Bible Questions Answered:
You answer questions, so what is it that Isaiah says a people and their leaders are sleeping and cannot understand?
Kapel/ Brooklyn, New York
Bible Answer:
Bible Text:
Isaiah 29:9-12 KJV
9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
Isaiah 29:9-12 NLT
9 Are you amazed and incredulous? Don’t you believe it? Then go ahead and be blind. You are stupid, but not from wine! You stagger, but not from liquor!
10 For the Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has closed the eyes of your prophets and visionaries.
11 All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.”
12 When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.”
The beloved Apostle Paul, explains these words of Isaiah in...
Romans 11:1-36 NLT
1 I ask, then, has God rejected His own people, the nation of Israel? Of course not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham and a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 No, God has not rejected His own people, whom He chose from the very beginning. Do you realize what the Scriptures say about this? Elijah the prophet complained to God about the people of Israel and said,
3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”
4 And do you remember God’s reply? He said, “No, I have 7,000 others who have never bowed down to Baal!”
5 It is the same today, for a few of the people of Israel have remained faithful because of God’s grace—His undeserved kindness in choosing them.
6 And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.
7 So this is the situation: Most of the people of Israel have not found the favor of God they are looking for so earnestly. A few have—the ones God has chosen—but the hearts of the rest were hardened.
8 As the Scriptures say, “God has put them into a deep sleep. To this day he has shut their eyes so they do not see, and closed their ears so they do not hear.”
9 Likewise, David said, “Let their bountiful table become a snare, a trap that makes them think all is well. Let their blessings cause them to stumble,and let them get what they deserve.
10 Let their eyes go blind so they cannot see, and let their backs be bent forever.”
11 Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But He wanted His own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves.
12 Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.
13 I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this,
14 for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them.
15 For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead!
16 And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.
17 But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree.
18 But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.
19 “Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.”
20 Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen.
21 For if God did not spare the original branches, He won’t spare you either.
22 Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in His kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.
23 And if the people of Israel turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, for God has the power to graft them back into the tree.
24 You, by nature, were a branch cut from a wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by grafting you into His cultivated tree, He will be far more eager to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong.
25 I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ.
26 And so all Israel will be saved. As the Scriptures say,“The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and He will turn Israel away from ungodliness.
27 And this is My covenant with them, that I will take away their sins.”
28 Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the Good News, and this benefits you Gentiles. Yet they are still the people He loves because He chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
29 For God’s gifts and His call can never be withdrawn.
30 Once, you Gentiles were rebels against God, but when the people of Israel rebelled against Him, God was merciful to you instead.
31 Now they are the rebels, and God’s mercy has come to you so that they, too, will share in God’s mercy.
32 For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so He could have mercy on everyone.
33 Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His ways!
34 For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give Him advice?
35 And who has given Him so much that He needs to pay it back?
36 For everything comes from Him and exists by His power and is intended for His glory. All glory to Him forever! Amen.
Since the first prophecy of a coming Deliverer, Saviour, born of a virgin in Genesis 3:15 throughout the Old Testament some 196 prophecies had been given of the coming of the promised Messiah!
And yet, the people who should have known and been looking for His coming, were not, and they were not because their eyes were blinded.
Isaiah spoke some 700 years B.C. Warning them that their indifference, would put them in spiritual darkness.
In the 1st century, the Apostle Paul, revealed the mystery of Israels blindness. A blindness that will continue until the “Times of the Gentiles,” come to an end. This to be at the end of the Time of Jacobs Trouble, (Armageddon) when the people of God, run from the coming false messiah, only to realize that they have rebuffed, God's true Messiah, blessed Son, and only Saviour, the dear Lord Jesus, the Christ.
But praise and honor, glory and all jubilation, there is coming a day.....for the words of our living God fail not, when beloved Israel, will come to recognize her Saviour!
Zechariah 12:10-14 KJV
10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of Grace and of Supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.
12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;
14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
Revelation 1:7 KJV
Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.
Zechariah 13:6,9 KJV
6 And one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends.
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The Lord is My God.
Selah
