Isaiah 6:9
And He replied: "Go and tell this people, 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'
Sermons
A Mission of HardeningR. Tuck Isaiah 6:9
An Anticipation of the IncarnationT. Allen, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
Christian MissionsRichard Knill.Isaiah 6:1-13
Gain Through LossJ. H. Jowett, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
Government Human and DivineR. Winter, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah a Typical ProphetJ. G. Rogers, B. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's CallHomiletic MagazineIsaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's VisionT. Allen, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's VisionHomilistIsaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's VisionJ. Parsons.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's VisionR. S. Candlish, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's VisionR. Brodie, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's VisionG. Cron, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's VisionAbp. Trench.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's Vision in the TempleG. T. Perks, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's Vision of Christ's GloryJ. J. Bonar.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's Vision of GodF. D. Maurice, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's Vision of GodA. Maclaren, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah's Vision of God's GloryJ. Summerfield, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
Preparation for the Lord's WorkJ. Sherwood.Isaiah 6:1-13
Realising GodT. Allen, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
Removing the VeilJ. H. Jowett, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
Seeing GodAmory H. Bradford, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Circumstances of the VisionW. Hay Aitken, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Command and Encouragement to Communicate the GospelW. Ellis.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Compensations of LifeJ. H. Jowett, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Dead King; the Living GodIsaiah 6:1-13
The Elevating Presence of GodF. B. Meyer, B. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Empty Throne FilledA. Maclaren, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Enthroned LordJ. Parker, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Idea of GodJames Stalker, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Inaugural Vision of IsaiahA. B. Davidson, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Making of a ProphetProf. W. G. Elmslie, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Material Fleeting: the Spiritual EnduringJ. H. Jowett, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Prophet's Call and ConsecrationE. Johnson Isaiah 6:1-13
The Rectal and Mediatorial Dominion of GodW. M. Bunting.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Story of the Prophet's Call -- Why Inserted HereProf . S. R. Driver, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Symbolism of Isaiah's VisionJ. Matthews.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Three-Fold VisionU. R. Thomas, B. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Trinity in UnityR. W. Forrest, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Triune Name a Call, a Message, a ChasteningB. F. Westcott, D. D.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Uzziahs of History and the LordJ. H. Jowett, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
The VisionSir E. Strachey, Bart.Isaiah 6:1-13
The Vision of GodW. Clarkson B. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
Uzziah and Isaiah: George Iii and John WesleyB. Hellier.Isaiah 6:1-13
Vision and ServiceJ. Matthews.Isaiah 6:1-13
Why Did Isaiah Publish This Account of His CallP. Thomson, M. A.Isaiah 6:1-13
A Hard MinistryIsaiah 6:9-13
A Loud Call to RepentanceP. Thomson, M. A.Isaiah 6:9-13
Conditions of Spiritual VisionJ. H. Jowett, M. A.Isaiah 6:9-13
God Vindicating HimselfG. Cron, M. A.Isaiah 6:9-13
Incidental PenaltyE. W. Shalders.Isaiah 6:9-13
Isaiah: His Heaviness and His ConsolationE. B. Pusey, D. D.Isaiah 6:9-13
Israel's Detective InsightR. Macculloch.Isaiah 6:9-13
Israel's Punishment NecessarySir E. Strachey, Bart.Isaiah 6:9-13
Judgment and MercyE. W. Shalders.Isaiah 6:9-13
Opposite Effects from the Same AgenciesSunday School ChronicleIsaiah 6:9-13
PetrifactionW. L. Watkinson.Isaiah 6:9-13
Religious, But Without Spiritual DiscernmentJ. H. Jowett, M. A.Isaiah 6:9-13
Responsibility of Having the GospelSunday School ChronicleIsaiah 6:9-13
Sight Without InsightJ. H. Jowett, M. A.Isaiah 6:9-13
The Importance of Understanding TruthR. Macculloch.Isaiah 6:9-13
The Meaning of the Message Intrusted to IsaiahE. W. Shalders.Isaiah 6:9-13
The Message from GodE. W. Shalders.Isaiah 6:9-13
The Prophet's Thoughts At This PeriodA. B. Davidson, D. D.Isaiah 6:9-13
The Shadow of Sacred TruthW. Clarkson Isaiah 6:9-13
Two Ways of Looking At ThingsJ. H. Jowett, M. A.Isaiah 6:9-13














We may view these words in -

I. THEIR NATIONAL ASPECT. Thus regarded, they point to:

1. Painful and guilty obduracy. The prophet should speak, but the people would disregard; all that was froward and perverse in them would repel and reject the Divine message; their reception of the truth would only end in spiritual deterioration and greater moral distance than ever from deliverance (vers. 9, 10).

2. Protracted impenitence and Divine judgment (vers. 11, 12).

3. Long-lingering mercy ending in partial restoration (ver. 13). But we shall gain most from these verses by regarding them in -

II. THEIR INDIVIDUAL ASPECT. The ninth and tenth verses have the most direct and serious bearing on our condition now. They suggest to us that sacred truth not only sheds a bright light, but casts a deep shadow where it falls.

