8 Then 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!” 9 He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;
Keep on looking, but do not understand.’
10 “Render the hearts of this people [e]insensitive,
Their ears [f]dull,
And their eyes [g]dim,
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
Understand with their hearts,
And return and be healed.”11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,
“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,
12 “The Lord has removed men far away,
And the [h]forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 “Yet there will be a tenth portion in it,
And it will again be subject to burning,
Like a terebinth or an oak
Whose stump remains when it is felled.
The holy seed is its stump.”
In v. 8 we have the well known call of God and Isaiah’s answer. Of course, God is still calling each of us for something, and we need to be listening so that we can answer. Most of us won’t have a vision like Isaiah’s to arrest our attention. On a side note, it makes me wonder if the Israelites had become so insensitive to the things of God that the only way to get through to anyone was with such a vision as Isaiah had in the first part of the chapter.
Maybe that isn’t a side note after all, because v. 9 is what really stands out here, though the thought continues in v. 10 also. “Keep listening, but do not perceive; keep looking, without understanding.” How could anyone listen and watch and not have any idea what is going on? How could we?
Sadly, I think we’re likely pretty good at that. We have so many distractions, maybe more than the Israelites of Isaiah’s day, or maybe not. When life gets hard, we crave distraction. We don’t want to put in the hard work to figure things out, or to get things done. Some turn to alcohol, smoking, or drugs to get their fix, but many will grab onto anything to distract them from reality.
As a result, we are much like these people, watching and listening, you bet! But are we actually paying attention to what we’re seeing? Whether good or bad, are we thinking and understanding what is coming into our minds, or are we numb to it all?
We need to put away the distractions and focus on what matters. First, of course, is to make sure we are listening for God’s voice. And then, we need to listen to those around us, are we paying attention to the needs of our family, our loved ones, our friends? You and I have plenty of important things that need our attention, we dare not be distracted, lulled to insensitivity.
Instead we ought to remember Jesus’ words to his disciples, when the time was near to fulfill the plan, “Watch, and pray!” Also remembering that the latter involves listening, and not just talking on our part. Watch and pray indeed, we must do it every day, even as Paul said to the Thessalonians, “without ceasing.”