Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Spiritual Blindness: Choosing a Curse
(From Forerunner Commentary)
|
Exodus 4:21
II Thessalonians 2:9-12 describes people who perish because they do not love the truth. God responds by sending strong delusion—sending more of what they already treasured!—for the purpose of condemnation. Some may consider God to be mean-spirited in doing this, but the people choose this blindness. God essentially gives them more of their hearts' desire. This pattern also gives us a glimpse into what God did with the Pharaoh of the Exodus, a challenging account because of its implications for humanity's free-moral agency. On one hand, Pharaoh hardened his heart (Exodus 7:13-14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 34-35), but on the other, God hardened the man's heart (Exodus 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27). In fact, God promised to harden Pharaoh's heart before he hardened his own (Exodus 4:21; 7:3). Hardening the heart is a type of spiritual blindness. This divine act may also seem unfair because it appears as if God took away Pharaoh's free-moral agency, so he had no choice but to follow the path to destruction. In this nation, we cherish our freedom to choose so intensely that the thought that God denied Pharaoh a choice makes some quite uneasy. However, Pharaoh did have the opportunity to choose. The story does not begin with God hardening his heart; it begins much earlier, when he chose to continue the oppression and affliction of Abraham's descendants, begun by his predecessor. He made that choice, free and clear—God did not intrude on his decision at all. He had multiple decades to decide how to treat the Israelites, and he freely chose to afflict them. However, Pharaoh did not get to choose the consequences. He failed to consider the desolation his choice would bring on his family and nation. God had promised to curse those who cursed Abraham, and his descendants are included (see Genesis 12:3; 15:13-14). When Pharaoh chose to continue to afflict Israel, God cursed him with a form of “madness and blindness and confusion of heart” (Deuteronomy 28:28-29)—with a heart that would continue to make bad choices, ending in his destruction. His desire to dominate and control God's people became a snare that he chose and which he could not later escape. Pharaoh's example teaches the gravity of choices, even ones that do not seem significant at the time. Not only is God justified in striking dead any sinner at any time, so He is also on record as promising and carrying out the curses of madness, blindness, and confusion of heart for any sin. When we are tempted to sin, we must must consider this very real consequence. Everybody starts with a measure of truth, even if it is “only” the truth that a Creator God exists. In the book of Amos, God holds even the Gentile nations accountable for things they do. He does not judge them on details found in Leviticus but on acts that anyone should recognize as wickedness. As Romans 1:18-28 shows, God's wrath unfurls when people reject the truth. That choice is a form of self-blinding, to which God, according to His judgment and purpose, may give them over or perhaps make worse by sending strong delusion or causing a famine of hearing (Amos 8:11).
David C. Grabbe
Spiritual Blindness (Part Three): Choosing a Curse
|
|
Deuteronomy 28:28-29
The history of Israel demonstrates God's faithfulness to this curse, for He provided records of national and individual madness, blindness, and confusion of heart. This curse is particularly devastating because it hobbles the ability even to understand the real problem so that finding a solution proves all but impossible. The problems in our nations continue to mount, yet the citizens and leaders cannot identify the actual cause. In the divided United States, the Republicans blame the Democrats for all the problems and vice versa. Partisan media casts aspersions on the President, who retaliates in kind. The populace demonstrates its blindness by focusing on this circus, as though they can find the solution in the right policies, people, and party. But until the nation recognizes that the true problem is that it has left God out of the picture, we will continue not to prosper. The few public figures who dare to suggest that sin lies at the root of our problems are scorned and vilified. The nation has degenerated even further from where it was in 2001, when leading evangelicals drew a line between the September 11 attacks and national immorality. They were shouted down so quickly and overwhelmingly that they regretted speaking the truth. Yet, with the nation blind to the reason for its predicaments, it certainly cannot turn things around. Proverbs 14:34 states simply, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Part of the reproach that accompanies sin is blindness. It is easy to recognize this principle on the national level, but we must also accept that this holds true for the individual—and even for the converted.