1. It casts the shadow of solemn responsibility everywhere. When a greater than Moses legislates, and a wiser than Solomon speaks to us, we have more to be responsible for than they who received the Law from Sinai, and they who lived under the reign of the son of David. From those to whom much is given will much be required.

2. It casts the shadow of a heavy condemnation on those who reject it. "Of how much sorer punishment," etc. "It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment," etc.; "This is the condemnation, that light is come," etc.; "He that knew his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes."

3. But the special lesson from our text is that it casts the shadow of spiritual deterioration on those who refuse it. "Make the heart of this people fat... shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes," etc. The apparent sense of these words cannot be, and is not, the one that should be accepted. They cannot possibly be meant to signify that God desired his prophet deliberately and intentionally to cause moral obtuseness, spiritual blindness, in order that the people of Judah might be prevented from repenting and so from being saved. Such a thought not only outrages every reverent idea of the Divine character, but flatly contradicts the most express statements of the Divine Word (see Ezekiel 18:23; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9; James 1:13). There is one sense of which the words are susceptible, and which is in accordance with the plainly revealed character of God; it is that the prophet was to declare such truth as would actually result in spiritual blindness, and therefore in incapacity for repentance and redemption, Now, it is the solemn duty of the minister of Christ to do the same thing continually. He knows that, as his Divine Master was "set for the fall" as well as for the "rising again of many in Israel" (Luke 2:34), and as he had occasion to say, "For judgment am I come into this world, that they who see may be made blind" (John 9:39), that as his gospel was in earliest times a "stone of stumbling and a rock of offence" (Isaiah 8:14; and see Matthew 21:44; 1 Corinthians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 2:16), so now the truth of the living God must prove, to those who reject it, the occasion of moral and spiritual degeneracy. He must lay his account with this sad fact, must go forth, like Isaiah, well aware that it is a two-edged sword he wields. But let the sons of sacred privilege understand what is their peril as well as their opportunity. Deliberately rejected truth leads down to

(1) a diminished sensibility, the lessening of pure religious emotion;

(2) loss of spiritual apprehension, an enfeebled capacity to perceive the mind and meaning of the Divine Teacher;

(3) a vanishing likelihood of personal salvation. When the ear is shut and the eye is closed, is it likely that the feet will be found in the way of life? Will they not wander off to the fields of folly, up to and over the precipice of ruin? - C.

And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not.
1. Isaiah summed up his whole future life in those two words, "Behold me; send me." Then on his ardent soul was poured the heavy message, "Go, and thou shalt tell this people" (God speaks of them no more as His own), "Hear ye on, and understand not; and see ye on, and know not. Make thou dull the heart of this people, and its ears make thou heavy, and its eyes close thou; lest it see with its eyes, and with its ears hearken, and its heart understand, and it return and one heal it." Startling office for one so sanguine and so young! Heavy burden to bear for probably sixty-one years of life, to be closed by a martyr's excruciating death! Outside of that commission there was hope: hope, because the promises of God could not fail of fulfilment: hope, because in the worst times of Israel there had been those seven thousand which the prophet knew not of, but whose number God revealed to him, who had stood faithful to God amid the national apostasy; hope, because when God pronounces not a doom, we may take refuge in the loving mercy of Him who swears by Himself, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure individuals: the people, not to individuals, only as they were such as the mass of the nation was, as they themselves made up that mass. This, in all seeming, was the thankless office to which Isaiah was called, to be heard, to be listened to, by some with contempt, by others with seeming respect, and to leave things in the main worse than he found them.

3. Isaiah's office was towards those, in part at least, who were ever hearing, never doing, and so never understanding. And so (so to speak) he was only to make things worse. So St. Paul says, "The earth which drinketh in the rain which cometh oft upon it — if it bring forth thorns and briars, is accounted worthless and nigh unto cursing," not yet accursed, yet nigh unto it, "whose end" — if it remains such unto the end — "is to be burned." There were better among the people; there were worse; but such was the general character; it was an ever-hearing, — hearing, — hearing (such is the force of the words, "hear ye hearing on," evermore), never wearied of hearing, yet never doing; ever seeing, as they thought, yet never gaining insight; and so becoming ever duller, their sight ever more and more bleared, until to hear and to see would become well-nigh, and to man, impossible. The more they heard and saw, the further they were from understanding, from being converted, from the reach of healing. Such they were, a little later, in Ezekiel's time. So it was when He came of whom Isaiah prophesied. They thought that they knew the law, but only to allege their interpretation of it against Him. The more they heard, the more they were blinded. And their imagined seeing and their real blindness, was their condemnation (John 9:41). This is inseparable from every revelation of God, from every preaching of the Gospel, from every speaking of God inwardly to the soul, from every motion of God the Holy Ghost, from every drawing or forbidding of that, judge which He has placed within, our conscience, from every hearing of God's Word. All and each leave the soul in a better condition or a worse. Not by any direct hardening from God, not through any agency of the prophet, but by man's free will, hearing but not obeying, seeing but not doing, feeling but resisting, the preaching of the prophet would leave them only more hopelessly far from that conversion, whereby God might heal them.

