Matthew 13:14

“And to them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, “By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand, and seeing you will see, and will in no wise perceive.”

Once again Matthew goes by name to Isaiah, although this time he does it in words of Jesus, and it may well be that it was from this saying of Jesus that he himself obtained the idea for his ‘that it might be fulfilled' sayings. Others, however, see this saying as added by Matthew as a fulfilment saying, backing up the words of Jesus. For Matthew undoubtedly sees this period in the life of Jesus as very much a fulfilling of Isaiah's prophecies (Matthew 3:3; Matthew 4:15; Matthew 8:17; Matthew 12:17; Matthew 20:28).

The words here are taken from Isaiah 6:9. Significantly the context of it was the appearance of the glory of YHWH in the Temple on His throne (Isaiah 6:1), and it went on to describe the need for Isaiah to proclaim his message, accompanied by the guarantee that Israel would fail to respond to that message, leading up to further judgments which would finally result in the establishment of a faithful remnant (Matthew 6:13). Thus the Kingly Rule of Heaven was there manifested in Isaiah and was rejected, but with the future hope of a ‘holy seed'. And now that the One has come Who will also reveal the glory of YHWH in even fuller measure (especially in Matthew 17:1; but see John 1:12), and will receive His throne (Matthew 28:18), and who is also seeking to establish the pure remnant (Matthew 12:46; Matthew 16:18), Jesus recognises that the same principles apply, for men are no different from what they were.

And those principles are that the majority who hear the word of God may hear it, but they do not understand it, and while they may in one sense ‘see' it, they are not really able to perceive what it means, and this is because of the state of their hearts. People had not changed since Isaiah's day.