Isaiah 6.10 commands, make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind! Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.

In an age when we espouse, God wants all people saved, it is interesting to hear Him say, keep people from repenting. While some will ask, saved from what? Saved from the punishment that follows the judgement to come when all people stand before God and are weighed and measured according to His will and ways as recorded in His word, the Scriptures.

Increasing numbers of people have no fear of meeting God and no interest in becoming ‘saved.’ Nevertheless, it is the work of the Church to present Jesus Christ as Savior of the world so that all people everywhere can turn to Him and be forgiven of their disobedience and receive an eternal pardon on their day of reckoning. How does this work get accomplished? Through the sharing of God’s word as recorded in the Scriptures.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Isaiah was commanded by God to share His word with the people of Isaiah’s day. God knew that their hearing God’s word would cause them to harden their hearts further against God. Why? Because men in all ages have chaffed at the notion of God calling them out to repent by turning from their evil deeds and to seek the One True God by obeying His commands.

Our pride and self-absorption keep us living for our pleasure and purpose regardless of the will of God or the needs of others. When we hear God’s Word calling us to stop, change and obey we become angry, rebellious and obstinate. It is God Who must change and not us. This is why we ignore the Bible and dismiss it’s teachings choosing to walk according to our own will and ways hoping God’s love for us will overcome God’s will for us.

Not everyone is this way. Some do hear God’s word and do humble themselves before Him admitting that they have disobeyed and now choose to surrender to the will of God as recorded in the word of God. Increasingly these numbers are fewer.

The intolerance for God and His insistence upon His ways is growing and those who continue to share God’s Word will find themselves increasingly the target of hostility. This suffering must not deter the child of God for God Himself suffered at the hands of men for insisting He alone is the way, the truth and the life.

Those who stand up for Jesus and His word are in good company and will receive His great reward.