Isaiah 6: Believing The Lies You Told

Isaiah 6 contains a powerful call to God's service as Isaiah views the throne of God and the angel's purify him for service. But he is given one of the most depressing ministries of all time:

He [God] said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”


Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”


And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.” - Isaiah 6

Tell a preacher you must speak, but there will be no hearts and lives changed, and I think you would see a mass exodus from the public ministry! Why would there be no seeing? Why no hearing? The clues lie embedded in God's previous message to Isaiah in chapter 5:

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes...Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. - Isaiah 5:18,20

The twisting of the truth to serve self-indulgent convenience was repulsive to the God of justice. So, in chapter 6, Isaiah is given a message that says: you will no longer recognize the truth. You have told lies to long that you can no longer discern the truth, even when it is the truth that would save you. (cf. Romans 1)

In my life, I realize I have an infinite capacity to deceive myself. God may be trying to tell me something--through the Bible, through my wife, through circumstances--but I first choose not to understand and then I cannot understand. Pray God grant me eyes to see (Eph. 1:18) "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened."

The good news is that God has declared his favor towards me, through Jesus. In spite of my own willful ignorance, God will bring me through pain and even judgment to plenty, just as he promised his people through Isaiah:
Todd Agnews captures the scene of Isaiah 6 in his song:

And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”