9. What was the tenor of Isaiah’s message?

⁹ This amazing experience led up to the prophet’s receiving the preaching commission mentioned. (Isaiah 6:8, 9) But why was Isaiah to say that the people would repeatedly hear but still not get any knowledge? God’s voice added: “Make the heart of this people unreceptive, and make their very ears unresponsive, and paste their very eyes together, that they may not see . . . and that they may not actually turn back and get healing.” (Isaiah 6:10) Does that mean that Isaiah, by bluntness or tactlessness, should repel the Jews so that they would remain at odds with Jehovah? No. This was simply an indication of how most Jews would respond no matter how faithfully and thoroughly Isaiah fulfilled the preaching task for which he had volunteered by saying, “Here I am! Send me.”

10. (a) Where did the fault lie as to the people’s being as if blind and deaf? (b) What did Isaiah mean by asking, “How long?”

¹⁰ The fault lay with the people. Despite Isaiah’s allowing them to “hear again and again,” they would not take in knowledge or gain understanding. God stated beforehand that most, because of their stubborn and unspiritual attitude, would not respond. A minority might. But the majority would be as blind as if their eyes were pasted shut with the strongest glue, if you can imagine that. How long would this bad state continue? That, rather than how many years he would have to serve, is what Isaiah asked with the words: “How long, O Jehovah?” God replied: “Until the cities actually crash in ruins, to be without an inhabitant.” And so it happened, though after Isaiah’s lifetime. The Babylonians removed earthling men, leaving Judah “ruined into a desolation.”​—Isaiah 6:11, 12; 2 Kings 25:1-26.

Greater Fulfillments

12. What Scriptural basis is there for calling Jesus the Greater Isaiah?

¹² Centuries after Isaiah’s death, one came whom we might call the Greater Isaiah​—Jesus Christ. In his prehuman existence, he had volunteered to be sent by his Father to earth, where he would include in his preaching things that Isaiah had written. (Proverbs 8:30, 31; John 3:17, 34; 5:36-38; 7:28; 8:42; Luke 4:16-19; Isaiah 61:1) More pointedly, Jesus tied himself in with Isaiah chapter 6 when explaining why He taught as He did. (Matthew 13:10-15; Mark 4:10-12; Luke 8:9, 10) That was fitting, for most Jews who heard Jesus were no more willing to accept his message and act on it than those who heard the prophet Isaiah were willing to accept his. (John 12:36-43) Also, in 70 C.E. the Jews who had made themselves ‘blind and deaf’ to Jesus’ message met a destruction like that of 607 B.C.E. This development in the first century was a tribulation on Jerusalem ‘such as had not occurred since the world’s beginning nor would occur again.’ (Matthew 24:21) Yet, as Isaiah prophesied, a remnant, or “holy seed,” exercised faith. These were formed into a spiritual nation, the anointed “Israel of God.”​—Galatians 6:16.

13. Why can we expect yet another fulfillment of Isaiah 6?

¹³ We now come to another Bible-based fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 6. As a key to understanding this, consider the words of the apostle Paul around the year 60 C.E. He explained why many Jews who heard him in Rome would not accept his “witness concerning the kingdom of God.” The reason was that Isaiah 6:9, 10 was again being fulfilled. (Acts 28:17-27) Does this mean that after Jesus left the earthly scene, his anointed disciples were to carry out a commission comparable to Isaiah’s? Yes, indeed!

14. How were Jesus’ disciples to do a work like Isaiah’s?

¹⁴ Before the Greater Isaiah ascended to heaven, he said that his disciples would receive holy spirit and would thereafter “be witnesses of [him] both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the most distant part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) Just as the sacrificial altar supplied what was needed for Isaiah’s error to depart, so Jesus’ sacrifice was the basis for his disciples’ having their ‘sin itself atoned for.’ (Leviticus 6:12, 13; Hebrews 10:5-10; 13:10-15) Thus, God could anoint them with holy spirit, which would also empower them to be ‘witnesses to the most distant part of the earth.’ Both the prophet Isaiah and the Greater Isaiah had been sent to proclaim God’s message. Similarly, Jesus’ anointed followers were “sent from God . . . in company with Christ.”​—2 Corinthians 2:17.