“And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear.” — Isaiah 11:3 (NASB95)

Yet another Messianic prophecy. The book of Isaiah has many of them. Some, like Isaiah 53, would lead you to think that he was an eyewitness to the crucifixion. The detail of his prophecies is very specific. This prophecy actually goes from chapter 11 verse 1 to chapter 11 verse 5. The verse above falls in the middle of the prophecy and caused me to pause and think for a minute.

If the Messiah is not going to judge by what He sees and hears, what will be the basis of His judgments? Our judgments and decisions are solely based on what we see and hear. In a court case, a witness is restricted from repeating what he himself has seen and heard. As soon as a witness begins to draw conclusions you will hear “objection” from one of the attorneys. The reason for this is that we can only see the outside of an individual. We can only see their actions and hear their words.

But not so with Jesus. Yes, He sees the outward actions and hears the words, but He also knows the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Jesus’ judgments are perfect because he can take us right back to the root. He knows what motivates us to do what we do and say what we say. He is not fooled by our outward presentation. He sees and knows our heart. OK! I know that you are all joining me at this moment saying, “Ugh! He can see through the outer image I portray to the world around me and can actually tell what I am really thinking and feeling.” Yes, that’s pretty painful to realize. We might be able to pull the wool over the eyes of the people around us, but not Jesus’ eyes. But don’t be too alarmed. His ability to see our brokenness is what makes Him such a great Savior. He loves us despite our flaws and sinfulness. He bore all that upon Himself on the cross so that we might be made right with God.

The miracle of redemption is that God looks at you and me today as perfect and sinless. He sees us clothed with the blood of the Lamb, which washes all our sins away.

Peace!

Pastor Tom

www.firmlyrooted.church