Tag: blind

Categories
1 Samuel Devotionals

Blind and deaf

Samuel and Eli

Sometimes, you can see some sharp irony in the Bible. I think this is one of those cases.

It says in 1 Samuel 3:1,

In those days the word of the Lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread.

This was in the time of the judges, when “everyone did whatever he wanted.” (Judges 21:25).

When you look at chapter 2, you see this extended even to the priests. Little wonder that God refused to speak.

In verse 2, you see the irony. Eli, the high priest, had failing eyesight. But he was not only losing his physical eyesight; he was losing his spiritual eyesight.

Why?

Because Eli failed to truly honor God in his life. Instead, he honored his sons above God.

His sons blatantly sinned both against God and the people, and Eli refused to remove them from the priesthood.

As a result, God was about to take the priesthood from them all. (1 Samuel 2:29-36; 3:11-14)

On the other hand, you had Samuel. Again you have some irony here: the priest who could not see gives insight to Samuel on how to see.

When Eli realized God was calling Samuel, he told him,

If he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ (1 Samuel 3:9)

You then have the picture of the Lord standing by Samuel’s side, calling him. At which point, Samuel did as Eli told him to. He said, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

How often does the Lord stand by our side calling us, but we can’t perceive him? We can’t perceive him because we cling to our sin, shutting our eyes and ears to him.

If we do this for too long, God will eventually stop talking to us.

Jesus said,

For this people’s heart has grown callous;
their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;

otherwise they might see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and
understand with their hearts,
and turn back—

and I would heal them. (Matthew 13:15)

When God calls you, who will you be? Eli, who clings to his sin, refuses to listen, and becomes blind and deaf?

Or Samuel, who when his Lord calls, says, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”?

Categories
John John 12

Before it’s too late

John

Sometime people put off following Christ thinking they can always do it later. But in this passage, we see the danger of that.

Jesus in thinking about the cross and his determination to follow the Father’s plan cried out,

Father, glorify your name! (John 12:28a)

In a voice that all could hear, the Father replied,

I have glorified it and will glorify it again. (John 12:28b)

Yet though all could hear the voice, it seemed that few if any actually heard it.

Some said it was thunder. Others said it was an angel. Why couldn’t they understand the Father’s words? John later comments,

This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:

“He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn–and I would heal them.”

Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him. (John 12:38-41)

I’ve explained this passage in another blog, and essentially what it comes down to is that the people couldn’t hear the voice because they had already hardened their hearts to Jesus.

Some hardened their hearts because his background as a carpenter from Nazareth was not what they expected from a Messiah.

Others rejected him because he exposed the hypocrisy of their religion.

Others rejected him because his teaching went against their religious rules and traditions.

And when Jesus performed miracles that proved who he was and the truth of his words, they tried to explain it away saying he did them by Satan’s power, or in this case, by trying to say it never really happened. That they were just imagining things.

The problem was, the more they hardened their hearts, closing their eyes and ears to the truth, the more blind and deaf they became.

And so Jesus tried to warn them, saying,

You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you.

The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light. (John 12:35-36)

In other words, “Your time is short. If you don’t soften your hearts, you will become blind forever. Put your trust in me and the light I bring while you still can.”

Jesus says the same thing to you. He was lifted up on a cross that all people might be drawn to him and be saved.

But if you harden your heart to him, if you close your eyes and ears to what you know is true, the time will come when you can no longer recognize the truth though it’s right in front of you. And then it will be too late.

As Paul wrote,

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Categories
Luke Luke 18 Mark Mark 10 Matthew Matthew 20

Failing to see what is clear

The gospels

As I look at this particular story, it is the last phrase in Luke’s account that strikes me.

The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about. (Luke 18:34)

“This” and “its” of course is referring to Jesus’ telling them that he would be betrayed and crucified, and then rise again from the dead.

Luke’s words strike me because Jesus spoke so plainly. I really don’t see how they could possibly misunderstand him. Yet, as clearly as Jesus spoke, they could not understand.

Why not?

Perhaps one reason was that they simply weren’t ready to understand. And that’s true with many of us as we look at scripture.

When we are young as Christians, some things are simply difficult to understand. But as we mature in our knowledge and our faith, we start to grasp the things God is telling us.

