The remaining half of Isaiah chapter 6 is a stark statement of reality.
God has just “called’ Isaiah to preach, but then (immediately) God told the Prophet of the meager results his ministry would realize, accomplish!
The Lord speaking to Isaiah …
“And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 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. 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, and the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 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.” Isaiah 6:9-13
This thing goes from virtually “no hope” to maybe a “little hope,” but then definitely to “some hope!”
No, God is not a Pessimist, but a Realist!
The people, at large, will REJECT the preaching of Isaiah!
Their heart will be “fat” (lazy), their ears “heavy,” and their eyes “shut!”
And God did not command this to be so! Nor “foreordain” it, either. (God is not the Author of sin!)
But when the Jews freely rejected the Truth … God did allow their hearts to be hardened!
Every single sin makes the next sin a little easier!
Yes … “the cities (shall) be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the LORD have removed men far away (deportation, exile), and there be a great forsaking (a deserting, an abdication, a mass exodus) in the midst of the land” … cruel Captivity was coming! (Into the Assyrian Empire for the Northern Kingdom … and into the Babylonian Empire for the little Southern Kingdom!)
No hope, sounds like!
Then immediately, God promises, a verb not too strong here, something great! (A “glimmer” of hope!) “But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return …” God always seems to reserve for Himself a “remnant,” a “handful” of faithful followers. And here they surely are, this “tenth!” (Whether exactly 1 out of 10 will be spared … to come back home, or whether this is a lovely euphemism for a “small minority,” I cannot tell.)
But then again, our Text goes back to a dark picture with a ‘hint” of daylight barely visible! The Land (the Holy Land) … “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.”
The Land will be “eaten/devoured” again and again!
Conquered and overcome … because of the sins of its inhabitants!
But like a “teil tree” (some sort of an elm apparently) or an “oak tree” … cut to the ground mind you, by enemy invasion … there miraculously will come forth a “sprout” … out from that presumably dead trunk!
Hope … a “shoot” off the root system!
And this group will be “holy seed,” that righteous remnant again!
Yes Isaiah, a few will believe!
Yet, keep on preaching!
Reminds me of Acts 28:24 … “And some BELIEVED the things which were spoken, and some BELIEVED NOT.” Paul’s ministry (as well as Isaiah’s) summarized in a line!
“Whosoever will!”
Alas, but many won’t!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Maybe this particular Lesson today is something I should not have said, written. But it is in the Text (Isaiah 6) … and I must try to be faithful to God’s Word!
Jesus may be agreeing in Matthew 7:14 … “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and FEW there be that find it.”