Isaiah 42:18-25

¹⁸ “Listen, you deaf ones! Notice this, you blind ones! ¹⁹ My servant is really blind, my messenger is really deaf. My covenant partner, the servant of Yahveh, is really blind. ²⁰ You see many things, but don’t comprehend; their ears are open, but do not hear.” ²¹ Yahveh wanted to manifest his justice by magnifying his law and displaying it. ²² But these people are looted and plundered; all of them are trapped in pits and held captive in prisons. They were carried away as loot with no one to rescue them; they were carried away as plunder, and no one says, “Bring it back!” ²³ Who among you will pay attention to this? Who will listen carefully in the future? ²⁴ Who handed Jacob over to the thief? Who handed Israel over to the looters? Was it not Yahveh, against whom we sinned? They refused to follow his commands; they disobeyed his law. ²⁵ So he poured out his fierce anger on them, along with the devastation of war. Its flames surrounded them, but they did not realize it; it burned against them, but they did notice.

who notices?

In Plato’s allegory of the cave, Socrates describes a group of people who have lived in a cave all their lives. They see shadows projected on a wall, and that is their reality. They know no other. Isaiah’s audience is also like that. They are blind, deaf, prisoners, being consumed by God’s fierce anger, but they do not notice.

Now, before we go criticizing these stupid Hebrews of Isaiah’s day, maybe we should ask ourselves if we are really paying attention enough to notice true reality in our time. We see what everybody else sees, but what if we are in the same cave they are? We should spend time with the great God who created reality. We should soak up his word. We should pray for revelation and understanding. Then, maybe we will notice what he is doing.

LORD, show up your hand. Reveal to us your heart. Make us people who notice you first.