Isaiah 29:10
For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
The Lord sends a spirit of deep sleep that closes eyes and covers prophets, rulers and seers, leaving the people morally and spiritually blind and unable to perceive or rightly guide in the truth. That sleep and drunkenness is not from wine or strong drink but a spiritual stupor and delusion that perverts perception, leads away from truth into error, and produces crooked action while claiming faithfulness. It comes as God's judgment when worship is only of mouth and lips while the heart is far from Him, when fear of Him is taught by human precepts and tradition, and when light is received but not walked in or improved, reproof is rejected, and misleading leaders and deceptive ideas are trusted. So the vision becomes as a sealed book, as with the Jewish nation who failed to recognize Jesus as the fulfillment of their types and shadows and demanded signs instead of receiving the gospel, and the same blindness follows any nation that turns from truth to fables. It is fulfilled again in unconverted teachers and false shepherds to whom truth is sealed so they divert inquirers with fables and evade the claims of light such as the seventh-day Sabbath, and in those who have had great light yet trust misleading leaders, reject warning, doubt Christ's soon coming and mistreat fellow servants until reason is controlled by Satan and they cannot see what makes them stumble.
Meaning and Cause of Blindness
The Lord pours out a spirit of deep sleep, closes eyes and covers prophets, rulers and seers, leaving the people morally and spiritually blind and unable to perceive, understand or rightly guide concerning the vision and the truth. The sleep and drunkenness are not wine or strong drink but stupor and loss of spiritual perception. It is spiritual delusion and drunkenness that makes the religiously professing confused, unable to understand Jesus or recognize truth. That delusion leads to straying from the way of truth, supporting error while thinking to be faithful, and to crooked actions.
The setting of this blindness is outward worship without heart religion, drawing near with mouth and lips while the heart is far from Him. Fear of Him is then shaped by human precepts and teachings, a lip religion resting on the precept of men. Human traditions and ceremonies obscure the spiritual lessons He intended. The blindness is His judgment on resistance to His will, truth and light. It comes upon those who cast truth aside and are deceived by persuasive words, false ideas and deceptive spirits.
It comes upon those who receive light but do not walk in it or improve it, bringing blindness through non-improvement of light. It comes upon those who trust misleading leaders, reject reproof and warning, and heed deceptive spirits. It is fulfilled in teachers who claim to have light but are unconverted in practice, relying on old character, mixing their own spirit into counsel, acting against His principles, weakening His work and dishonoring truth. This judgment came upon the Jewish nation, so that the vision became like a sealed book to prophets and rulers. They failed to recognize Jesus as the fulfillment of their types and shadows, and though honoring Him outwardly demanded signs instead of receiving the gospel, and the same blindness follows any nation that turns from truth to fables.
Modern Warnings and Applications
The verse is fulfilled in teachers and shepherds who claim to have light but are unconverted in practice, relying on old character, mixing their own spirit into their counsel, and acting against divine principles, thereby weakening the work and dishonoring truth, and their failure to see is judgment upon those who have received light but do not walk in it. It describes false shepherds as spiritually drunk to whom truth is sealed, so that when asked whether the seventh-day Sabbath is the Bible Sabbath they divert inquirers with fables. Though light has come to these shepherds, they refuse to acknowledge it and change their positions to evade the conclusions that truth requires.
The same covering rests upon workers, including medical workers not guided by heavenly influence, who meet deceptive teachings and false ideas that obscure truth. The deep sleep is not literal drunkenness but loss of spiritual perception, and it holds those who resist reproof and warning until prophets, rulers, and seers cannot discern the message. It applies to people who have received great light and opportunity yet trust misleading leaders, reject reproof, and heed deceptive spirits, and their spiritual drunkenness leaves them unable to see the danger of their course. Those in this state claim religious standing but are spiritually confused, unable to understand Jesus or recognize truth, setting truth aside for error with crooked actions following their drunkenness. Those who doubt the soon coming of Christ and mistreat their fellow servants are likewise blinded, with reason controlled by Satan so that they do not recognize what causes them to stumble.
At Battle Creek it means responsible men supposed to be trustworthy brought under closed eyes and deep sleep. The blindness is shown by breaking the principles of the Ten Commandments in failing supreme love to God and love to fellow men as self, by heartily disliking and despising anyone who questions their chosen course, by treating with disrespect men entrusted with a message, and by rejecting the message and, had power been in their hands, rejecting the messengers. Bitter feelings against them are cherished and wait for revival, and thorough conversion is needed that sins may go beforehand and be blotted out in probationary time, lest it be forever too late for wrongs to be righted.
In Michigan where large institutions were established it means a time of dense darkness with eyes closed and prophets, rulers, and seers covered. It is lip religion without heart religion, drawing near with mouth and lips while the heart is far and fear rests on the precept of men. Though given greater spiritual and temporal blessings and every advantage than any people before, failure to render corresponding obedience, misinterpreting gifts, misapplying privileges to please self, and not letting light shine to others brings blindness through non-improvement of light. In that darkness those who have cherished truth that has sanctified the soul are to shine. The chapter that portrays these true conditions is to be studied by those who have cast truth aside and are deceived by persuasive words, and to those who once knew the truth but turned away the Lord extends an invitation to return.