Perhaps there was some of this at work in the disciples, but I think there were other things as well.

For one thing, they didn’t want to understand. They didn’t want to believe that Jesus would die. And because they didn’t want to believe that he would die, any words concerning his death and resurrection went right past them.

For another, they were too focused on what they wanted, rather than what God’s will was. You only have to look at James’ and John’s request a few verses later to see that.

How often are we the same? We see something crystal clear in scripture, or God speaks to our heart so clearly that there should be no way that we can miss it, and yet we do.

Looking back, it should have been so clear to me that God was calling me to Japan. Time and again, people were telling me, “I can’t see you working at a regular desk job. I see you in ministry.”

Or sometimes they said outright, “I can see you being a missionary in Japan.”

But because I had no interest in ever leaving Hawaii, no less going to Japan, I couldn’t see it for a long time.

And whenever I read passages like, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” my thought was always, “Well, God isn’t calling ME to do that.”

It took several years, and a lot of work on God’s part to actually turn my heart, but when he did, I found the joy of following him and doing what he has said.

And so will you if you’ll soften your heart to him.

So the question is, “Where is your heart? Have you blinded yourself to what God is saying to you? Or have you opened your heart completely to what God is telling you?”

May our words to our Lord always be, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

Categories
John John 9

When you think you know it all

John

The irony in this passage is very thick.

The man who had been blind could see who Christ really was and worshiped him.

The people who could see all their lives, couldn’t recognize who Jesus was though he was standing right in front of their faces.

Worse, they couldn’t recognize him though they saw all his miracles and all the arguments they tried to bring against him fell to the ground, leaving them speechless.

Why couldn’t they see? Because they already thought they knew it all.

They “knew” what the Messiah was supposed to look like and be like. They “knew” the truth of the Old Testament, the books of the Law and the Prophets.

All their lives, they lived in pride of that knowledge they held. So when Jesus came and shattered all they had thought they knew, they found it hard to let go. They found it hard to admit they were wrong.

Jesus said,

For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind. (John 9:39)

What did he mean? He meant that he is the dividing point. The fork in the road. And those who humble themselves and accept him as Lord and Savior will see and be saved.

But those who refuse to let go of their pride and think they know it all will become blind to who he really is. Not because they can’t see, but because they close their eyes to the truth.

The Pharisees were this way. They asked Jesus,

What? Are we blind too? (John 9:40)

So many people today say the same. “I’m blind? You’ve gotta be joking. I’m an educated man. I’m an educated woman. I’ve experienced life. I know.”

But Jesus said,

If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. (John 9:41)

In short, “Yes, you are blind. And if you were humble enough to admit it and your need for help, your sin could be forgiven.

But because you are too proud to admit what you don’t know, because you’re too proud to hear the truth that I give, your sin remains.”

And he says the same to people today.

How about you? Do you think you know? Or are you willing to humble yourself, and accept the truth that Jesus gives?

Are you willing to accept that Jesus himself is Truth?

Categories
Isaiah

The spiritually blind and the deaf

Isaiah

So often when we think of spiritually blind and deaf people, we think of non-Christians. And that they certainly are. But here we see something shocking.

Isaiah says,

Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see! 

Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send?  Who is blind like the one committed to me, blind like the servant of the Lord? 

You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing.”  (Isaiah 42:18-20)

Who were the blind?  The people who were to be God’s servants.  The ones who were “committed to him.” 

Who were the deaf?  The people who were supposed to be God’s messengers. 

They saw what God had done, but somehow what they saw didn’t register in their brain.  They heard what God had said, but somehow it slipped in one ear and out the other.

What was the result?  The Israelites were,

plundered and looted, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons.

They have become plunder, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no one to say, “Send them back.”  (22)

And yet despite all the hardships God allowed as discipline for their sin, the Israelites still failed to repent. (24-25)

All in all, it was a sad situation. For the people God had called to be a light to the nations had joined in their darkness.

The Jews had become just as deaf and blind as the nations around them.

What do we get from this?

Even we, as God’s people can become spiritually blind and deaf.

How does that happen? We stop listening to God and his Word and start doing things our own way. We stop paying attention to what God’s doing around us and instead focus solely on our own agendas.

