Like a Burning Tree

“…the expressions describing Israel as having ears but not hearing and possessing eyes but not seeing (Is 6:9-10) and like a burning tree (Is 6:13a) are best understood as metaphors of idolatry that are applied to the disobedient nation in order to emphasize that they would be punished for their idol worship by being judged in the same manner as their idols (i.e., by being destroyed). This pronouncement of judgment also includes the idea that the idolaters had begun to resemble their idols: they had become as spiritually blind and deaf as their idols.” Beale, We Become What We Worship, p. 63.