Isaiah 6:10, commentary and pictures

The verse describes a heart grown dull and fat, ears made heavy and eyes shut, so that people see and hear outwardly without inwardly understanding, and therefore do not turn back to God and be healed. This blindness is willful and self-imposed rather than an arbitrary blinding by God, for people themselves close heart and ear and eye against truth they do not wish to obey. It was fulfilled when those in Christ's day had abundant evidence of His Messiahship from His works yet resisted through pride and unbelief, fearing that conviction would require conversion, so His parables revealed truth to the receptive while leaving the resistant in chosen darkness. The same hardening brings heavy judgment when great light is persistently refused, yet the work is not wholly fruitless, for a holy remnant remains and returns. The warning reaches the present day, where the need is not more evidence but a new heart and converted soul that humbles pride, confesses blindness, mixes the word with faith and does it, lest added light only deepen darkness.

Wording and Prophetic Commission

The verse describes a moral dullness in which the heart is made fat, the ears heavy and unresponsive, and the eyes shut, so that people hear and see outwardly without inwardly understanding, and do not turn back to God to be healed. It is the condition of those lifted up in their own esteem, whose hearts are corrupted by earthly and false knowledge and who deliberately reject the Light, professing belief in the sacrifices that foreshadowed the Lamb of God while refusing to see their fulfillment and closing their eyes to the meaning of the whole system. The same unresponsiveness marks both Christ's hearers and people in the present day who are not imbued with God's Spirit, for a view of divine majesty and holiness exposes the lack of spiritual understanding, and even plain, direct testimony may be beyond their ability to receive. Resisting the truth makes heart and hearing dull and closes the eyes against it, so that though the treasure of gospel knowledge stands among men it is neither recognized nor received, and Christ's use of parables fulfills what was written. When the evidence that Jesus is the Messiah is rejected, further argument becomes useless, for refusal to accept truth leaves the mind unable to grasp it and turn to receive healing.

Isaiah was commissioned to proclaim God's warning against the evils around him to a rebellious people, asking "How long?" as he sought whether any would understand, repent, and be healed. Their long-built and long-standing evils would persist despite his preaching and would not be removed in his lifetime, for the people would resist the message so as not to understand, repent, and receive healing. His preaching would expose and confirm their refusal to respond, making manifest the hardness already present.

The chapter belongs to those called to carry a warning to people who do not know the truth, preparing them for the day of God, and is to be taken to heart by those who go out in this work. There will be people who have ears but will not hear and who are intelligent but will not understand, and when gospel workers have done their best and still meet this refusal, they are not judged by the amount of visible success. Their faith must be kept revived and firm and constantly increasing and must not fail, leaving the result with God and passing on to regions beyond.

The chapter is to be read together with Jeremiah 8:5-9, 11, 12 and Jeremiah 7:3-11, 23, 24 and Isaiah 55:1-3 as God's word to backsliders who hold fast deceit and refuse to return, who hearken not nor incline the ear but walk backward. Joined to those passages it becomes a call to amend ways and doings, to obey His voice, and to incline the ear and hear so that the soul shall live.

These things were spoken when Isaiah in prophetic vision saw Christ's glory and spoke of Him. The power of unbelief that blinds eyes and hardens hearts so that people cannot perceive, understand, turn, and be healed was fulfilled when the Jews witnessed many miracles as evidence of the divine mission, including the raising of Lazarus from the dead, yet set their hearts against believing and stayed in darkness that nothing would affect.

Willful Cause, Not Compulsion

The closing of eye and ear and heart is self-chosen and willful, not an arbitrary blinding or hardening by God, for people shut themselves against truth and bring blindness and deafness upon themselves by resistance. Though seeing and hearing, they do not understand or turn to God and be healed, because their hearts remain untouched and their understanding clouded when they refuse to weigh evidence honestly. The Pharisees illustrate this chosen ignorance bringing retribution, for they recognized the meaning of the parables yet pretended not to perceive it, deliberately closing eyes and ears so their hearts could not be reached, while parables exposed their wrongdoing without giving grounds for arrest. The same warning reaches professed believers who reject God's work because pride, selfishness, vanity, and conformity to the world close their minds to the Spirit's appeals and keep them from righteousness.

Pride, self-esteem, stubbornness, self-righteousness, prejudice, bigotry, and unbelief close the heart so that even clear evidence is resisted and reasoned away. The Jewish leaders were lifted up in their own esteem with hearts dulled, ears unresponsive, and eyes closed, corrupting their hearts with earthly and false knowledge and deliberately rejecting the Light while professing belief in the sacrifices that foreshadowed the Lamb yet refusing to see Christ as their fulfillment and closing their eyes to the meaning of the system. Their understanding was convinced by works that were clear evidence of divine power and Messiahship, yet pride, self-righteousness, and prejudice made them resist, doubt, and demand more signs, and further wonders would not overcome a will set against belief. Those who refuse to be converted and acknowledge their ideas are wrong will not truly see, hear, or understand plainly given evidence, and pride in rejecting counsel and light deludes themselves and others, whether resisting warnings of the Spirit or hearing the word without applying it to their own lives.

