For the heart of this people is waxed gross
Or fat; stupefied with notions of carnal and temporal things, and
become hardened against, and unsusceptible of, divine and
spiritual things:
and their ears are dull of hearing;
the Gospel, and its joyful sound; to which they stop their cars,
as the deaf adder to the voice of the charmer:
and their eyes have they closed;
and wilfully shut, against all evidence from facts, miracles,
prophecies, and preaching:
lest they should see with [their] eyes, and hear with
[their] ears,
and understand with [their] heart, and should be
converted;
that is, see the evidence of miracles, take in the truth of
doctrine, understand the meaning of prophecy, and so be turned
from darkness, ignorance, and unbelief, to light, knowledge, and
faith:
and I should heal them;
or "have mercy on them", as the Ethiopic version renders it; that
is, forgive their sins: hearing the Gospel preached, is the
ordinary means of understanding spiritual things; and the
understanding being enlightened through the ministry of the word,
by the Spirit of God, whereby the sinner sees his lost state by
nature, his impurity and impotency, the danger he is in, and the
destruction that is imminent on him, and he is liable to, and
also his need of Christ, and salvation by him; this issues in
conversion, in the turning of a man from the evil of his ways, to
believe in Christ, walk on in him, and worthy of him; when he is
healed of the diseases of his soul, which are many, are natural,
and hereditary, mortal and incurable, but by Christ the great
physician; by whose stripes, wounds, and blood, there is healing,
that is, pardon; for healing diseases, and pardoning iniquities,
are one and the same; see ( Psalms 103:3
) ; and at conversion, when a soul is enlightened, and made
sensible of the evil of sin, and that there is no cure of this
disease, by anything that he or any creature can do, or prescribe
for him, but only by the blood of Christ; a discovery of
pardoning grace is made unto him; and he is made whole, and cured
of every disease that attended him; from whence spring joy,
peace, and comfort to him:, but when through hearing the word,
the understanding is not enlightened, and conversion does not
follow upon it, there is no healing of the disease of sin, no
pardon applied; and consequently such must be in a most
deplorable and miserable condition, as all ignorant hearers and
despisers of the(See Gill on :)(See Gill on :)
