Isaiah's Paradoxical Commission: The People's Self-Imposed Blindness

When Yahweh commissioned Isaiah to "make the heart of this people fat," He was not commanding the prophet to deliberately deepen Judah's moral corruption. Such an errand would contradict God's character—He cannot morally compel His messenger toward wickedness. Isaiah's true business was to teach truth, not error; to model obedience, not rebellion; to diminish moral insensibility, not amplify it.

The paradox resolves through understanding causation. The people would so persistently reject Isaiah's faithful proclamation that their own resistance would produce hardness of heart. His diligence in instruction and reform, meeting obstinate refusal, would render them progressively more stupid and wicked—not through his power, but through their choice. The effect became the inverse of the intention.

Matthew 13:14–15 and Acts 28:25–27 interpret this passage identically: the guilt belongs entirely to the people themselves. Their self-imposed blindness, their chosen deafness to Elohim's word through His prophet, constitutes the mechanism of their hardening. They curse themselves through persistent rejection of truth. Isaiah remains blameless; the blame transfers entirely to those who hear the word and deliberately refuse it. This illustrates how grace rejected becomes judgment accepted—not through divine caprice, but through human volition abandoning its only path toward restoration.