11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”
13 And the Lord said:
“Because this people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
14 therefore, behold, I will again
do wonderful things with this people,
with wonder upon wonder;
and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
15 Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel,
whose deeds are in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16 You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
17 Is it not yet a very little while
until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
18 In that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a book,
and out of their gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind shall see.
19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
About the time that Isaiah wrote these words an ancient poet/philosopher/prophet (they were all the same thing in ancient times) among the Greeks observed that Thracian depictions of their deities had red hair and blue eyes while African depictions of the same pantheon of deities had dark hair and eyes. The philosopher concluded that the gods were in fact the creation of men. In more modern times we have heard much the same. God is a psychological projection of our needs or that religious faith served some evolutionary purpose. Religion is simply mankind writ large.
Isaiah’s words speak to those who say such things in his and our times. “You turn things upside down!” He goes on to use an image of a potter and the clay but really says that the creator is the one who should be questioning our reality and not the other way around. We are bombarded with messages to the contrary in these faithless times. How many have not concluded that there is no God who will see what they do and so they do whatever pleases them. This seems normal and faith seems to be odd. How the world is upside-down! Isaiah sees a day when mountainous and wooded Lebanon will be a fruitful field and the fruitful field will be a forest. In other words. The world will be turned right-side up! Then the deaf shall hear and the blind shall see, and the meek will obtain fresh joy in the Lord, for He will be plain for all to see. The strange situation we find ourselves in right now will be righted. We can all look forward to that day.