God has called us to be light to a dying world. But how can we be light when we are just as deaf and blind as the world is? Let us not be that way.

Let us keep our eyes and ears open to our heavenly Father, as Jesus did. Let us always look at what God is doing in us and around us and put our hands in his, joining him in his work.

In short, let us not join the blind and the deaf, but let us go out to them, bringing them out of darkness into God’s light. 

Categories
Isaiah

Blind and ignorant

Isaiah

Why doesn’t God just show himself?  If he truly exists, why doesn’t he just make it crystal clear so that I can know, not just guess or hope?

Sometimes people, both believers and unbelievers ask this question.  There are a number of answers I suppose we could give to this.

But there’s one question that the person who asks this should ask themselves:  If God did really reveal himself in that way, would you really follow him?  Or are you just making a convenient excuse for not doing so?

The truth is that God has revealed himself in more visible ways in the past, and for a number of people, it didn’t make the slightest difference in whether they followed him or not.

God, for instance, delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt using incredible signs and wonders.  Time and again, he miraculously provided for them in the desert. 

If that wasn’t enough, there was always a pillar of cloud and fire in the midst of their camp to remind the Israelites of God’s presence among them. 

Yet time and again, they failed to believe in him, and time and time again, they outright rebelled against him.

Then in the New Testament, God himself showed up among the Israelites.  The one they had been praying for appeared. 

He performed miracles among them, and spoke such words of wisdom that even the wisest and most knowledgeable among them were reduced to silence whenever they tried to argue with him. 

Did that make them want to follow him?  No.  Instead they crucified him.

That kind of attitude is also seen here in this passage where Isaiah condemns Ariel, which was another name for Jerusalem. 

“Ariel” literally means, “Lion of God,” although Isaiah seems to use this name sarcastically in the passage.

Because although they claimed to be the Lion of God, they were living their own way.  Isaiah put it this way,

The Lord says:  “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.”  (Isaiah 29:13)

And so God warned them of the judgment that was coming, first on Jerusalem, and then after Jerusalem had been humbled, upon their enemies.

But despite all of Isaiah’s warnings, Israel was blind to the danger that was there.  Why?  Isaiah said,

The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers).  (10)

“Wait a minute!” you might say. 

“That’s not fair.  God blinded them and then punished them for not seeing?  How is that fair?”

But the truth is that the Israelites did not want to see.  They did not want to know.  Isaiah said,

Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless (9)

In other words, God was saying, “Do you wish not to see?  Do you wish to close your eyes to the truth?  Fine.  You won’t see it.”

Isaiah goes further, saying that for these Israelites, his words would be like a sealed scroll.  And for some people, they wouldn’t read, making the excuse that it was sealed. 

Perhaps this has the idea that the meaning of the prophesy was too difficult for them. 

Others would say, “Sorry, I can’t read, so I can’t tell you what it says.”

But in each case, there is the underlying idea that they really didn’t want to understand.  If they had, they would sought for someone with understanding to explain the scroll. 

If they really wanted to understand, they would have sought to learn how to read it themselves. 

But instead, they said, “Sorry, I don’t understand.” 

Or  “Sorry I can’t read.”

And they simply walked away.

Many Israelites were like that in Jesus’ time.  Jesus told them a parable, and while they liked the stories, many didn’t understand it.  But instead of seeking understanding, they just walked away. 

Jesus’ disciples on the other hand, sought understanding, and so they asked questions.  When they did, Jesus answered them, and they gained the understanding they had lacked.

Many people today look at the Bible and say, “It’s too difficult.  I can’t understand it.”  But instead of seeking understanding and asking for help, they simply walk away. 

That’s blinding yourself.  That’s making yourself willfully ignorant.  And God says, “If that’s the way you want to be fine.  But judgment is still coming.  And you will be judged.”

How about you?  Do you blind yourself to God’s will?  Are you willfully ignorant of God’s word?  If so, God won’t force himself upon you.  He’ll let you stay blind and ignorant.

But if you’ll only look, and if you’ll truly seek, God will reveal himself to you as he will with the Jews someday.  Isaiah wrote,

In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.  (Isaiah 29:18)

And again,

Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.  (24)

Let us not be blind and ignorant.  Let us instead seek God that we may live.