4. And what said the prophet? Contrary as the sentence must have been to all the yearnings of his soul, crushing to his hopes, he knew that it must be just, because "the Judge of the whole world" must "do right." He intercedes, but only by those three words, "Lord, how long?" He appeals to God. Such could not be God's ultimate purpose with His people. The night was to come; sin deserved it; but was it to have no dawn? Hope there is yet, but meanwhile a still-deepening night, a climax of woe; and that in two stages. In the first, "cities left without inhabitants"; and not cities only, as a whole, but "houses" too "tenantless"; nor these alone, but "the whole land desolate, and God removes the inhabitants far away, and there shall be a great forsaking in the midst of the land." Nor this only, but when, in this sifting time, nine parts should be gone, and one-tenth only remain, this should be again consumed: only, like those trees which survived the winters and storms of a thousand years, while the glory, wherewith God once clad it, was gone, its hewn stem was still to live; "a holy seed" was to be the stock thereof. The vision, opened before him, stretches on until now and to the end. His question, "How long? Until when?" implied a hope that there would be an end; the answer "until," declared that there would be an end. We have, in one, that first carrying away, the small remnant which should return; its new desolation; the holy seed which should survive; the restoration at the end, of which St. Paul says, then "all Israel shall be saved."

5. And this message fell on one of the tenderest of hearts in its early freshness. As he is eminently the Gospel-prophet, the evangelist in the old covenant, so he had already been taught by the Holy Ghost the Gospel lesson, "Love your enemies." He denounces God's judgments; but he himself is the type of Him who wept over Jerusalem.

6. Yet where there is desolation for the sake of God, there is also consolation. Wherein was Isaiah's? Not in the solace of his married life. His daily dress was like John Baptist's, the hair cloth pressing upon his loins, wearing to the naked flesh, although mentioned only when he was to put it off and himself to become a portent to his people, walking naked and barefoot (Isaiah 20:2). His two sons were, by their names, the continual pictures of that woe on his people. What, then, was his solace? Isaiah had seen, as man can see, Christ's Deity (John 12:41). He had seen Him, the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person. Yet he had not seen the Son alone. He himself says, "Mine eyes have seen the King," Him who is the Lord of hosts. And the Holy Ghost says by St. Paul that He spake by Isaiah in these words (Acts 28:25-27). It was a human Form which he beheld, sitting enthroned as the Judge, and receiving the worship of the glowing love of the seraphim. How should not this vision live in him for those threescore years? So God prepared him to be, above all "the goodly company of the prophets," the evangelic prophet, in that he had seen the glory of the Lord. He, too, was a man of longing. His darkest visions are the dawn streaks of the brightest light. He lived in a future for himself, a future which God had promised to the remnant of His people He looked on beyond this world of disappointment and shadows. God Himself is the everlasting bliss of those who wait for Him.

7. Be not dismayed, then, though men who think that they see, see not, or though they see not, because they think that they see. It is but the condition of the victories of faith over the soul, free, if it will, to disbelieve. Be not discouraged, if iniquity abound, or mankind seem to deafen itself in its pleasures or gains, or at the stupidity of an intellect which will not acknowledge a God whom it does not see, or own its own free will, which it has used against God continually, and, by repeated choices of its own evil against God's good, has well-nigh enslaved to its master passion, which God would have subjected to it. Jesus foretold at once His victories and His sorrows; His victories in those who willed to look to Him as their Master, their Saviour, their Regenerator, their Life, their Resurrection, their Immortality of joy; His sorrows, in those who would not be redeemed.

(E. B. Pusey, D. D.)

are few, if great. They are in the main these three:

1. His though of the Lord, the King.

2. His thought of the people in their insensibility to the majesty and rule of the King.

3. These two thoughts when brought together inevitably create the third — that of the annihilation of the people down to a remnant, that the Lord may be exalted in that day.

(A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

The vast importance of people's understanding what they hear, our blessed Saviour frequently inculcated upon those who attended His ministry. He often introduced His subject by calling upon them to hear and understand: after discoursing to them He sometimes asked if they understood what they heard? He blamed them if they did not understated, and commended those who were so happy as to know the things which were freely given them of God.

(R. Macculloch.)

