²² Like Isaiah, Jesus faithfully carried out his assigned work and met with the same reaction. The Jews in Jesus’ day were no more willing to accept the message than were those to whom the prophet Isaiah preached. (Isaiah 1:4) The use of illustrations was a feature of Jesus’ ministry. This prompted his disciples to ask: “Why is it you speak to them by the use of illustrations?” Jesus replied: “To you it is granted to understand the sacred secrets of the kingdom of the heavens, but to those people it is not granted. This is why I speak to them by the use of illustrations, because, looking, they look in vain, and hearing, they hear in vain, neither do they get the sense of it; and toward them the prophecy of Isaiah is having fulfillment, which says, ‘By hearing, you will hear but by no means get the sense of it; and, looking, you will look but by no means see. For the heart of this people has grown unreceptive, and with their ears they have heard without response, and they have shut their eyes; that they might never see with their eyes and hear with their ears and get the sense of it with their hearts and turn back, and I heal them.’”​—Matthew 13:10, 11, 13-15; Mark 4:10-12; Luke 8:9, 10.

²³ In quoting from Isaiah, Jesus was showing that the prophecy had a fulfillment in his day. The people as a whole had a heart attitude like that of the Jews in Isaiah’s day. They made themselves blind and deaf to his message and likewise met with destruction. (Matthew 23:35-38; 24:1, 2)

24. What application did Paul make of Isaiah’s prophecy, and what does this indicate?

²⁴ About 60 C.E., the apostle Paul found himself under house arrest in Rome. There he arranged a meeting with “the principal men of the Jews” as well as others and gave them a “thorough witness concerning the kingdom of God.” When many would not accept his message, Paul explained that this was in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. (Acts 28:17-27; Isaiah 6:9, 10) So Jesus’ disciples carried out a commission comparable to that of Isaiah.

25. What have modern-day Witnesses of God discerned, and how do they respond?

²⁵ Similarly, Jehovah’s Witnesses today discern that Jehovah God is in his holy temple. (Malachi 3:1) Like Isaiah, they say: “Here I am! Send me.” Zealously, they sound the warning message about the approaching end of this wicked system of things. But, as Jesus indicated, relatively few people open their eyes and ears to see and hear and be saved. (Matthew 7:13, 14.) Happy, indeed, are those who incline their hearts to listen and “get healing for themselves”!​—Isaiah 6:8, 10.