Refusal persists because accepting truth would require change, and people prefer their present condition and fear being convinced and converted. Receiving Christ would require giving up earthly and false knowledge, cherished traditions, selfish practices, sinful habits, and preconceived opinions, admitting error, receiving new and further light, and yielding outward religion for living power, which the Jews rejected though they had abundant evidence from works and Scripture. Worldly affections and customs explain why words find no response, keeping hearts and senses unresponsive so there is no repentance and changed course. The same closure holds those who cling tenaciously to beliefs already presented as truth and resist new truth, whose conscientiousness does not prevent remaining unconverted and unhealed.

Resisting God's light hardens the heart and clouds understanding, while grace enlightens the willing but cannot cooperate with wrongdoing. Christ's work softens hard hearts, but resistance hardens through transgression, and neglect of opportunity with resistance to the call to self-denial and purity leaves people in chosen darkness where bigotry and unbelief close the heart to grace. The light that blesses those who accept it becomes darkness to those who reject it, with sorrow reaped in proportion as light is rejected, and those who receive with believing hearts and willingness to learn understand and gain practical knowledge of the kingdom. The contrast is seen in Lydia, to whom the needed message was declared and whose heart God opened so divine power worked with the human agent to bring conversion. Those who have known truth and had great labor and light yet do not profit because the word is not mixed with faith and they do not become doers have unsanctified ears and eyes, and receiving unbelief, criticism, envy, evil surmising, murmuring, and jealousy weakens the heart, blunts the senses, and confuses perception so they call evil good and good evil and light darkness and darkness light; more evidence and preaching would only harm the overfed and unconverted, who need a new heart, converted soul, new mind and purpose in order to hear and burn with desire to work.

The devil blindfolds those who treat warnings as mere human opinion and refuse to read carefully to see danger, so in blinded prejudice they do the very evils warned against and bring division and confusion. Satan interposes his shadow between God and souls and perverts judgment when firm self-complacency, pride, prejudice, unsanctified independence, and contempt for the word, messengers, and message are cherished with mockery, lightness, trifling, jesting, joking, and disgust, so spiritual eyesight is obscured and testimony is not heeded and God is not allowed to manifest Spirit and power. Then people walk in darkness in sparks of their own kindling to lie down in sorrow, and unless every soul humbles pride greatly, recognizes His voice speaking by His Spirit in reproof, confesses blindness, prejudice, and a mind and heart not actuated by God's Spirit, surrenders to conviction, repents, is converted, and acts firmly upon all counsel, they cannot be healed and the candlestick is removed. This course repeats the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.

The prophecy given more than a thousand years beforehand foretold what God knew would happen but did not determine character or choices, for people act by free will either under God's molding or Satan's rule. The fat heart, heavy ears, and shut eyes mean pride that will not acknowledge error and an impenitent spirit that will not seek God in contrition of heart and repentance, and some will never be converted not because God is unwilling but for this reason. The remedy is to put away that spirit and fall on the Rock and be broken. Jesus is soon coming in the clouds of heaven and is now testing a people on earth to see if they can live in harmony without revolt in heaven.

Fulfilled in Rejecting Christ

In Christ's day the Jews were given abundant evidence of His divine power and Messiahship in His works and many miracles, and their understanding was convinced by what they saw and heard. Yet pride, self-righteousness, prejudice, stubbornness and unbelief closed their hearts against that evidence, so they resisted it, doubted it, reasoned it away, and demanded more signs. Their closed eyes, dull ears and fattened hearts did not mean lack of natural sight or hearing but refusal to understand inwardly and turn to God to be healed. That refusal sprang from fear that to be convinced would require conversion, for to accept Him would mean giving up cherished traditions, selfish practices, earthly and false knowledge, and yielding to change.

His teaching in parables fulfilled this closing of heart and sense, for the mysteries of the kingdom are hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed to babes. Though the treasure of gospel knowledge stood among them, they heard and saw without understanding, and so did not turn back and receive healing, while receptive disciples were given insight. To those who receive, more is given, but from those who reject, even what they have is taken away. Blessed are the eyes that see and the ears that hear what many prophets and righteous men desired to see and hear.

