Continuing where the previous post ended with Isaiah 6 telling of all seeing the glory of God demonstrated but only a few (a tenth) actually perceive and understand what they see. Today a deeper look into this aspect and why the condition exists, beginning with a few verses from John 12, also posted yesterday.
John 12
35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walks in darkness knows not whither [to what end point] he goes.
36 While you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. These things spoke Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
37 But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:
38 That the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, LORD, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
As we saw yesterday this final verse (38) is quoting from Isaiah 53, and it telling of seeing what isn’t expected when seen by the eyes of a natural minded man. The later verses of the chapter then tells of the LORD seeing and being pleased with the sacrifice suffered, which is what caused the visual appearance to become so unrecognizable to natural eyes. This is what the LORD is explaining in the John 12 verses. He tells of the unbelief of those seeing and this being both what brings the darkness and his being hid from them. (Read the previous post.)
John 12
39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again,
40 He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
41 These things said Isaiah, when he saw his glory, and spoke of him.
42 Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:
43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
44 Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
45 And he that sees me sees him that sent me.
46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
48 He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
As we read above, the LORD is speaking of his glory being seen, and he then likens it by quote to Isaiah’s seeing the LORD’s glory; the LORD them telling him of the many who don’t see or hear, and therefore reject the healing that comes with this understanding of what they are hearing. Isaiah asks how long this condition will remain, and the LORD answers that it will be until there be a great forsaking in the land. He tells of all men having moves far from where He is, and tells that at that time there will be a tenth who will see and return.
This point of being totally blind to the glory, as it is also spoken of in John 12, is what Isaiah 53 tells of ending “when you shall make his soul an offering for sin [what is our fault].” This is referring to the condition of straying from the LORD being what causes the inability to see and hear, and therefor, even when clearly seeing the glory manifested, rejecting it.
This is the “great forsaking” spoken of in Isaiah 6:12, and is also the “falling away” we are told of in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, which must occur before the Son of man is revealed. The word here translated “forsaken” is the Hebrew word ‘azuwhah, meaning desertion. It is derived from the word ‘azab, meaning to relinquish a position. The addition of the suffix ah to ‘azab appears to say its meaning is to desert Yah (Jehovah). This definition is referring back to Isaiah 1:4 where the word ‘azab is used as “forsaken” to describe the entirety of God’s people leaving Him.
Isaiah 1
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
3 The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
5 Why should you be stricken any more? you will revolt more and more: the whole head [all leaders] is sick, and the whole heart faint [all reasoning fails].
6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? says the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
Herein we are told of the cause of the blindness and the inability to see and hear the salvation being preached. This what Paul speaks of as already being at work, and it is in the spiritually wicked leaders sitting the seats of power in all the churches and all of government, and their having totally forsaken the LORD, and the nation followed into decline.
2 Thessalonians 2
1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that men of sin be revealed, the sons of perdition;
4 Who oppose and exalt themselves above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that they as God sit in the places of power that are of God, showing themselves that they are God.
5 Remember you not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now you know what holds you down that they might be revealed in their time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity does already work: only they who now restrain will restrain, until they be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall these Wicked be revealed, whom the LORD shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even them, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should continue to trust in lies:
12 That they all might be damned who put their trust not in the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the LORD, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our LORD Jesus Christ.
15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
16 Now our LORD Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
17 Comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.
When Isaiah 53 tells of the blindness ending when we realize the unrecognizable marred visage is caused by straying from the LORD, to the point of wickedness inhabiting the places of power, it is speaking of the same points made in 2 Corinthians 3 & 4. There in chapter 3, verse 16, we are told, “Nevertheless when it shall turn to the LORD, the veil shall be taken away.” The word “turn” is from the Greek word epistrepho, meaning to revert (return from the forsaking – return from the falling away). It goes on to tell of liberty, and in doing tells of our being freed from the darkness of those restraining us, and our seeing that which was hidden from our natural eyes. We are admonished to see the unseen, wherein the deepest Spirit and Truth resides.
2 Corinthians 3
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels.
11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains is glorious [see Hebrews 12:27 & 28].
12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13 And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ.
15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.
16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the LORD, the veil shall be taken away.
17 Now the LORD is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.
2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the LORD; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the LORD Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death works in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the LORD Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