We, reading this prophecy in the light of history, can say that if it were anywhere necessary thus to assert God's righteousness against sin, most especially was it so in this the chosen nation of Israel. Israel had been set apart that in him all the nations of the earth should be blessed; and if he became reprobate, where were this promise to the world? "If gold rusteth, what should iron do?" Therefore the cities were to be wasted without inhabitant, and the land utterly desolate; and even after a partial recovery from this punishment, and a humble restoration of a small part of their ancient glory, the stern process should be repeated again and again: the invasion of Pekah and Rezin would be repaired only to be followed by that of Sennacherib; the captivity of Manasseh would succeed the peaceful reign of Hezekiah; Josiah would restore the kingdom only to be laid waste by the Egyptian and the Assyrian; the Roman would come after the Greek, and even Hadrian after Titus, All thought of an earthly glory of the nation must give way before such a, prospect. If the prophet could have looked so far forward, and with a patriot's hopes alone, there was nothing but humiliation and despair before him; he could, at most, expect but such temporary alleviation and restoration as might enable him to do his work while he was there.

(Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)

Did it represent the ministry to which he was solemnly deputed as a forlorn hope, because, from the moral temper and confirmed habits of the people, an unfavourable result was antecedently certain? This seems the sense in which it was understood by the authors of the LXX, and its form, if Hebrew idiom be taken into account, is by no means inconsistent with this meaning. It is a mode of expression, very characteristic of Hebrew thought, to represent the result of a course of action as designed which is only foreseen or confidently anticipated. Familiar with forms of government in which the sovereign power appeared wholly without control, the Hebrews transferred ideas derived from this source to the government of God. They had a conviction that the Judge of all the earth must do right, but the conception of the rights of the creature and correlative responsibilities of the Creator did not lie within the horizon of their thought. Their overwhelming sense of the Divine power, absolutely ordering all events and giving no account of its dealings, permitted them to say, without any idea that they were imputing evil to God, "Why hast Thou made us to err from Thy ways, and hardened our heart from Thy fear?"

(E. W. Shalders.)

It may be said that in the passage under consideration the utterance is not the prophet's, but God's. But this makes no difference, since Isaiah's mind was the field of revelation; and, strictly speaking, there is no more difficulty in the idea of God's accommodating Himself to modes of human thought than in His employing our modes of speech. It is a necessity limiting the absolute truth of revelation. If men's minds are to be reached, the Spirit must use such avenues of approach as have been thrown up for other occasions. God's communications to Isaiah would be tinctured by Isaiah's habits of thought as inevitably as the prophet's publication of them.

(E. W. Shalders.)

A college professor would not be doing his duty towards his conscientious and diligent students if he forbore to proceed to the higher branches of the subject of his prelections, because his teaching would have the inevitable effect of confusing and discouraging the idle men who had failed to master his elementary course. So it is the appointment of Isaiah's mission, notwithstanding its foreseen failure in the case of all but a remnant of the nation, which gives it a judicial character, and makes it a menace of judgment.

(E. W. Shalders.)

Hence our Lord's use of the passage to justify His having recourse to parables while prosecuting His ministry in the midst of a nation that had already shown a strong disposition to reject Him. He puts His teaching into a form in which it could be apprehended by such as were willing to do the will of His Father, but which would hide it from those whose disobedience to known truth had deprived them of spiritual insight. This was a chastisement upon their perverse and prejudiced minds, because a virtual withdrawal of His saving ministry from them. It was like closing their day of visitation. Yet in another aspect the adoption of this course was an act of mercy; for teaching, the meaning of which is obscure to the unwilling hearer, is less hardening than plain truth, because it does not provoke such obstinate resistance. So also there was mercy in Isaiah's ministry to his hardened fellow countrymen. It was to be continued until their cities were desolate, without inhabitant, and the Lord had removed men far away. Then its gracious purpose to them would become manifest, for when suffering Divine judgments they would be thrown back upon neglected warnings. Though so long unavailing, as unavailing as if their very design had been to confirm them in their disobedience, these warnings would eventually become weird fingers pointing to the cause of their sufferings, and indicating the way of salvation through repentance and turning to God (vers. 11-13). For the severest lines of the prophet's message plainly imply that, even after a course of obstinate impenitence, to turn to put a constraint upon God's mercy, and draw forth His forgiveness: "lest," He says, "they convert and be healed."

(E. W. Shalders.)

Four the prophet to represent God as actually no longer inviting men to repent, but only desiring their greater condemnation, was a new and most forcible call to repentance for men who had rejected many previous calls. It was like digging a grave for a man in his own sight, after you have failed to convince him by word that his course of conduct must end in death. It brought the far-off results of men's behaviour most vividly before their eyes. It roused them to thought by the unwonted cry that the hour of repentance was past.

(P. Thomson, M. A.)

It is most important, when a boy at school is careless, and makes little or no progress in learning, that his teacher should put himself in a right position — that he should be able to declare that he paid attention to him, and did his utmost to promote his education. It is most important, when a son turns out badly, that the parents should put themselves in a right position — that they should be able to declare that they did their duty by him. In like manner, it was most important that, relative to the people of Judah, God should put Himself in a right position, or in a position to appeal to facts; that He should be able even to appeal to themselves, as to whether He had not interested Him. self in them, borne patiently with them, and wrought with them in every possible way to guide their feet into right paths. But if Isaiah had not been sent to them, would God have been in a position to appeal to facts? He would not. It is not strange, then, that he was commissioned to go to them in the character of a prophet, and deal with them in order to their reformation.

