Isaiah 29: 13-16 Scripture Study
By Pastor Chris Simmons – Trinity Lutheran Church, Paso Robles CA
A reinforcement/supplement study to our Sunday service meant for “Building up the body of Christ… the manifold Wisdom of God made known” (Ephesians 4+3)
For Sunday, December 21, 2025
As we consider the hundreds of years of incredible music we have to draw from, not just as Lutheran Christians, but the entire Human Race, I recall this song from the classic from the 20th century composers and performers… The Backstreet Boys.
Looking back on the things I've done
I was trying to be someone
I played my part, kept you in the dark
Now let me show you the shape of my heart
Ah yes, with lyrics that could rival the great Rogers and Hammerstein, and melodies that parallel Mozart, The Backstreet Boys thematically capture our theme from Isaiah 29. After looking back on the things done in the dark… Whomever this person is in the song is about to display the shape and contents of their heart to the love they are proclaiming to… you don’t need to look up the rest of the song to understand. If something is being done in the dark, it’s usually because it’s not something good. We are warned by Jesus “the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.” We need our hearts to be full of light, not in the darkness.Our hearts need a shape of our hearts… and they are designed to reflect their creator God, not this sinful clay. The truth is this… our hearts reflect the shape of our homes… So what kind of housekeeping do you need done?
Prayers for a Blessed time of study in God’s Word,
~ Pastor Chris Simmons.
Discuss: Why do people say, “a person's house is a reflection of their state of mind'? What do you think that phrase means?
When studying Isaiah, the keys are (as I mention most every week) to remember.
1. The Fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722BC as they were destroyed by the Assyrians. These people are dispersed all over the known world after that moment.
2. Isaiah doesn’t necessarily go in a chronological order… it mostly does… but this chapter is an example where it’s jumping ahead. Isaiah is prophet to both Kingdoms of people, but the fall of the Northern Kingdom happens while he is prophet, so his focus shifts to Judah as he cites the defeated Israel often as a warning. Judah is on the same path of idolatry that will lead to the same result.
3. The Southern Kingdom Judah contains Jerusalem, which is home to the temple of God, and it’s conquered by the Babylonian Empire in 586BC leading to the Babylonian Exile. This occurs 138 years later, long after Isaiah was a prophet even though he refers to it often.
You all may be sick of hearing that by now… but I guarantee you know more about what’s going on in Isaiah than 90% of the people who read it when you keep all that in mind.
From the beginning of chapter 29, God (through Isaiah) is speaking to Jerusalem and all its people. Telling them they will have distress, mourning, and lamentation. Their enemies will be “like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff” (Isaiah 29:5). In other words… so numerous they won’t be able to count their enemies. You can actually plug this into the historical account of the Assyrians trying to “finish the job” so to speak and overtake Jerusalem in 701 BC…. and as Isaiah mentions in 29:5-6
5 ”And in an instant, suddenly,
you will be visited by the Lord of hosts
with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,
with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire
6 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel (Fancy word for Jerusalem “God’s Hearth”),
all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,
shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.” - Isaiah 29:5-6
… which means… *Poof*... there one moment and gone the next. And that’s what happens to the Assyrians in 701BC as an angel of the Lord comes down to save His people. (read more about it in 2 Kings 18-19, 2 Chronicles 32).
Now, the opening of 29 is the prophecy of that and other instances like that happening… but it hasn’t happened yet! I tell you all this because of what follows… even though God has done all this for them… His people are blind to see that it was God that saved them.
9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk, but not with wine;
stagger, but not with strong drink!
10 For the Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes (the prophets),
and covered your heads (the seers).
Jerusalem faces destruction because her inhabitants sought shelter in lies and falsehood instead of the Word of the Lord. Their sins have not only offended God, but they do not seek repentance for them… therefore, He pours out a “spirit of deep sleep” upon them… closing their “eyes” spiritually. He will no longer allow Judah to see or understand what He is doing…
Discuss: Tell the group about a time God “turned things around on you in an instant?” (v.5) What were the circumstances you were facing? Did you see it as an act of God at the time, or notice it later?
Now with some context, here’s what our text says for this week.
