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Dean Plumptre says, "No harder task, it may be, was ever given to man. Ardent dreams of reformation and revival, the nation renewing its strength like the eagle, were scattered to the winds; and he had to face the prospect of a fruitless labor, of feeling that he did but increase the evil against which he strove. It was the very opposite mission of that to which St. Paul was sent, to open men's eyes, and turn them from darkness to light'" (Acts 26:18). Mr. Hutton, in one of his essays, says, "When civilization becomes corrupt, and men are living below their faith, I think it may often be in mercy that God strikes the nations with blindness - that the only remedy lies in thus taking away an influence which they resist, and leaving them the stern lesson of self-dependence." This gives the key to the view we propose to take of Isaiah's mission. From one point of view a mission of hardening is a mission of judgment; but, from another point of view, it is a mission of mercy. From both points of view it is always a most trying mission for him to whom it is entrusted.

I. A MISSION OF HARDENING IS A MISSION OF JUDGMENT. Compare Moses' mission to Pharaoh. It was a fact that Pharaoh's heart was hardened. On natural mental laws we can explain the process of hardening. Yet we are hidden see deeper, and recognize that, in judgment on his willfulness, "God hardened his heart." If a man resists a gracious influence once, he finds it easier to resist a second time, and gradually the influence has no persuasive effect on him; he is "hardened." Illustrate by the Pharisees, who at first inquired concerning Christ. They resisted the witness of his words and works, until at last a blindness and hardness came upon them as a judgment. The Jews are under Divine judgment now; it is a blinding, veiling, hardening, which makes it impossible for them, as a whole nation, to see the Son of God and Savior of the world from sin in Jesus of Nazareth. The man who won't see shall come into this judgment - he shall not be able to see. All missions, even Christ's, have a side of hardening. Some missions are almost wholly the execution of this Divine judgment. Blindness is God's punishment for refusing to see, and spiritual blindness comes through the very preaching of the truth that saves to unwilling hearts; and such preaching-work, that seems worse than fruitless, may be the mission given by God to some men. To us they may be ministers of judgment, even in their preaching of the gospel. J.A. Alexander says, "The thing predicted is judicial blindness, as the natural result and righteous retribution of the national depravity. This end would be promoted by the very preaching of the truth, and therefore a command to preach was in effect a command to blind and harden them."

II. A MISSION OF HARDENING IS A MISSION OF MERCY. It may be

(1) considerateness for individuals, on whom it will prove the only effective agency. It may be

(2) the quickest way to secure the humbling of the soul. God may have to let men get hard in their pride that, through the fall that must surely follow, their pride may be broken; just as the mother lets the child, that is conceited with its first attempts to walk, stumble and fall, in order that henceforth the walking may be less venturesome. The thought is almost beyond us, but we are permitted even to believe that God works his work of grace by calamities that we call destructive, and by hardenings that seem to us hopeless. In Isaiah's days, "events that were 'signs of the times,' calls to repentance or to action, were taken as things of course. For such a state, after a certain stage, there is but one treatment. It must run its course, and 'dree its weird,' partly as a righteous retribution, partly as the only remedial process possible." The evident results of his mission made Isaiah's ministry extremely trying and depressing; his preaching rocked some to a fatal sleep, and made others outrageous and exasperated. And the final results of his work, as at heart a work of mercy, could not be revealed for his cheering during his life. He could only hold that before him as a mysterious vision of the far away. But he was nobly faithful; a servant of God who reaped no results such as he would himself desire, but actually seemed only a mischief-maker, an increaser of existing evils, and a hardener of hearts. But to none are the words more fitting than to tried Isaiah, "Well done, good and faithful servant," executor of Divine judgment, and ministrant of Divine mercy. - R.T.

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KJV: And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

WEB: He said, "Go, and tell this people, 'You hear indeed, but don't understand; and you see indeed, but don't perceive.'