(G. Cron, M. A.)

Sunday School Chronicle.
The same fire reddens the gold and burns the dross. Under the same threshing sledge the grain is cleansed and the chaff crushed out. By the same press beam the oil is separated from the dregs. The same sunshine and rain which cause the living tree to grow and flourish, are the most potent influences to bring the dead tree to decay.

(Sunday School Chronicle.)

"On the morning before I was licensed," says the late Rev. John Brown, "that text was much impressed on my spirit." He said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not, etc. Since I was ordained at Haddington, I know not how often it hath been heavy to my heart to think how much this Scripture hath been fulfilled in my ministry. Frequently I have had an anxious desire to be removed by death, from being a plague to my poor congregation. Often, however, I have checked myself, and have considered this wish as my folly, and begged of the Lord, that if it were not for His glory to remove me by death, He would make me successful in my work."

See ye indeed, but perceive not
(with Mark 8:18): — They had sight, but no insight. They exercised the power of observation, but had no imagination. They were ritualistic, but not poetic. In their company could be found scribes, but no prophets. They had many politicians, but no statesmen. Eyes had they, but no vision. Life to these people was a superficies, not a profundity. Facts were planes, not cubes. Everything was a surface phenomenon, a mere skin with no wondrous internal ministry to arouse the imagination and to fill the being with awe. Now the suggestion of the Scriptures is this: Life is cubical, every fact being a cube. To see only the surface is elementary and primitive. The crown of life consists in being able to comprehend with all saints what is the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, of every fact which we encounter in the common paths of daily life. The practical which we can measure with a foot rule has mystical relationships; the material has spiritual significance. To see the larger relationships of things, to discern their spiritual pose and set, to peer into their possible issues, is vision. "Thousands of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see."

(J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

Let me illustrate a little more clearly these two ways o flocking at things, the superficial and the cubical; the so-called practical and the imaginative; the way of sight and the way of vision.

1. There are two ways of looking at a little child. "Sight" exercises the power of observation and beholds a little animal, compounded of material atoms in varying quality, a cunning product of material forces; a little bundle of hungers and thirsts. "Insight" beholds in the child a germ of wondrous possibility, a promise of the eternal, a vehicle of unnamed endowments, a possible image of Christ.

2. There are two ways of looking at a flower. There is the way of "sight" —

A primrose by the river's brim

A yellow primrose was to him,

And it was nothing more.

And there is the way of "insight" —

Flower in the crannied wall,

I pluck you out of the cranny.

I hold you here. root and all, in my hand,

Little flower, but if I could understand

What you are, root and all, and all in all,

I should know what God and man is.

3. There are two ways of looking at a book: "sight" and "insight." Here is a book. It is a dictionary. A man gave years of ceaseless labour to its creation. What is it? A Chinese dictionary. Who compiled it? A missionary. And this when he might have been teaching the multitude, feeding the hungry, carrying consolation to the terrified and depressed. To what purpose is this waste? Why were not these years invested and given the poor? So says "sight;" How does "insight" regard the labour! The dictionary is a door of hope, the carrier of light, the key to an empire, a living way into the thought and heart of a vast people.

4. There are two ways of looking at the fabric of this building in which we at present worship. "Sight" says, "How plain the structure, made of common brick! And the windows! nothing about them tasteful and refined." "Insight" gazes at the building and recalls the men and women who have found their Saviour here. A panorama of spiritual ministers passes before it, the consecration of wedlock, the dedication of little children, the illumination of death, the transfiguration of sorrow, the heightening of joy! To the soul's vision this plain brick house is an earthly vessel, precious because of the heavenly treasure of which it has been, and is, the shrine.

5. There are two ways of looking at the bread upon the Communion table. To "sight" it is common baker's bread, bought at so much a loaf, and there is much more like it. To "vision" it is a token of a broken body and of shed blood. By vision we realise the spiritual significance of things, and by fixing our regard upon them we appropriate their contents into our own spirits.

(J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

Now let me mention an astounding thing. This word of the prophet's, and the stern warning as to the perils of blindness with which this book abounds, are addressed not to the men of the world, the jauntily irreligious, the men who treat the affairs of the Highest with levity or derision. They are addressed to the religious, to the regular churchgoers, to the recognised adherents of the synagogue and the temple. They are addressed to men and women who are religious but who have no vision, who pay scrupulous attention to ritual but who are devoid of spiritual discernment. They had given undue emphasis to the formal. Their life had been lived on the superficies. In the realm of religion they were geographers, not geologists; registrars, not poets. They lived and moved on the piano of rules, they did not enter into the roomy depths of principles. They were great at surface measurements; the measure of a Sabbath day's journey, the length of a rope, the hang of a tassel, the fixing of a pin, the duration of a fast. Now when the formal is unduly emphasised it is at the expense of the moral. When ritual is obtrusive the spiritual is impaired. These exalted the trellis and forgot the fruit! But when the spiritual is minimised, life becomes callous. We become indurated by worship of form. What therefore do we find? We find that in the speech of the prophets it is the formally religious people who are denounced for their senselessness; the formal have become the brutal. They have lost their spiritual refinement, and with it their sympathy for their kind. And when the refinement has gone from the spirit, men lose their insight, their power of seeing the invisible. "They have eyes, but they see not."

