Scripture Daily

Context No. 1823 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 29:15-24: in context

15Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from the LORD, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?” 16You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay, that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me;” or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? 17Isn’t it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest? 18In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 19The humble also will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 20For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off— 21who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for one who reproves in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony. 22Therefore the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale. 23But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the middle of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. 24They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction.”

Isaiah pronounces woe on those who try to hide their plans from the LORD, whose deeds are done in the dark, and who say to themselves, who sees us? who knows? He rebukes the folly of it: you turn things upside down, as if the clay could say to the potter, he did not make me, or the thing formed could say of its maker, he has no understanding. Then he promises a reversal: the deaf will hear, the blind will see, the humble will rejoice, and the ruthless and the scoffer will come to nothing.

The folly Isaiah names is one we all know the temptation to: who sees us? These are people who do in the dark what they would never do in the light, who make their plans and commit their deeds in secret, comforting themselves that no one sees, that their hidden things are safely hidden. And Isaiah calls it turning things upside down, a folly as absurd as clay imagining the potter cannot see or understand it. For the God who formed us sees everything, including what we do in the dark and plan in secret; there is no hiding from him. The illusion of hiddenness is exactly that, an illusion. We are prone to this self-deception. We may keep up appearances in the open while nursing hidden sins, secret plans, deeds done where no human eye sees, and quiet ourselves with the thought that what is hidden from others is hidden altogether, that no one sees. But someone does. The darkness is not dark to God; there is no creature hidden from his sight; the one who made us knows the secret things, the hidden plans, the deeds done where we think no one is watching. To say who sees us? is to forget the God before whom all things are open. This is sobering, but it is also, rightly received, a mercy, for the illusion of hiddenness is what lets secret sin grow; and to remember that God sees is to be called out of the darkness into the light, to live as those known through and through by the God from whom nothing is hidden. There is nothing we do in secret that God does not see; and to live honestly before the God who sees all is far better, and far more free, than the anxious pretense that we can hide from him.

Do I do in the dark what I would never do in the light, nursing hidden sins or secret plans and quieting myself with the thought that no one sees, forgetting the God who formed me and sees everything, and can I stop the folly of who sees us? and live honestly before the God from whom nothing is hidden?

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