The Pharisees illustrate this willful blindness, for they recognized the meaning of the parables yet pretended not to perceive it, deliberately shutting eyes and ears so their hearts could not be reached. Jesus used parables to expose their wrongdoing while giving no ground for His arrest. Such self-imposed ignorance brings retribution.

Because their will was set against belief, they refused the testimony of Scripture concerning Christ and reasoned away even the strongest evidence rather than yield. Further argument, explanation and wonders could not overcome that choice, and greater light only increased their hatred until they sought to kill Him. Paul's use of the words shows the same end, that refusal to accept the truth leaves further argument useless. Even explanation will not make those who have chosen not to heed understand.

Some rulers did believe but concealed it for fear of exclusion from the synagogue, valuing human approval more than God's, and their hardened refusal fulfilled the prophecy and left them unable to believe. Though professing belief in the sacrifices that foreshadowed the Lamb of God, the leaders corrupted their hearts and deliberately rejected Christ the Light of the world, refusing to see Him as their fulfillment and closing their eyes to the meaning of the Jewish system. They set their hearts against believing even after witnessing His many miracles as evidence of His mission as the Son of God, including the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and remained in a darkness that nothing would affect. Additional evidence will not persuade those who will not receive the light already given through God's Word.

Judgment, Remnant and Scripture Links

The commission warned impenitent Israel that heavy judgments of war, exile, oppression, and loss of power and prestige among the nations would come upon them. The ten tribes would be scattered among the nations, their cities left desolate, destroying armies repeatedly sweeping over the land, Jerusalem falling, and Judah carried away captive. Those judgments were sent so that those who recognized in them the hand of an offended God might be led to repent.

The mission would not be wholly fruitless, for the promised land would not remain wholly forsaken forever. A tenth would remain and return as the holy seed. Isaiah's messages would help bring about the eventual salvation of a remnant, even though the evils built up over generations would not be removed in his lifetime and the message would expose and confirm the refusal of the rebellious people to respond.

Those who have received great light yet persist in refusing repentance and conversion remain unhealed by Christ. When Israel in this way crossed the limits of patience, fearful punishment followed their persistent perversity.

The destruction permitted to the Battle Creek Publishing House was such a judgment because warnings had not been heeded, leaving people unwilling to hear, repent, be converted, and be healed. It was also a corrective act meant to humble them and teach them to change their ways.

Lydia shows the contrast, for the message she needed was declared, God opened her heart, and divine power worked with the human agent to bring her to conversion, while God's Spirit enlightens the willing but grace cannot cooperate with wrongdoing. Those who receive truth but refuse to live by its light become spiritually dull, unable to understand or turn for healing, and are condemned by the privileges they received as Chorazin and Bethsaida were, whereas those who walk in the light receive more light. Resistance to the message leaves eyes and ears without true seeing and hearing and hardens the course as Pharaoh was hardened, though healing could have been received. Loyalty to ministers and rejection of difficult arguments can keep people from hearing the warning, but contemplating Christ's cross and the plan of redemption can open the heart to see the wonders of God's law. When messengers and message are despised and the word is treated with contempt, mockery, lightness, trifling, jesting and joking, prejudice and unsanctified independence, Satan blinds the eyes and perverts judgment and people obscure their own spiritual eyesight, acting over again the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram; unless each repents of this insult to the Spirit and is converted there is no healing but walking in darkness, walking in sparks of their own kindling, lying down in sorrow, and removal of the candlestick out of its place.

When mind, eye, and ear are not darkened, dimmed, and dulled so they cannot know God, see Him, perceive Him, or hear His voice, study of God's works in nature can lead to a deeper grasp of spiritual truth. In that unimpaired condition the Holy Spirit brings deeper spiritual meaning to the written word and impresses its truths on the heart.

Warning to Present Believers

The closing of heart, ears, and eyes belongs to the present day as well as to Christ's hearers, for people become inwardly unresponsive to God when they are not imbued with His Spirit. A view of His majesty and holiness exposes that lack of spiritual understanding, and the need is for plain, direct testimony even when people are unable to receive it. The prophecy falls upon professed followers of truth who hear and see but do not obey, who are condemned by the very privileges they received as Chorazin and Bethsaida were, while those who walk in the light receive more light. To take the side of transgressors of God's law is to adopt their perverted way of seeing, hearing, judging, and understanding, which keeps souls from turning back and being healed. God's servants must resist that influence and stand apart, united, holy in life and pure in character, discerning spiritual things as God does rather than as lawbreakers do.

