Spiritual Insensitivity has no time line

Isaiah 43:8-13

How are the people being described in verse eight?   People who are blind, yet have eyes, 

and deaf, yet have ears, these folks can see with their eyes but God states they are blind, 

and they can hear with their ears, but God refers to them as deaf.  If we go back to Isaiah 

42:20, these are the people God is mentioning, “Though seeing many things, you do not l

isten.”  Having spiritual insensitivity has no time line, the people of Judah, the people of 

Israel were guilty of being blind to the ways of God; they talked the talk, they even went 

through the motions, but they were dead in their hearts and actions to God’s ways.  

Hundreds of years later the apostle is calling out to the church leaders this message; “But 

if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve 

what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you 

yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the 

foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you 

then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do 

you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery do you commit adultery? You 

who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking 

the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because 

of you.”  (Romans 2:17-24 ESV)

Spiritual insensitivity has not stopped, we the Church, Christ living in us and we living in 

Christ, could it be that we have failed to take the test in 2 Corinthians 13:5? These people 

of Isaiah’s time were poor test takers, when God challenged them to find anyone among 

the nations to give a report of the importance of past events; it is another sarcastic comment 

on the powerless idols of the nations.  Verses 10-12, are God’s court room where the nations 

and His people that are referred to as His servants are called as witnesses to the power of 

these idols, these other gods, and the court room is silent when ask to witness about how 

their gods worked in and through their lives.

A quiet court room where only the chosen of God could come forth and proclaim, You alone 

are God and only You can save us as You have in the past.  Church, open your eyes, ask 

God to give you ears to hear these words of Isaiah 43:10-13, “You are my witnesses,” 

declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe 

me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any 

after me. I, even I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. I declared and saved 

and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” 

declares the LORD, “and I am God.  Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver 

from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?”  (Isaiah 43:10-13 ESV)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice