Also, I heard the voice of the LORD saying: “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?
Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
And He said, “Go and tell this people:
Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive;     Isaiah 6:8-9 HCSB

There are many important and favorite passages in the book of Isaiah. He was called “the evangelical prophet” because he spoke so much about redemption through Jesus Christ. He spoke of the coming Messiah.

In this Scripture passage, Isaiah is being called as a prophet. He answers the call. And then God gives him the news. He will prophesy to God’s people, but they won’t get it.

They will see and will not perceive, and they will hear and will not understand. Why? Because they have turned their backs on God and God has rendered their hearts insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim (Isaiah 6:10). God is telling Isaiah that his prophesying would result in increased hardening of the people’s hearts. In verse 11, God tells Isaiah that even though the people won’t listen, he is to prophesy their Babylonian exile. These people are going to have to learn the hard way. They are going to have to be taken into captivity by a pagan nation to understand what Isaiah is talking about. Isaiah asks how long God will render them deaf, dumb and blind. God tells Isaiah until their cities lie in ruins, their houses are empty, and their land is ruined.

There are reasonably intelligent people in our world today who just don’t get it. Sadly, this is nothing new. It dates back as far as Adam and Eve. God gives us free will and unfortunately sometimes we make stupid choices. I’ve been there, done that and got the t-shirt. There is a church on every corner, yet we are a nation full of people that can see God all around them and not perceive the awesomeness of His power. They hear God’s word being preached and just don’t understand.

True wisdom comes from God. Proverbs 3:5-7 tells us to trust in the Lord with all our heart, not to lean on our own understanding and in all our ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct our paths. We are warned not to be wise in our own eyes, but to fear the LORD and depart from evil. When we fail to do this, we tend to have hearing and vision problems. We hear, but we don’t understand. We see, but we don’t perceive. We just don’t get it.

If this continues, God will give us over to our evil desires. We can actually reach a point of no return.

In Mark 4, Jesus tells the parable of the Sower. I will not go into details about this, but I encourage you to read it. This is an important message from Jesus about how we respond to His Word. It’s important that you, “get it”.

Jesus often spoke in parables, which are simple stories with a moral lesson. In Mark chapter 4, His disciples asked the reason for this. Jesus explained that His disciples had been given the mystery of the kingdom of God; but those who were not his followers had to have parables in order to understand. In verse 12, Jesus said, “So that seeing, they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them.” Jesus quoted what God the father had told Isaiah all those years before.

Is God sending someone to talk to you? Do you hear what they are saying, but just don’t understand it? Do you see what’s going on, but don’t perceive it? Pray to God to open your eyes that you may see and perceive and allow you to hear so that you may understand. Pray for wisdom and discernment.

If you are witnessing to someone, pray for God to open their eyes and their ears so that they may perceive and understand. In Matthew 6:19 Jesus gives His disciples the great commission. We are told to go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

For many years, I went to church, I read my Bible and still I didn’t get it. But once I surrendered my life to Christ, he restored my sight and my hearing. If you can hear but don’t understand, turn to Him today. He will give you understanding and perception. Pray to Him for wisdom and rely on Him in all that you do. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Have a great weekend!