They Never Learn

Isaiah contrasts the city of God (the strong city with salvation as its walls) with the lofty city of man. Clothed in righteousness, God's people enter the gates of his strong city to enjoy the perfect peace with which he keeps those who trust in him. He levels their path, and their hearts are filled with desire and longing for him. And so Isaiah describes the Kingdom of Christ which walks by faith.

But he contrasts this beautiful view of God's city with the proud city which shall be brought low and cast down to the dust. The end of the unbelieving world is decreed: destruction awaits it.

How different are the two cities! And we can see that difference in our society today. Whereas the hearts of God's people are (should be) filled with passion for him, the wicked never learn righteousness (verse 10). Paul writes of those who are ever learning but never able to acknowledge the truth (2 Timothy 3:7). He told the Corinthians that the man without the Spirit does not accept the things of God which he sees as foolish, and that he cannot understand them (1 Corinthians 2:14). Isaiah here delivers a similar indictment of unregenerate mankind, a further testimony to the complete moral inability of man, unaided by the Spirit, to believe in God. He writes that "though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness". We would understand grace here not to refer to saving grace, which would result in their regeneration and thus their understanding, but in common grace. Remember that God makes his rain fall on the just and unjust. Everyone draws breath from God by grace. All men live and move and have their being in him. Some of these people even hear the gospel, but it does not profit them as it is not mixed with the gracious gift of faith. And God is able to bring to faith even "people of the world" (Gentiles, verse 9b) who will learn righteousness: Gentiles who were not seeking it, as Paul says! Isaiah even takes us to the root cause of the rejection of truth by the wicked. "Even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the Lord" (verse 10b). Even though God shows them grace, even though he places them in a good environment, a land of uprightness, still they do not learn, still they go on doing evil, and still they do not regard the majesty of the Lord. The root problem is that they do not want to give glory to God, for it would take away from their own glory. Like the people in Psalm 2 who would not have God controlling them, who take their stand against the Lord and his Christ and rage against God, and like the people in Jesus' parable who did not want their king reigning over them, sinful man has an innate hatred for God. He loves himself, and he seeks his own honor and glory. Sharing that glory with God, much less abandoning all of it to him, is beyond his ability to conceive. Isaiah describes it pathetically in verse 11: "O Lord, your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it." That is, until God invades and changes hearts!