Daily Devotions
It Is Written
"The spirit of deep sleep..."
Text: Isaiah 29:10
SPIRITUAL DEEP SLEEP
Isaiah was a contemporary of the prophet Hosea. This was his message from the Lord to the nation that had rejected the Word of God.
“For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep,
And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers.The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book
that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying,
‘Read this, please.’ And he says, ‘I cannot, for it is sealed.’Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying,
‘Read this, please.’ And he says, ‘I am not literate.'”
Isaiah 29:10-12
1. Punitive action from the Lord
a) The prophets who had gone astray could no longer function as God’s servants.
b) The seers, the supposed wise men of the nation, did not fare any better.
c) The “spirit of deep sleep” had been poured on the nation and few were spiritually alive.
2. The literate
a) The vision of the Lord written in a book was given to the literate to read and interpret.
b) But the book was “sealed” and thus they could not read unless the seal was removed.
c) If God did not remove the seal no one could read what that vision from God meant.
3. The illiterate
a) Illiteracy is always a bane to any nation.
b) Many great books may have been written but they are useless to the illiterate.
c) They cannot read what had been written.
4. The spiritual illiterate
a) If this illustration is applied in a spiritual sense, then we are looking at a terrible scenario.
b) One may be literate but that does not mean he will be able to comprehend the Scriptures.
c) The Spirit of God is needed to help us understand spiritual truths.
d) Unless God’s Spirit reveals His word to us we will never be able to comprehend great Biblical truths.
“The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.”
1 Corinthians 2:14