–Isaiah 29:11–19 The visitation of the Lord will bring death and destruction to Jerusalem.
Yet the Lord promises to do wonderful things with His people. God desires genuine repentance, not hypocrisy. God has accomplished wonderful things for us through the gracious visitation of His son in our human flesh. In Jesus’ death and resurrection. God has turned the world upside down and removed our shame.
(11-12) The spiritual illiteracy of Jerusalem.
The whole vision has become to you like the words of a
book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read
this, please.” And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” Then the book is
delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.” And he says,
“I am not literate.”
A book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is
literate: Isaiah had likened Jerusalem to the blind and to the drunk. Here, he
likened them to the illiterate. But this wasn’t a literal literacy, because the
literate man received the vision of God, but to him it was like a sealed book.
When the book of the vision was brought to the illiterate man, he did no
better.
Read this, please: Many today read or receive God’s
word like an illiterate man “reads” the newspaper. They can pick out a few
words here and there, and they can certainly look at the pictures. They can sit
with an open newspaper, enjoy themselves to some degree, and appear to be
reading. But the true content of what is written has no impact on them.
This manner of talking the talk, but not having the heart, didn’t end in Isaiah’s day. Jesus quoted this passage from Isaiah when He rebuked the religious leaders of His day for their hypocrisy (Matthew 15:7-9, Mark 7:6-7). It didn’t end in Jesus’ day either.
God tells us how their hearts got far from Him – they
have removed their hearts far from Me. God didn’t move away from His people;
they removed their hearts from Him.
And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment
of men: The people of Jerusalem had no fear of God in themselves; it had to be
commanded by others. Their hearts did not respond to God, but only to men.
The wisdom of their wise men shall perish: Because
Jerusalem’s pride had led them into spiritual blindness, sleep, drunkenness,
illiteracy, and hypocrisy, God will destroy the wisdom of their wise men. Their
wise men promoted the pride that led to all these evils.
Isaiah calls this a marvelous work and a wonder, for
God to reject the wisdom of man and to display His wisdom. Paul was also amazed
at the so-called wisdom” of man, and how it compared to what was thought to be
the foolishness of God: For since, in the
wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God
through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For
Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ
crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to
those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the
weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Corinthians 1:21-25).[2]
[1] The Lord’s Supper, copyright © Ed Riojas, Higher Things
[3] Collect for Wednesday of Pentecost 16, For All the Saints, A Prayer Book For and By the Church Vol. IV The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, © 1996 Delhi, NY
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