They are workers together with God, who are sinners and sufferers together with us. [2.] It is a rare thing to find one who is fit to go for God, and to carry his messages to the children of men; Whom shall I send? Who is sufficient? Such a degree of courage for God, and concern for the souls of men, as is necessary to make a man faithful, and withal such an insight into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, as is necessary to make a man skilful, are seldom to be met with. Such an interpreter of the mind of God is one of a thousand, Job xxxiii. 23. [3.] None are allowed to go for God but those who are sent by him; he will own none but those whom he appoints, Rom. x. 15. It is Christ's work to put men into the ministry, 1 Tim. i. 12.
2. The consent of Isaiah to it; Then said I, Here am I, send me. He was to go on a melancholy errand; the office seemed to go a begging, and every body declined it, and yet Isaiah offered himself to the service. It is an honour to be singular in appearing for God, Judges v. 7. We must not say, "I would go, if I thought I should have good success;" but, "I will go, and leave the success to God; here am I, send me." Isaiah had been himself in a melancholy frame, (v. 5.) full of doubts and fears; but now that he had the assurance of the pardon of his sin, the clouds were blown over, and he was fit for service, and forward to it. What he says bespeaks, (1.) His readiness; "Here am I; a volunteer, not pressed into the service." Behold me; so the word is. God says to us, Behold me, (ch. lxv. 1.) and, Here I am, (ch. lviii. 9.) even before we call; let us say so to him when he does call. (2.) His resolution; "Here I am, ready to encounter the greatest difficulties. I have set my face as a flint." Compare this with ch. 1. 4—7. (3.) His referring himself to God; "Send me whither thou wilt; make what use thou pleasest of me. Send me; Lord, give me commission and full instruction; send me, and then, no doubt, thou wilt stand by me." It is a great comfort to those whom God sends, that they go for God, and may therefore speak in his name, as having authority; and be assured that he will bear them out.
9. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate; 12. And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 13. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.
God takes Isaiah at his word, and here sends him on a strange errand—to foretell the ruin of his people, and even to ripen them for that ruin; to preach that which, by their abuse of it, would be to them a savour of death unto death. And this was to be a type and figure of the state of the Jewish church in the days of the Messiah, when they should obstinately reject the gospel, and should, thereupon, be rejected of God. These verses are quoted in part, or referred to, six times in the New Testament; which intimates, that, in gospel-times, these spiritual judgments would be most frequently inflicted; and though they make the least noise, and come not with observation, yet they are of all other the most dreadful.
Isaiah is here given to understand these four things:
1. That the generality of the people to whom he was sent, would turn a deaf ear to his preaching, and wilfully shut their eyes against all the discoveries of the mind and will of God he had to make to them; (v. 9.) "Go, and tell this people, this foolish wretched people, tell them their own, tell them how stupid and sottish they are." Isaiah must preach to them, and they will hear him indeed, but that is all; they will not heed him, they will not understand him, they will not take any pains, nor use that application of mind which is necessary to the understanding of him; they are prejudiced against that which is the true intent and meaning of what he says, and therefore they will not understand him, or pretend they do not. They see indeed; (for the vision is made plain on tables, so that he who runs may read it;) but they perceive not their own concern in it; it is to them as a tale that is told. Note, There are many who hear the sound of God's word, but do not feel the power of it.
2. That forasmuch as they would not be made better by his ministry, they should be made worse by it; they that were wilfully blind, should be judicially blinded; (v. 10.) "They will not understand or perceive thee, and therefore thou shalt be instrumental to make their heart fat, senseless, and sensual, and so to make their ears yet more heavy, and to shut their eyes the closer; so that, at length, their recovery and repentance will become utterly impossible; they shall no more see with their eyes the danger they are in, the ruin they are upon the brink of, or the way of escape from it; they shall no more hear with their ears the warnings and instructions that are given them, nor understand with their heart the things that belong to their peace, so as to be converted from the error of their ways, and thus be healed." Note, (1.) The conversion of sinners is the healing of them. (2.) A right understanding is necessary to conversion. (3.) God, sometimes, in a way of righteous judgment, gives men up to blindness of mind and strong delusions, because they would not receive the truth in the love of it, 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. (4.) Even the word of God oftentimes proves a means of doing this. The evangelical prophet himself makes the heart of this people fat, not only as he foretells it, passing this sentence upon them, in God's name, and seals them under it, but as his preaching had a tendency to it, rocking some asleep in security, to whom it was a lovely song, and making others more outrageous, to whom it was such a reproach, that they were not able to bear it. Some looked upon the word as a privilege, and their convictions were smothered by it; (Jer. vii. 4.) others looked upon it as a provocation, and their corruptions were exasperated by it.
3. That the consequence of this would be their utter ruin, v. 11, 12. The prophet had nothing to object against the justice of this sentence, nor does he refuse to go upon such an errand, but asks, "Lord, how long?" (an abrupt question;) "Shall it always be thus? Must I and other prophets always labour in vain among them, and will things never be better?" Or, (as should seem by the answer,) "Lord, what will it come to at last? What will be in the end hereof?" In answer to which, he was told that it should issue in the final destruction