Isaiah 29:13-16 (ESV)
13 And the Lord said:
“Because this people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
Jesus will quote this verse 13 directly in our Gospel reading as He addresses the Pharisee. In both instances, it means the same thing. People in Isaiah's day imagined that they were worshipping God, even though they were, in fact, teaching human commandments… Although that sounds “accidental” it is a hypocrisy of self-deception in efforts to serve themselves and say they were serving God. In Isaiah, the people were seeking shelter in falsehoods of idolatry… In Matthew 15 it really is the same, except this time idolatry is disguised as “tradition”
Matthew 15
1 “Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’”
Jesus calls the Pharisee hypocrites as they value their Traditions… Rules of conduct derived from an interpretation of OT Law. The Pharisees considered this tradition as having nearly equal authority to Scripture. These traditions were passed down orally in Jesus’s time, but later written down in the Mishnah, where an entire chapter deals with hand washing. Instead of “honoring one’s Father and Mother” in the fourth Commandment by caring for aging parents, Pharisee were teaching people to declare their money finances as “Corbin” a term of the law meaning “dedicated to God or the Temple”. With this, people didn’t have to use their money to care for their aging parents and could do whatever they really wanted until their death, and their inheritance (if there were any left) could be given to the temple or synagogue.
Discuss: What “traditions” or “practices” have you seen valued above God’s Word in your Christian life? For you personally? At a church you’ve attended before?
Continued Discussion: How can traditions make it feel more like home? When can they make it feel less like home? Why?
Using the oral law to their own advantage and claiming it to be “God’s Word” yet placing it above Scripture… Jesus calls them hypocrites. It wasn’t the dirty hands that made someone defiled and unfit to serve God… it was their filthy hearts of sin.
10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”...
17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
When something was “defiled” it meant it was "common" or “no longer Holy”... this meant it was no longer suitable for God’s holy purposes, and therefore unclean or defiled. When Jesus uses the word heart here, it’s more than the organ that pumps blood through your body… it’s the spiritual inner being of a person. It’s what would often refer to as “the soul”.
Discuss: If what comes from out of someone’s heart defiles them, what does that say about the state of that heart? Is that something clean?
Continued discussion: How does the state of someone’s heart relate to our opening discussion question “Why do people say “a person's house is a reflection of their state of mind'” How does the Heart relate to the Home?
Even if we are trying to deceive ourselves and others with seemingly Godly intentions… The state of our heart cannot be hidden from God.
Isaiah 29:15-16
15 Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel,
whose deeds are in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
16 You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
The clay doesn’t tell the potter how things should be… it is formed and shaped by the potter… there is no way the clay could understand the hands and ability of the potter. That’s why our understanding, our “forcing” of God, the state of our hearts need to be changed.. They need to be cleansed. The clay should reflect the hands of its creator, not the dirt it was made from.
Isaiah 29:14
therefore, behold, I will again
do wonderful things with this people,
with wonder upon wonder;
and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
When we seek to justify ourselves, we are usurping God’s place. The clay cannot be the potter… when we do, it’s only dirt that comes out of us. At our birth, we were already born sinful, born in sin… Through Holy Baptism and the Word, the Spirit renews our hearts and washes away all our sins… by the body and blood of Christ in communion, our sins are forgiven and we are made white as snow… we are shaped by His sacrifice, by the wondrous things He has done for us.
Although our hearts will never be completely free from sinful desire in this life… God’s Spirit continues to lead us on the path of holiness.
We come back to this theme of Home. As you know, home is more than a house… From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks…. How clean is your home?
Is it full of negative statements about yourself?
False Humility?
Hypocritical statements, seeking to impress others?
Doing the opposite of what you’re saying you’ll do?
A place of gossip, lies, anger?
God has delivered to you wonder upon wonder in His Son… to forgive you of all Your sins, cleans you from all unrighteousness… and give to you a new heart. That heart is our Home with Him.
Psalm 51:10: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me".
Let that wonder be what cleanses your Home, so it may reflect the goodness of your God… and when it gets messy again, as all things do. God’s forgiveness is continually for you.
Prayer
How “clean” is your heart? What do you see displayed in what you say and do? Ask God for freedom and a clean heart.
How does your Home look? If your house is a reflection of the state of your heart/mind… What does it say to you?
Where do you look for wonder in your life? What wondrous things has God done for you that you can recall now?
Lord God, our hearts can be full of mucky self-indulgent and self-justifying sin at times. When it calls to us, it seeks to turn our heart away from one another and from you. Forgive us Lord. By the sacrifice of your Son you’ve granted us forgiveness and a Home with you. Let our hearts be a reflection of that home for the sake of others. We pray this all in your name Jesus. Amen.