(J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

How can we gain and keep the power of vision?

1. Let us seek our answer in the Book of Revelation: "Anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see." Mark the connection of this passage. The anointing follows an adorning; before the eyes are mentioned attention has been drawn to the garments. The garment must be changed; the raiment must be made "white." The life must attain unto purity. Then, succeeding the purity, comes the vision — the insight. First, there is the "washing of regeneration"; then "the vision and faculty Divine." "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things."

2. And there is one other condition which must be named. It is suggested to us by a word of the Apostle Paul: "I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." When we have discerned a heavenly meaning, when we have seen the Divine significance of things, when we have entered into the spiritual purpose, we are to be true to what we have seen. I must bring my life into conformity with my light. "Hold fast that which thou hast." I must not batter the gates of heaven for more light if I am rebellious to the light already given. I must be true to what I see. If I live truly I shall see truly. Obedience is the way to the larger vision.

(J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

The great objects which were presented to the view of this people were, the astonishing wonders which were brought before their eyes, the many terrible judgments inflicted upon their enemies, the signal victories with which they were crowned, the glorious deliverances and remarkable interpositions of kind Providence in their behalf.

(R. Macculloch.)

Sunday School Chronicle.
A writer says, "You may buy a New Testament for a few pence, yet it may be to you at last the most costly possession you ever had."

(Sunday School Chronicle.)

The petrifying well at Knaresborough well known, and may illustrate this subject. It is a cascade from the river Nidd, about fifteen feet high and twice as broad, and forms an aqueous curtain to a cave. The dripping waters are used for petrifying anything that may be hung up in the drip of the water ledge, which flows over, as it were, the eaves of the cave. This ledge of limestone rock is augmented unceasingly by the action of the water — which flows over it. In the cascade a great variety of objects are hung up by short lengths of wire, and these are petrified, turned into rock, by the water trickling over them; sponges, books, gloves, veils, animals, and birds subjected to the action of the shower are changed into stone. A sponge is petrified in a few months; some things require a year or two. Petrifying streams threaten our spiritual life, and unless duly resisted, steal away our vitality and leave us with the coldness and hardness of stone.

(W. L. Watkinson.)

People
Isaiah, Uzziah
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Getting, Hast, Hearing, Indeed, Learning, Listening, Nothing, Perceive, Perceiving, Seeing, Understand, Understanding, Wiser
Outline
1. Isaiah, in a vision of the Lord in his glory
5. Being terrified, has apprehensions removed
8. He offers himself, and is sent to show the obstinacy of the people
13. A remnant shall be saved

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Isaiah 6:9

     2426   gospel, responses
     5941   secrecy

Isaiah 6:1-10

     7755   preaching, importance

Isaiah 6:8-9

     7734   leaders, spiritual
     8426   evangelism, motivation

Isaiah 6:8-10

     7740   missionaries, call

Isaiah 6:8-13

     5548   speech, divine

Isaiah 6:9-10

     1445   revelation, responses
     2333   Christ, attitude to OT
     2357   Christ, parables
     2366   Christ, prophecies concerning
     5135   blindness, spiritual
     5159   hearing
     5263   communication
     5438   parables
     5534   sleep, spiritual
     7712   convincing
     8228   discernment, examples
     8319   perception, spiritual
     8351   teachableness
     8355   understanding
     8844   unforgiveness

Isaiah 6:9-13

     7135   Israel, people of God

Library
The Empty Throne Filled
'In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.'--ISAIAH vi. 1. Uzziah had reigned for fifty-two years, during the greater part of which he and his people had been brilliantly prosperous. Victorious in war, he was also successful in the arts of peaceful industry. The later years of his life were clouded, but on the whole the reign had been a time of great well-being. His son and successor was a young man of five-and-twenty;
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Seraph's Wings
'With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.'--ISAIAH vi. 2. This is the only mention in Scripture of the seraphim. I do not need to enter upon the much-debated, and in some respects interesting, question as to whether these are to be taken as identical with the cherubim, or as to whether they are altogether imaginary and symbolical beings, nor as to whether they are identical with the angels, or part of their hierarchy. All that may be left on
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Making of a Prophet
'Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'--ISAIAH vi. 5. In previous pages we have seen how Isaiah's vision of Jehovah throned in the Temple, 'high and lifted up,' derived significance from the time of its occurrence. It was 'in the year that' the earthly King 'died' that the heavenly King was revealed. The passing of the transient prepared the way for the
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Vision and SerVice
'In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. 4. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Twelfth Day. The Thrice Holy One.
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. Above Him stood the seraphim. And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.'--Isa. vi. 1-3. 'And the four living creatures, they have no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, which was, and which is, and which is to come.'--Rev. iv. 8. It is not only on earth, but in heaven too, that the Holiness of God is His chief and most glorious
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

