Isaiah 6 · a question people ask
Why would the Lord tell Isaiah to "Make the heart of this people fat" (6:10)?
The chapter gives the command and says nothing more about why. The Lord says to Isaiah, "Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes" (6:10), and Isaiah's only answer is a question: "Lord, how long?" (6:11). The New Testament gives these words more than once, and the WEB words them two ways. Jesus gives them as "this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, and they have closed their eyes" (Matthew 13:15), and Paul gives the same words in Acts (Acts 28:25-27). John gives them as "He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart" (John 12:40). So the verses speak both of a heart made fat at the Lord's command (6:10) and "He has blinded their eyes" (John 12:40), and of a heart that "has grown callous" and eyes that "they have closed" (Matthew 13:15). None of these verses says how the two fit together, and these notes set them side by side and settle no more than they say. And the verse itself ends on healing, "and turn again, and be healed" (6:10), a word the book comes back to: "and I will heal them" (Isaiah 57:19).
The verses
“Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.” Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without man, the land becomes utterly waste,”
“for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, and they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again, and I would heal them.’”
“When they didn’t agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one message: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, ‘Go to this people and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way perceive. For this people’s heart has grown callous. Their ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again, then I would heal them.’”
““He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and would turn, and I would heal them.””