Isaiah 29:9-17

God’s People are Spiritually Insensitive

29:9 You will be shocked and amazed!

You are totally blind!

They are drunk, but not because of wine;

they stagger, but not because of beer.

29:10 For the Lord has poured out on you

a strong urge to sleep deeply.

He has shut your eyes (the prophets),

and covered your heads (the seers).

29:11 To you this entire prophetic revelation is like words in a sealed scroll. When they hand it to one who can read and say, “Read this,” he responds, “I can’t, because it is sealed.” 29:12 Or when they hand the scroll to one who can’t read and say, “Read this,” he says, “I can’t read.”

29:13 The sovereign master says,

“These people say they are loyal to me;

they say wonderful things about me,

but they are not really loyal to me.

Their worship consists of

nothing but man-made ritual.

29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –

an absolutely extraordinary deed.

Wise men will have nothing to say,

the sages will have no explanations.”

29:15 Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are as good as dead,

who do their work in secret and boast,

“Who sees us? Who knows what we’re doing?”

29:16 Your thinking is perverse!

Should the potter be regarded as clay?

Should the thing made say about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?

Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

Changes are Coming

29:17 In just a very short time

Lebanon will turn into an orchard,

and the orchard will be considered a forest.