Refusing God's testimony and warnings leaves people unwilling to see their sinful and perverse ways, turn back to God, and be converted so that He can heal them. When warnings are treated as mere human opinion and not read carefully to see the danger, the devil blindfolds eyes and makes ears heavy, and in that blinded, prejudiced state people go on to do the very evils they were warned they would do unless they changed. That course brings division and confusion into the church. To be converted so that He heals means to humble the heart greatly before God, recognize His voice speaking by His Spirit in reproof, confess blindness and prejudice, surrender to conviction, and take a firm stand to act upon all the counsel given.

The dullness develops over generations as people follow false ideas and principles opposed to truth, adding human inventions to religion and giving them authority over truth, and as they refuse divine counsel and choose their own way. Like the Jewish nation they then fail to recognize the time of God's visitation, becoming unable to distinguish or respond to spiritual truth so that they do not turn and receive healing. It is seen in some leaders and counselors connected with important institutions who may hear salvation explained yet lack personal knowledge of what it means to cease from sin, receive Christ's righteousness, and bear the divine likeness. The same condition appears in those who refuse grace and exalt self, trying to rule God's heritage and compel conscience by dictating and forcing their own opinions upon brethren, supposing they can manufacture laws and rules, build up and tear down, and bring God's people to their terms and under their control. Lips speak proudly and seek to rule fellow men, resolutions and principles turn away from justice and equity, and fellow workers are treated unjustly as inanimate machines, while men are blinded by deception, deficient in knowledge of what the soul demands, not working righteousness, not worked by the Holy Spirit but by a power from beneath, walking contrary to God and away from God in an uncontrollable, unsanctified spirit separated from God. True grace never leads to exalted ideas but puts self in the dust and exalts Jesus, giving modesty and meekness and lowliness of heart, making diligent earnest workers in the school of Christ with a sense of propriety and good taste, while the love of Jesus opens and expands the heart. Those most zealous in self-exalting, conscience-compelling work, which is offensive to God, have eyes but see not and ears but hear not, needing constant watchfulness over self lest they be converted and healed.

The need of such hearers is not more evidence or more preaching but new hearts, converted souls, a new mind and new purpose. This was shown in members at Ashfield who failed to respond rightly to truth and the Spirit's work despite ample instruction and evidence, their murmuring, envy, jealousy, and criticism grieving the Spirit and keeping them from being converted. Pride leads people to reject God's counsel and light when plain evidence is given, deluding themselves and others, refusing to apply the word to their own lives and to acknowledge that their ideas are wrong, which leaves them spiritually unhealed and can mislead others. Many have known the truth and had great labor and light yet do not profit from the ministry of the Word because the word is not mixed with faith and they do not become doers of the Word. Their ears are unsanctified so they hear not, their eyes see not because Satan has interposed his hellish shadow between God and their souls, and by receiving and nurturing unbelief, criticism, envy, and evil surmising the heart is weakened, the senses blunted, and perception confused, so that they call evil good and good evil and light darkness and darkness light because they knew not the time of their visitation. While overfed and unconverted, more evidence and preaching would only do them harm. Loyalty to ministers and rejection of difficult arguments can keep people from hearing warning, whereas contemplating Christ's cross and the plan of redemption can open the heart to see the wonders of God's law.

The same warning meets refusal to investigate a message or consider evidence because it might require admitting reception of new light. It meets those who shut themselves off from further light by closing the heart against truth so as to remain unconverted and unhealed, clinging tenaciously to beliefs already presented as truth and resisting new truth, a closure which conscientiousness does not prevent. When the word of the Lord comes to churches and individuals there are always those who refuse to hear aright or see aright, their eyes so blinded they cannot see and their ears so dulled they cannot hear. That defective hearing and seeing puts them far out of the way, so that they misinterpret words to mean what they want them to mean and circulate false reports of what was said.

Turning and being healed requires that every soul humble pride, confess that mind and heart were not actuated by the Spirit of God, repent and be converted. When people do not see, hear, or feel inwardly the truth God has declared, His warnings, corrections, and encouragements have no effect on them. Cherishing firm self-complacency, pride, prejudice, and unsanctified independence, with contempt for the word of the Lord and His messengers and message in a spirit of mockery, lightness, trifling, jesting, and joking, lets Satan blind the eyes and pervert the judgment and obscures spiritual eyesight so people will not see, will not hearken to testimony, and will not have God manifest His Spirit and power. God desires to come near to bless and heal backsliding, but continued refusal leaves people in darkness and blindness, unable to understand, turn back, and receive healing. Those entrusted with God's truth must therefore receive its light and share it with people in darkness as awakened channels drawing others to Christ. Sentinels must stay alert in a time of spiritual decline, and God's people must be warned not to compromise with those who persist in delusions and remain blind to God's purposes. Otherwise people walk in darkness in sparks of their own kindling, not sacred fire, to lie down in sorrow, and the candlestick is removed out of its place.