Ears Not Dull – Isaiah 59

According to Healthline.com there are multiple causes for dull or muffled hearing, including earwax buildup, tinnitus, ear infection, hay fever, ear pressure imbalance as in altitude changes.  Israel thought Yahweh had muffled hearing, but the problem wasn’t on His end.

Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.  For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.  No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity….Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways.  The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.

Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.  We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men….we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.  For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us…. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.  Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.  He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.  He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.  According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies; to the coastlands he will render repayment.  So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the LORD drives.

“And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD.

“And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from this time forth and forevermore.”  (Isaiah 59 ESV)

Israel thought God was not answering their prayers because either He was incapable or inattentive, but the reality was that their sins had created a rift between them and God.  When He could find no one who would turn to Him in repentance and sincerity, He acted in judgment.

But because of His faithfulness to Israel in covenant He promised a redeemer to turn Israel from their transgression.  Jesus was that redeemer.  Many Israelites received him, but not the nation as a whole.  And so the nation has experienced the judgment of God.  But God assures them that this promise will be fulfilled one day and they will look on the one they rejected and embrace him (Zechariah 12:10).  Israel’s repentance and restoration still awaits (Romans 11).

We may make the same mistake, thinking that God has become dull of hearing, when in reality it is we who have become dull of hearing and are acting in unrighteousness.  We need God to do a spiritual inventory on us and then we need to repent.

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever suffered from hearing difficulties or been around someone who has hearing difficulties?  What was it like?
2. Have you ever felt like God was hard of hearing?  What did that feel like?
3. Is it always the case that God’s not answering our prayers means we are in sin?
4. What motivated God to spring into action on behalf of Israel?
5. What does it mean to you that Israel will be redeemed one day and recognize her Messiah?
6. Where have you found yourself dull of hearing?