May the Fourteenth Calamity as Revealer
"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord." --ISAIAH vi. 1-8. He lost a hero, and he found the Lord. He feared because a great pillar had fallen: and he found the Pillar of the universe. He thought everything would topple into disaster, and lo! he felt the strength of the everlasting arms. When Uzziah lived Isaiah had forgotten his Lord. He so depended on the earthly that he had overlooked the heavenly. Uzziah concealed his Lord as a thick veil can hide a face. And when Uzziah died, when
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Leafless Tree
The figure is taken, first of all, from the terebinth or turpentine tree--here translated the teil tree. That tree is an evergreen, with this exception, that in very severe and inclement weather it loses its leaves; but even then the terebinth tree is not dead. And so of the oak; it loses its leaves every year, of course, but even then it is not dead. "So," says God, "you have seen the tree in winter, standing naked and bare, without any sign of life, its roots buried in the hard and frozen soil,
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

"And There is None that Calleth Upon Thy Name, that Stirreth up Himself to Take Hold on Thee,"
Isaiah lxiv. 7.--"And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee," &c. They go on in the confession of their sins. Many a man hath soon done with that a general notion of sin is the highest advancement in repentance that many attain to. You may see here sin and judgment mixed in thorough other(315) in their complaint. They do not so fix their eyes upon their desolate estate of captivity, as to forget their provocations. Many a man would spend more affection,
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

An Appeal and a Response
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then said I, Here am I; send me! And He said, Go.' (Isaiah vi. 8, 9.) The incident with which these words are connected was a real mosaic in sacred history. You have the record of a vision which was not a dream but a revelation--a panorama of actualities. The background of this vision might well absorb our attention. The temple and the glory which filled it; the throne and Him who sat thereon; the seraphim, with
T. H. Howard—Standards of Life and Service

His Holy Covenant
"To remember His Holy Covenant; to grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all our days."-LUKE i. 68-75. WHEN Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, he spoke of God's visiting and redeeming His people, as a remembering of His Holy Covenant. He speaks of what the blessings of that Covenant would be, not in words that had been used before, but in what is manifestly a Divine revelation
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

Holy, Holy, Holy! All
7.7.7.7 D James Montgomery "Thrice Holy!"--Isaiah vi. 3. Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Hosts! when heaven and earth, Out of darkness at Thy word, Issued into glorious birth, All Thy works before Thee stood, And Thine eye beheld them good, While they sang with sweet accord, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord! Holy, Holy, Holy! Thee, One Jehovah evermore, Father, Son, and Spirit! we, Dust and ashes, would adore; Lightly by the world esteem'd, From that world by Thee redeem'd, Sing we here with glad accord, Holy,
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns

The Trisagion Wrongly Explained by Arians. Its True Significance.
And how do the impious men venture to speak folly, as they ought not, being men and unable to find out how to describe even what is on the earth? But why do I say what is on the earth?' Let them tell us their own nature, if they can discover how to investigate their own nature? Rash they are indeed, and self-willed, not trembling to form opinions of things which angels desire to look into (1 Pet. i. 12), who are so far above them, both in nature and in rank. For what is nearer [God] than the Cherubim
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

That Sometimes Some Laudably Desire the Office of Preaching, While Others, as Laudably, are Drawn to it by Compulsion.
Although sometimes some laudably desire the office of preaching, yet others are as laudably drawn to it by compulsion; as we plainly perceive, if we consider the conduct of two prophets, one of whom offered himself of his own accord to be sent to preach, yet the other in fear refused to go. For Isaiah, when the Lord asked whom He should send, offered himself of his own accord, saying, Here I am; send me (Isai. vi. 8). But Jeremiah is sent, yet humbly pleads that he should not be sent, saying, Ah,
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

"Whereby we Cry, Abba, Father. "
Rom. viii. 15.--"Whereby we cry, Abba, Father." All that know any thing of religion, must needs know and confess that there is no exercise either more suitable to him that professeth it, or more needful for him, than to give himself to the exercise of prayer. But that which is confessed by all, and as to the outward performance gone about by many, I fear is yet a mystery sealed up from us, as the true and living nature of it. There is much of it expressed here in few words, "whereby we cry, Abba,
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"But we are all as an Unclean Thing, and all Our Righteousnesses are as Filthy Rags,"
Isaiah lxiv 6, 7.--"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," &c. This people's condition agreeth well with ours, though the Lord's dealing be very different. The confessory part of this prayer belongeth to us now; and strange it is, that there is such odds of the Lord's dispensations, when there is no difference in our conditions; always we know not how soon the complaint may be ours also. This prayer was prayed long before the judgment and captivity came
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The First Part
Of the Apocalyptical Commentaries, according to the Rule of the Apocalyptical Key, on the First Prophecy which is contained in the Seals and Trumpets; with an Introduction concerning the Scene of the Apocalypse. As it is my design to investigate the meaning of the Apocalyptical visions, it is requisite for me to treat, in the first place, of that celestial theatre to which John was called, in order to behold them, exhibited as on a stage, and afterwards of the prophecies in succession, examined by
Joseph Mede—A Key to the Apocalypse

