The book of Isaiah is a frustrating text for those weaned on narrow theological orthodoxies. In spite of its place at the core of the biblical canon and over against conclusions that might be drawn from the New Testament’s frequent citation of the book, it challenges theological prescription at every turn. This is evident in its nearly simultaneous assignment of Israel’s declension both to human and to divine causality. The Isaianic tradition is uninterested in parsing out the dilemma to the satisfaction of abstract curiosities.
Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor, blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not from wine; stagger, but not from strong drink!
For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep; he has closed your eyes, you prophets, and covered your heads, you seers.
The vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read, with the command, ‘Read this,’ they say, ‘We cannot, for it is sealed.’ And if it is given to those who cannot read, saying, ‘Read this,’ they say, ‘We cannot read.’
Isaiah 29.9-12 (NRSV)
The opening verbal assault assumes a self-inflicted incapacity. The prophet urges his hearers on to drunken blindness in a dialect that assumes a high degree of moral responsibility, indeed of culpability.
The following verses flow without impediment into the language divine causality. This occurs first in the report that it is YHWH himself who has poured upon Israel a sleepy spirit, closed the eyes of prophets and the heads of seers. It continues in the second instance with the picture of helpless, stupid, benighted candidates for redemption by means of the prophetic vision. They are incapable of responding. They are not so much willing and rebellious subjects as they are helpless ignoramuses.
By my lights, one makes sense of this dilemma only by means of the more widespread biblical conviction that idolatry is chosen and then exercises its intensifying influence upon those who have chose aberrant religion. Choice becomes the starting point of a process that eventually makes the chooser incapable of genuine choice.
We become what we worship, goes a modern adaptation of the topic. Indeed.
Who, then, is finally responsibly for the Israel’s pathetic plight in chapter 29. YHWH? Or Israel?
Yes, says the prophet.
Canter Bridge 