that defines the earthly mission and ministry of Jesus. By understanding that, in Isaiah 6, God judged and hardened the nation of Israel, I believe that I have gained a new understanding of just about everything that Jesus
said and did in the Gospels 
as well as everything that the Apostles
said and did in the Book of Acts
and the Epistles
. You know the story. In the first five chapters of Isaiah
, the Lord delivers a scathing indictment against Judah and Jerusalem
– rebellious, barren, and worthless. Then the prophet warns them that judgment is coming – death, destruction. In Isaiah 6, the judgment is pronounced as God sends Isaiah to declare to Judah that they are to be hardened until the sentence is carried out and they are destroyed. He then tells Isaiah to prophesy that a remnant will be saved.
Isaiah 6
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and His robe filled the temple. Seraphim were standing above Him; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another:
Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts;
His glory fills the whole earth.
The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke.
Then I said:
Woe is me, for I am ruined,
because I am a man of unclean lips
and live among a people of unclean lips,
[and] because my eyes have seen the King,
the LORD of Hosts.
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth [with it] and said:
Now that this has touched your lips,
your wickedness is removed,
and your sin is atoned for.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying:
Who should I send?
Who will go for Us?
I said:
Here I am. Send me.
And He replied:
Go! Say to these people:
Keep listening, but do not understand;
keep looking, but do not perceive.
Dull the minds of these people;
deafen their ears and blind their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
understand with their minds,
turn back, and be healed.
Then I said, ‘Until when, Lord?’ And He replied:
Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants,
houses are without people,
the land is ruined and desolate,
and the LORD drives the people far away,
leaving great emptiness in the land.
Though a tenth will remain in the land,
it will be burned again.
Like the terebinth or the oak,
which leaves a stump when felled,
the holy seed is the stump.”
In his vision, the prophet Isaiah is in the presence of the resurrected, ascended Christ on His throne in Heaven and he is immediately convicted of his sin. And in a beautiful scene depicting Christ’s saving grace, Isaiah’s sins are forgiven and he is washed clean.
Next, the prophet answers Christ’s call and is sent to carry a message to God’s people – a message of judgment – and remarkably, Isaiah is told to harden them so that they cannot be saved, by dulling their minds, deafening their ears and blinding their eyes.
Isaiah then asks how long the people will remain in that condition and he is told that they will stay that way until they are completely and utterly destroyed. But a remnant (a tenth, a stump) will be saved. The Jews were still in this hardened condition when Jesus came to bring God’s Kingdom and save the remnant of Israel.
The remnant, of course, Jesus gathered from those who had been excluded by the religious establishment, from society and the assembly; and he would, after His resurrection, send His Apostles to take His Gospel to those outside of Israel, who had also been deemed unworthy, unclean, and unfit, by the Jewish religious establishment.
At this point, some may say that all of the judgment and hardening described in Isaiah 6 took place during the Babylonian exile. But, that’s not what Jesus thought. He quoted Isaiah 6 in all four Gospels concerning the unbelief of the Jews.
Matthew 13:10-16
Then the disciples came up and asked Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"
He answered them, "Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. For whoever has, [more] will be given to him, and he will have more than enough. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. For this reason I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand. Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You will listen and listen,
yet never understand;
and you will look and look,
yet never perceive.
For this people's heart has grown callous;
their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn back—
and I would cure them.
"But your eyes are blessed because they do see, and your ears because they do hear! For I assure you: Many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see yet didn't see them; to hear the things you hear yet didn't hear them.
Mark 4:10-12
When He was alone with the Twelve, those who were around Him asked Him about the parables. He answered them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been granted to you, but to those outside, everything comes in parables so that
they may look and look,
yet not perceive;
they may listen and listen,
yet not understand;
otherwise, they might turn back—
and be forgiven. "
Luke 8:9-10
So He said, "The secrets of the kingdom of God have been given for you to know, but to the rest it is in parables, so that
Looking they may not see,
and hearing they may not understand.
John 12:37-50
Even though He had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in Him. But this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, who said:
Lord, who has believed our message?
And who has the arm of the Lord been revealed to?
This is why they were unable to believe, because Isaiah also said:
He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so that they would not see with their eyes
or understand with their hearts,
and be converted,
and I would heal them.
Isaiah said these things because he saw His glory and spoke about Him.
Nevertheless, many did believe in Him even among the rulers, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, so they would not be banned from the synagogue. For they loved praise from men more than praise from God.
