A mission of hardening.
Dean Plumptre says, "No harder task, it may be, was ever given to man. Ardent dreams of reformation and revival, the nation renewing its strength like the eagle, were scattered to the winds; and he had to face the prospect of a fruitless labor, of feeling that he did but increase the evil against which he strove. It was the very opposite mission of that to which St. Paul was sent, to open men's eyes, and turn them from darkness to light'" (Acts 26:18). Mr. Hutton, in one of his essays, says, "When civilization becomes corrupt, and men are living below their faith, I think it may often be in mercy that God strikes the nations with blindness—that the only remedy lies in thus taking away an influence which they resist, and leaving them the stern lesson of self-dependence." This gives the key to the view we propose to take of Isaiah's mission. From one point of view a mission of hardening is a mission of judgment; but, from another point of view, it is a mission of mercy. From both points of view it is always a most trying mission for him to whom it is entrusted.
I. A MISSION OF HARDENING IS A MISSION OF JUDGMENT. Compare Moses' mission to Pharaoh. It was a fact that Pharaoh's heart was hardened. On natural mental laws we can explain the process of hardening. Yet we are hidden see deeper, and recognize that, in judgment on his willfulness, "God hardened his heart." If a man resists a gracious influence once, he finds it easier to resist a second time, and gradually the influence has no persuasive effect on him; he is "hardened." Illustrate by the Pharisees, who at first inquired concerning Christ. They resisted the witness of his words and works, until at last a blindness and hardness came upon them as a judgment. The Jews are under Divine judgment now; it is a blinding, veiling, hardening, which makes it impossible for them, as a whole nation, to see the Son of God and Savior of the world from sin in Jesus of Nazareth. The man who won't see shall come into this judgment—he shall not be able to see. All missions, even Christ's, have a side of hardening. Some missions are almost wholly the execution of this Divine judgment. Blindness is God's punishment for refusing to see, and spiritual blindness comes through the very preaching of the truth that saves to unwilling hearts; and such preaching-work, that seems worse than fruitless, may be the mission given by God to some men. To us they may be ministers of judgment, even in their preaching of the gospel. J.A. Alexander says, "The thing predicted is judicial blindness, as the natural result and righteous retribution of the national depravity. This end would be promoted by the very preaching of the truth, and therefore a command to preach was in effect a command to blind and harden them."
II. A MISSION OF HARDENING IS A MISSION OF MERCY. It may be
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