David C. Grabbe
Spiritual Blindness (Part Three): Choosing a Curse
|
|
Psalm 111:10
If we sow obedience, in time we reap understanding. But if we sow disobedience, we reap madness, blindness, and confusion of heart (see Deuteronomy 28:28-29). Psalm 19:8 shows this same relationship: “. . . the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.” When we uphold the commandments, our understanding becomes more precise. But the inverse is also true: When we break the commandments, our eyes become darkened, yet like the Pharisees, we may still proclaim, “We see” (John 9:41). This cause-and-effect relationship underscores the seriousness of sin. We know that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), but the above verses teach that sin also degrades a sinner's understanding. This principle illustrates the foolishness of thinking one can sin now and repent later, banking on God's forgiveness. Yes, God forgives sins that are not willful (see Hebrews 10:26-27), removing the death penalty, but He may not remove other effects of sin right away, if at all. Among these effects is sin's influence on the mind. Repentance does not restore everything to where it was before the sin. The natural law in these verses also illuminates why the Bible refers to sin as a snare: It is far easier to get into a snare than out. When we sin, we lose some measure of understanding, at least for a time. This blurred state of mind makes it easier to make another wrong decision. That next sin then further blinds or clouds our judgment, making it easier to stumble yet again—and on it goes because sin has a terrible power to draw one in deeper. Because of our relationship with God, we have tremendous help in overcoming, but sin still entangles and blinds even the converted because that is sin's nature. Sin causes blindness, and blindness causes sin.
David C. Grabbe
Spiritual Blindness (Part Three): Choosing a Curse
|
|
Matthew 6:21-24
This passage contains metaphorical usages of the heart, the eyes, and light and darkness, teaching us about spiritual blindness. Jesus' basic theme is our focus—the things we set our eyes or hearts on or the thoughts to which our minds continually return. We should understand the word “mammon” broadly and not limit it just to money. Because Jesus presents only two options here, we can define mammon as “anything other than God”! Mammon can be anything “under the sun” and thus include countless things that we cannot necessarily hold in our hands yet are still of the flesh. We may feel good about ourselves for being content with a middle-class lifestyle and not pursuing wealth. However, if our hearts pursue praise, popularity, position, power, or prestige, we are still serving mammon. These are still cares of the physical life rather than the conduct of the new life. Jesus teaches that our clarity of vision depends on our focus—on what gets our attention. Whether healthy or diseased, our spiritual eyesight is directly related to what we treasure and whom or what we serve. Having the wrong treasure or serving the wrong master equates to having a bad eye and walking in darkness. His illustrations mean that blinding ourselves can be as simple as letting God slip from our view or not retaining God in our knowledge, as Romans 1 mentions. We stumble and sin when we lose our focus on God and what matters to Him. Then, our understanding begins to regress, if only a little. We may start down that pervasive path of sinning, further damaging our understanding, and sinning again. Perhaps this scenario seems overblown or excessively dire. However, it seems so only because we think of it like a sped-up, time-lapse video of a seed that germinates, grows, blossoms, and fades in a matter of seconds. In real life, this process of darkening our own eyes may take substantially longer, during which time we face many opportunities to choose differently. Jesus' brother, the apostle James, also describes this process quite simply, beginning with an enticement or desire (James 1:13-15). The temptation is the equivalent of the earthly treasure, the mammon, taking one's eyes off God. He writes, when “desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (verse 15). This process sounds like it progresses rapidly, and in some relatively rare instances, like with Ananias and Sapphira, death can result in a matter of hours. In other cases, as with Judas, that wrong focus—a form of blindness—may persist for years before the internal suppression of truth breaks out in an act that God may allow to happen as a judgment. That does not mean we are lost, unlike Judas. It means we could have taken a better road and kept ourselves—and maybe others—from extra grief and regret.
