‘A Servant Who Is Deaf and Blind’

26, 27. How does Israel prove to be ‘a servant deaf and blind,’ and with what consequences?

²⁶ God’s Chosen Servant, Jesus Christ, remained faithful to death. Jehovah’s people Israel, though, prove to be an unfaithful servant, deaf and blind in a spiritual sense. Addressing them, Jehovah says: “Hear, you deaf ones; and look forth to see, you blind ones. Who is blind, if not my servant, and who is deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as the one rewarded, or blind as the servant of Jehovah? It was a case of seeing many things, but you did not keep watching. It was a case of opening the ears, but you did not keep listening. Jehovah himself for the sake of his righteousness has taken a delight in that he should magnify the law and make it majestic.”​—Isaiah 42:18-21.

²⁷ What a lamentable failure Israel is! Her people repeatedly fall away to worshiping the demon gods of the nations. Again and again, Jehovah keeps sending his messengers, but his people pay no heed. (2 Chronicles 36:14-16) Isaiah foretells the consequences: “It is a people plundered and pillaged, all of them being trapped in the holes, and in the houses of detention they have been kept hidden. They have come to be for plunder without a deliverer, for pillage without anyone to say: ‘Bring back!’ Who among you people will give ear to this? Who will pay attention and listen for later times? Who has given Jacob for mere pillage, and Israel to the plunderers? Is it not Jehovah, the One against whom we have sinned, and in whose ways they did not want to walk and to whose law they did not listen? So He kept pouring out upon him rage, his anger, and the strength of war. And it kept consuming him all around, but he took no note; and it kept blazing up against him, but he would lay nothing to heart.”​—Isaiah 42:22-25.

28. (a) What can we learn from the example of the inhabitants of Judah? (b) How may we seek Jehovah’s approval?

²⁸ Because of the unfaithfulness of her inhabitants, Jehovah allows the land of Judah to be plundered and pillaged in 607 B.C.E. The Babylonians burn Jehovah’s temple, desolate Jerusalem, and take the Jews captive. (2 Chronicles 36:17-21) May we take to heart this warning example and never turn a deaf ear to Jehovah’s instructions or a blind eye to his written Word.

2. (a) What is the spiritual condition of Israel in Isaiah’s time? (b) How does Jehovah open the eyes of his people?

² Sadly, by Isaiah’s time Israel is in such a deplorable state that Jehovah considers the people spiritually disabled. “Bring forth a people blind though eyes themselves exist, and the ones deaf though they have ears.” (Isaiah 43:8) How can people who are spiritually blind and deaf serve Jehovah as his living witnesses? There is only one way. Their eyes and ears must be miraculously opened. And open them, Jehovah does! How? First, Jehovah administers severe discipline​—the inhabitants of the northern kingdom of Israel go into exile in 740 B.C.E., and those of Judah, in 607 B.C.E. Then, Jehovah acts with power in behalf of his people by liberating them and bringing a spiritually revitalized, repentant remnant back to their homeland in 537 B.C.E.