Jesus quotes Isaiah 6 here - when Isaiah is asked who will go for Him. Isaiah responds, "Here I am. Send me!" And then the words get difficult because G-D informs Isaiah that he will be preaching to a dense crowd who will be ever hearing but never understanding, and ever seeing, but never perceiving (Jesus reverses them in Mark 4).
Just the kind of message and welcome you want to have, right? And Isaiah asks for how long, and G-D says - until everything is completely destroyed except for stumps.
Great. So Isaiah gets to preach a message that people don't want/can't hear until they are completely destroyed. Every young preacher's dream job.
So what does this have to do with Jesus? Perhaps Jesus is sarcastically speaking of His less-than-brilliant disciples at the moment? Is He comparing Himself and His message to that of Isaiah, drawing on that prophetic image? Or is He speaking against "the outsiders" - the very people He was sent to call? Or perhaps to the hypocrites in the audience?
What do you think? (Also pay attention to 4:33-34.)
2 comments:
I so agree with you, you need to slow down though, you are getting ahead of me. great job. I have a question though, why do you write GOD as G-D, just curious.
Thanks and God Bless
Interesting and intriguing. I've read the verses in Mark and went back and read Isaiah 6. My immediate impression is that, while those on the outside may be laid to waste due to their unwillingness to hear and thereby learn, they serve as an example to the remnant or those of the believers. Therefore, in the case of Jesus using the Isaiah quote in Mark, I feel the same is true - the destruction of those who refuse to believe will serve as an example to those who strive to learn and believe and therefore be saved.
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