiah 29:12).
Many Christians are in such a state when it comes, for example, to the prophetic book of the New Testament par excellence, the book of Revelation. It is considered a sealed book that one cannot read, or the reader sees himself as incapable of reading it, despite the name of the book, ‘Revelation’ or ‘unveiling’. People who believe they have found an excuse not to read in God’s Word show that the blindness does its work.
The lip religion, in which the heart is estranged from God (Isaiah 29:13), is the result of traditions, learned commandments of people. The heart is the birthplace of thoughts (Matthew 15:19). It “is more deceitful than all else” and only “I, the LORD, search the heart” to its deepest hiding places (Jeremiah 17:9-2 Samuel :). The Lord Jesus quotes these words of Isaiah when He reproaches the religious leaders for making the Word of God powerless by teaching doctrines that are commandments of men (Matthew 15:3-1 Samuel :; Mark 7:6-1 Samuel :).
The result is the loss of wisdom and the concealment of the will of God (Isaiah 29:14). This is the result of a marvelous act of God, marvelous because it is a judgment on His own people. He is against His people. Therefore the LORD continues to act in the same way as in the past two thousand years.
The word of Isaiah 29:14 is also a word quoted by Paul in connection with the preaching of the word of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18-Psalms :). It shows that in its application it also has authority for Christianity today. This judgment of hardening announced by Isaiah also applies to Christianity, although fortunately not yet in full. However, it will happen fully after the rapture of the church (2 Thessalonians 2:11-2 Kings :). In Christianity one also has the Bible in one’s hands, while one is not able to read or understand what God has to say, because the heart is alienated from God. He will exhibit the so-called wisdom of liberal theologians as foolishness.
How deep the apostate can sink, shows Isaiah 29:15. It is the greatest foolishness to suppose that one can hide from the LORD as long as one does so deep enough. This is where the third “woe” comes in. The prophet is deeply shocked by it. He expresses his great indignation at their folly to suppose that they are wiser than the LORD (Isaiah 29:16). The LORD says to them: “You turn [things] around.” Everything is turned upside down. Instead of putting their trust in the LORD in heaven, they put their trust in people on earth. It is foolishness at the top.
In their minds they have turned the relationship between the puny little creature and the sovereign Creator upside down (cf. Isaiah 45:9; Isaiah 64:8; Jeremiah 18:1-Joshua :; Romans 9:19-Ecclesiastes :; Job 33:13). They deny their relationship with Him or attribute inferior qualities to Him. They deny what the psalmist joyfully acknowledges, namely, that the LORD knows him through and through (Psalms 139:1-Numbers :).
They are like the clay that claims to be on the same level as the potter and in its folly claims that the potter did not make a pot of him (Romans 9:21). We also recognize it in the folly of the big bang and evolutionary theory which are invented to deny God as Creator.
This is the error of all who want to act independent from God. They do not take into account that they were not created to live for themselves, but to serve Him. They deny that He created them or blame Him for being busy without understanding. It’s the kind of people that blames God for all the misery, as if He worked it through His actions. Such foolishness shows that they are blind to the fact that they have brought all the misery upon themselves through their unbelief and obstinacy. The only way to blessing for man is to bow down to the absolutely wise Creator and submit to His holy will.