One Thing is Needful;
or, SERIOUS MEDITATIONS UPON THE FOUR LAST THINGS: DEATH, JUDGMENT, HEAVEN, AND HELL UNTO WHICH IS ADDED EBAL AND GERIZZIM, OR THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE, by John Bunyan. London: Printed for Nath. Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1688.[1] ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. According to Charles Doe, in that curious sheet called The Struggler for the Preservation of Mr. John Bunyan's Labours, these poems were published about the year 1664, while the author was suffering imprisonment for conscience
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Purpose in the Coming of Jesus.
God Spelling Himself out in Jesus: change in the original language--bother in spelling Jesus out--sticklers for the old forms--Jesus' new spelling of old words. Jesus is God following us up: God heart-broken--man's native air--bad choice affected man's will--the wrong lane--God following us up. The Early Eden Picture, Genesis 1:26-31. 2:7-25: unfallen man--like God--the breath of God in man--a spirit, infinite, eternal--love--holy--wise--sovereign over creation, Psalm 8:5-8--in his own will--summary--God's
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

The Angel of the Lord in the Pentateuch, and the Book of Joshua.
The New Testament distinguishes between the hidden God and the revealed God--the Son or Logos--who is connected with the former by oneness of nature, and who from everlasting, and even at the creation itself, filled up the immeasurable distance between the Creator and the creation;--who has been the Mediator in all God's relations to the world;--who at all times, and even before He became man in Christ, has been the light of [Pg 116] the world,--and to whom, specially, was committed the direction
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Sense in Which, and End for which all Things were Delivered to the Incarnate Son.
For whereas man sinned, and is fallen, and by his fall all things are in confusion: death prevailed from Adam to Moses (cf. Rom. v. 14), the earth was cursed, Hades was opened, Paradise shut, Heaven offended, man, lastly, corrupted and brutalised (cf. Ps. xlix. 12), while the devil was exulting against us;--then God, in His loving-kindness, not willing man made in His own image to perish, said, Whom shall I send, and who will go?' (Isa. vi. 8). But while all held their peace, the Son [441] said,
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

Sixth Day. Holiness and Glory.
Who is like unto Thee, O Lord! among the gods? Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou in Thy mercy hast led Thy people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast guided them in Thy strength to the habitation of Thy holiness ... The holy place, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.' --Ex. xv. 11-17. In these words we have another step in advance in the revelation of Holiness. We have here for the first time Holiness predicated of God Himself. He
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

The Birth of Jesus Proclaimed by Angels to the Shepherds.
(Near Bethlehem, b.c. 5.) ^C Luke II. 8-20. ^c 8 And there were shepherds in the same country [they were in the same fields from which David had been called to tend God's Israel, or flock] abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. [When the flock is too far from the village to lead it to the fold at night, these shepherds still so abide with it in the field, even in the dead of winter.] 9 And an angel of the Lord stood by them [He stood upon the earth at their side, and did
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Holiness of God
The next attribute is God's holiness. Exod 15:51. Glorious in holiness.' Holiness is the most sparkling jewel of his crown; it is the name by which God is known. Psa 111:1. Holy and reverend is his name.' He is the holy One.' Job 6:60. Seraphims cry, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.' Isa 6:6. His power makes him mighty, his holiness makes him glorious. God's holiness consists in his perfect love of righteousness, and abhorrence of evil. Of purer eyes than
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Refutation of the Calumnies by which this Doctrine is Always Unjustly Assailed.
1. Error of those who deny reprobation. 1. Election opposed to reprobation. 2. Those who deny reprobation presumptuously plead with God, whose counsels even angels adore. 3. They murmur against God when disclosing his counsels by the Apostle. Exception and answer. Passage of Augustine. 2. First objection--viz. that God is unjustly offended with those whom he dooms to destruction without their own desert. First answer, from the consideration of the divine will. The nature of this will, and how to
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Links
Isaiah 6:9 NIV
Isaiah 6:9 NLT
Isaiah 6:9 ESV
Isaiah 6:9 NASB
Isaiah 6:9 KJV

Isaiah 6:9 Bible Apps
Isaiah 6:9 Parallel
Isaiah 6:9 Biblia Paralela
Isaiah 6:9 Chinese Bible
Isaiah 6:9 French Bible
Isaiah 6:9 German Bible

Isaiah 6:9 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Isaiah 6:8
Top of Page
Top of Page