Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
The call is to the deaf to hear and to the blind to look that they may see, and the deafness and blindness addressed are spiritual. The verses that follow identify the Lord's servant and messenger as blind and deaf, as one seeing many things without observing them and having ears without hearing. In this, God's chosen messenger is shown as able to fail to perceive and to heed what is before him, and the words rebuke spiritual failure to understand and heed what God reveals. The names My servant, Israel, and servant of the Lord mean anyone the Lord selects and appoints to do a certain work, making that person a minister of His will even when as ignorant of His will as Nebuchadnezzar was.
In another sense, seeing without observing and hearing without hearing is refusing to use the eyes to see evil things and the ears to hear evil things, and refusing to follow the counsel of the wicked. The showing of God's once-chosen people as deaf and blind and spoiled recalls how they went down to Egypt to avoid starving to death, were treated as slaves there, and were then rescued when the Lord made a path for Israel through the sea and delivered them. The chapter gives instruction about God's covenant with those He seeks to save, the terms of salvation, and the education of greatest value. It belongs with chapters 41 through 45 in revealing God's purpose for His people to seek wisdom from God rather than from finite human beings.
The section should be studied prayerfully. This verse should be studied with all of Isaiah 40 and Isaiah 42 together with 2 Peter. The verse belongs to the work now before God's people to bring the blind by a way they did not know, to lead them in paths they have not known, to make darkness light before them and crooked things straight, to open blind eyes, and to bring prisoners out of the prison house of unbelief. It foretells the work of presenting the warning message to the world and giving the reason for belief, with camp meetings providing opportunity to give that information and to arouse slumbering senses to see departure from the Lord's ordinances through worldly policy, conformity to worldly principles, and transgression of God's law.
That warning work requires money and includes establishing sanitariums in different parts of the world as an educating power to reform people and restore God's moral image in them, so that through knowledge of the Word they are converted and use their means and ability to spread knowledge of the truth. The message is to be given out of the usual order, so decidedly as to startle the hearers, by men of God's appointment bearing most startling warnings to arouse those dead in trespasses and sins and to find standing room for truth in unworked places such as parts of New York where there are no churches, and its provoking some to resist light and evidence shows it is the testing message for this time. The verse addresses a mixed company who do not understand the nature of the work to be carried forward and whose hearts are not prepared to receive God's messages, calling for clear understanding and for men worked by the Holy Spirit to lead out in thorough reformation in deeply spiritual lines with no haphazard work. Because God so rescued and redeemed His people and called them by name, His people now should have more trust and confidence in Him, stand where He can work with them, and honor and glorify Him in the unknown times before them.
The call is to the deaf to hear and to the blind to look that they may see, and the deafness and blindness addressed are spiritual. The verses that follow identify the Lord's servant and messenger as blind and deaf, as one seeing many things without observing them and having ears without hearing. In this, God's chosen messenger is shown as able to fail to perceive and to heed what is before him, and the words rebuke spiritual failure to understand and heed what God reveals. The names My servant, Israel, and servant of the Lord mean anyone the Lord selects and appoints to do a certain work, making that person a minister of His will even when as ignorant of His will as Nebuchadnezzar was.
In another sense, seeing without observing and hearing without hearing is refusing to use the eyes to see evil things and the ears to hear evil things, and refusing to follow the counsel of the wicked. The showing of God's once-chosen people as deaf and blind and spoiled recalls how they went down to Egypt to avoid starving to death, were treated as slaves there, and were then rescued when the Lord made a path for Israel through the sea and delivered them. The chapter gives instruction about God's covenant with those He seeks to save, the terms of salvation, and the education of greatest value. It belongs with chapters 41 through 45 in revealing God's purpose for His people to seek wisdom from God rather than from finite human beings.
The section should be studied prayerfully. This verse should be studied with all of Isaiah 40 and Isaiah 42 together with 2 Peter. The verse belongs to the work now before God's people to bring the blind by a way they did not know, to lead them in paths they have not known, to make darkness light before them and crooked things straight, to open blind eyes, and to bring prisoners out of the prison house of unbelief. It foretells the work of presenting the warning message to the world and giving the reason for belief, with camp meetings providing opportunity to give that information and to arouse slumbering senses to see departure from the Lord's ordinances through worldly policy, conformity to worldly principles, and transgression of God's law.
That warning work requires money and includes establishing sanitariums in different parts of the world as an educating power to reform people and restore God's moral image in them, so that through knowledge of the Word they are converted and use their means and ability to spread knowledge of the truth. The message is to be given out of the usual order, so decidedly as to startle the hearers, by men of God's appointment bearing most startling warnings to arouse those dead in trespasses and sins and to find standing room for truth in unworked places such as parts of New York where there are no churches, and its provoking some to resist light and evidence shows it is the testing message for this time. The verse addresses a mixed company who do not understand the nature of the work to be carried forward and whose hearts are not prepared to receive God's messages, calling for clear understanding and for men worked by the Holy Spirit to lead out in thorough reformation in deeply spiritual lines with no haphazard work. Because God so rescued and redeemed His people and called them by name, His people now should have more trust and confidence in Him, stand where He can work with them, and honor and glorify Him in the unknown times before them.