Then Jesus cried out, "The one who believes in Me believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me. And the one who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me would not remain in darkness. If anyone hears My words and doesn't keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects Me and doesn't accept My sayings has this as his judge: the word I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on My own, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a command as to what I should say and what I should speak. I know that His command is eternal life. So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me."
The Apostle Paul
also quoted Isaiah 6 in reference to the unbelief of the Jews in Rome and as the reason for his mission to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. The account at the end of acts, I believe, provides the context for Paul’s Letter to the Romans, particularly chapters 9-11.Acts 28:17-29
After three days he called together the leaders of the Jews. And when they had gathered he said to them: "Brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our forefathers, I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans who, after examining me, wanted to release me, since I had not committed a capital offense. Because the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar; it was not as though I had any accusation against my nation. So, for this reason I've asked to see you and speak to you. In fact, it is for the hope of Israel that I'm wearing this chain."
And they said to him, "We haven't received any letters about you from Judea; none of the brothers has come and reported or spoken anything evil about you. But we consider it suitable to hear from you what you think. For concerning this sect, we are aware that it is spoken against everywhere."
After arranging a day with him, many came to him at his lodging. From dawn to dusk he expounded and witnessed about the kingdom of God. He persuaded them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets. Some were persuaded by what he said, but others did not believe.
Disagreeing among themselves, they began to leave after Paul made one statement: "The Holy Spirit correctly spoke through the prophet Isaiah to your forefathers when He said,
Go to this people and say:
'You will listen and listen, yet never understand;
and you will look and look, yet never perceive.
For this people's heart has grown callous, their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears, understand with their heart,
and be converted—and I would heal them.’
Therefore, let it be known to you that this saving work of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen!" [After he said these things, the Jews departed, while engaging in a prolonged debate among themselves.]
We can see from all these passages that both Jesus and Paul clearly understood that the vast majority of Jews would not hear the good news of the Kingdom because they had been judged and hardened almost 750 years earlier and would remain dull-minded, blind, and deaf until the sentence was finally carried out in 70 AD (when the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem, destroying Jerusalem and the Temple and slaughtering all of the inhabitants as described at the end of Isaiah 6).
This sheds new light on all of Jesus’ words and deeds. It could be why, for instance, Jesus often prefaced or followed a parable with “Let those with ears to hear listen.” It may be why He said His sheep know his voice. Or why He called the Pharisees blind guides.
All of Jesus’ parables were about the judgment of Israel and the Kingdom of God whose citizens they had excluded (sinners and gentiles).
The events prophesied by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse described the sentence carried out by Israel in 70 AD. We can see, in light of this, that the ones described as blessed in the Beatitudes were the remnant to be saved. If you re-read the Gospels in light of this premise, you will find that it all takes shape and makes sense as never before.
I’ve studied this pretty thoroughly now and find myself wondering if this is a new revelation (to anyone other than me). The way in which Isaiah 6 shows up in all of the Gospels and the Book of Acts in the same context makes it appear to be a sound biblical teaching. And yet, I have never heard anyone teach this. I have never read a book that even mentions this and I can’t find any reference to this teaching on the internet.
When applied to Jesus’ teachings everything changes. For instance, when applied to the following parable, it becomes clear that the rich man represents hardened Israel (the religious elite who condemned sinners and gentiles). Lazarus is the remnant that Jesus would save from the very ones that were excluded by the religious establishment.
Luke 16:19-31
"There was a rich man who would dress in purple and fine linen, feasting lavishly every day. But a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, was left at his gate. He longed to be filled with what fell from the rich man's table, but instead the dogs would come and lick his sores. One day the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off, with Lazarus at his side. 'Father Abraham!' he called out, 'Have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this flame!'
"'Son,' Abraham said, 'remember that during your life you received your good things, just as Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here, while you are in agony. Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that those who want to pass over from here to you cannot; neither can those from there cross over to us.'
"'Father,' he said, 'then I beg you to send him to my father's house— because I have five brothers—to warn them, so they won't also come to this place of torment.'
"But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.'
"'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
"But he told him, 'If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.'"
Try this with any of Jesus’ parables
. Also most of what we have taken as Jesus’ teachings on the afterlife and “end times,” in this context, were really about judgement and the coming destruction of Israel (70 AD). Jesus was prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in that generation and declaring the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven
that would be comprised of the remnant that He would save from Israel and the Gentiles that would believe. 
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