David C. Grabbe
Spiritual Blindness (Part Three): Choosing a Curse
|
|
Romans 1:18-28
Verse 18 gives us the context, the proclivity of mankind to suppress the truth. Some translations say they suppress the truth “by” (rather than “in”) their unrighteousness, reinforcing the link between disobedience and blindness (Deuteronomy 28:28-29; Psalm 111:10). God has given all humanity a measure of understanding, at least about His existence, but most turn away in favor of something false that seems more reasonable to them. Even though Satan and his demons whisper their deceptions in the background, the people blind themselves through their choices. Satan forces no one; as with Eve, he adds fuel to an already-kindled fire of carnality and resistance to the truth. People choose to close their eyes, and as the apostle Paul writes in verse 24, God responds by giving them over to that choice. He does not approve of or accept what they do but allows it to play out. At some point, they will understand the futility of rejecting God's way. Paul states this principle again in verse 26: God gives them up to what is in their hearts, not realizing that they have cursed themselves by their choices. Ironically, they probably feel relief and liberation, having cut themselves off from bearing any accountability to uphold God's standards. What begins with suppressing the truth in verse 18 ends with a debased mind in verse 28. As part of His judgment, God gives people over to the dominion of their choices' consequences. These verses depict God essentially taking His hands away to allow people to mess up their lives still further. However, other scriptures show God actively amplifying sin's effects; sometimes, God makes the spiritual plight of those rebelling against Him even worse. In Amos 8:11, God calls for a famine of hearing His Word. It is a different metaphor but still analogous to blinding in that He diminishes the understanding of the people. The famine of hearing is a devastating curse because God takes away the very thing that could help the nation: The ability to hear His truth. His action may seem cruel, but the fault does not lie with Him but with the peoples' previous choices. We have a saying today, “Be careful what you wish for.” Israel yearned after her neighbors' paganism and so did not heed the revelation He had given to her, thus He began to take away her understanding.
David C. Grabbe
Spiritual Blindness (Part Three): Choosing a Curse
|
|
Revelation 3:17-18
Jesus points out their blindness, of which the members are blissfully unaware. Their mammon (see Matthew 6:21-24) fills their minds and keeps them so distracted and comfortable that they do not realize their actual condition or their vacuous relationship with Him. We can easily apply the ringing words of Elijah here, as though the Head of the church is asking His people, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if mammon, follow him. Be hot or be cold; you cannot serve both.” The blindness Christ speaks of is primarily our doing because He expects us to anoint our own eyes. He has not caused this blindness, though He may give us over to it in His chastening. Nor has Satan caused this blindness. We are responsible for this condition, and we must cooperate with God to turn it around. We must work to clean up our vision and return to God with a singleness of focus. But how? Getting out of this condition is a mighty challenge by itself, but perhaps a more significant challenge is first discerning whether we are blind and thus whether we need to take that well-worn letter to heart. God gives us help here as well. I John 2:11 says that he who hates his brother has been blinded. This verse proves the connection between commandment-breaking and blindness, including breaking the spirit of the law. In II Peter 1:5-9, the apostle provides a list of attributes, concluding that if we lack them, we are approaching blindness: But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. To reiterate, if we lack faith, there is blindness. If we lack virtue, meaning good character, blindness ensues. If we lack knowledge, self-control, or perseverance, blindness follows. If we lack godliness, brotherly kindness, or love, we are shortsighted, even to blindness. If we do not see God as clearly as we should, it will show up in these areas and others. Peter's list indicates we are suppressing truth somewhere or in some way resisting God's presence in all our thoughts. When Passover approaches, we examine ourselves, which is right and good. But those who are married know that if we were to take stock of our relationship with our spouses only once a year, our marriages would be a shambles. Similarly, the letter to Laodicea is about a massive relationship problem, to which the members are blind. But if we can glimpse in ourselves a lack of faith, self-control, kindness, love, or other godly traits, we can recognize that our relationship with God is not as strong as it could be. We can analyze these areas and search for what mammon—what fleshly thing—is interfering with seeing God more clearly. God wants to help us overcome this blindness because He wants to dine with us (Revelation 3:20)—He wants to have such a close relationship. But first, we must choose to seek Him and submit to the truth despite the cost, that our eyes may remain open throughout our long walk to His Kingdom.
David C. Grabbe
Spiritual Blindness (Part Three): Choosing a Curse
|
|
 |
The Berean: Daily Verse and Comment
Sign up for the Berean: Daily Verse and Comment, and have Biblical truth delivered to your inbox. This daily newsletter provides a starting point for personal study, and gives valuable insight into the verses that make up the Word of God. See what over 155,000 subscribers are already receiving each day.
Email Address:
|
We respect your privacy. Your email address will not be sold, distributed, rented, or in any way given out to a third party. We have nothing to sell. You may easily unsubscribe at any time. |
|
|
