An elderly woman stood on a busy street corner, hesitant to cross because there was no traffic signal. As she waited, a gentleman came up beside her and asked, “May I cross over with you?” Relieved, she thanked him and took his arm. The path they took was anything but safe. The man seemed to be confused as they dodged traffic and walked in a zigzag pattern across the street. “You almost got us killed!” the woman exclaimed in anger when they finally reached the curb. “You walk like you’re blind!” “I am,” he replied. “That’s why I asked if I could cross with you.”
We’ve all heard the expression “You’re as blind as a bat!” This expression is used based on the idea that because bats fly erratically they are blind. In fact, they are not blind at all. However, this message is not about bats, it is about blindness.
You see, we live in a world where people’s eyes have been blinded. Like the man and woman crossing the street, they can’t see where they are going and are headed for certain destruction.
Not only are they blind, but they are deaf as well. It seems as if you can try to talk to someone about their spiritual condition until you are blue in the face but in many cases you may feel like you are talking to a brick wall. Why? Because they are too deaf to hear.
Most of you are probably familiar with the Helen Keller story. Helen was both blind and deaf. On top of that, she was a little brat. She would often smash dishes and lamps and terrorize the whole household with her screaming and temper tantrums. She would eat the food off of other people’s plates at the dinner table. Relatives regarded her as a monster and thought she should be put into an institution. But really, what could you do if you were the family? Yell at her?
Pure logic would seem obvious that it won’t do any good to yell at something that can’t hear. But how often don’t we try it? Did you ever try to yell at a weed-wacker when it won’t start? Or, how about when you try to talk to someone who doesn’t understand English – the tendency is to talk louder as if that will help them understand you.
I have a little problem that I have to deal with, my ears don’t clean themselves out as they should so I will get a back up of wax and I can’t hear well. I can remember many times as a boy my mother would get after me and tell me “You need to clean your ears out!” (I may have just been pretending I couldn’t hear…)
Imagine going to a doctor and telling him you are losing your eyesight to have him say, “Come on! Look! Don’t be blind!” It seems rather foolish to tell a blind person to see or a deaf person to hear. But the same thing happens today, as Isaiah calls out in verse 18, “Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.”
This morning I would like to talk to you for a little while about spiritual blindness. Notice…
I. The Reality of Spiritual Blindness.
Notice what verses 6-7 says, “I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; 7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”
It will not take you long to look out into the world around about us before you will realize that we are in fact living in a world where sin has blinded the eyes of those around about us. It is everyday that we read or hear of another murder, another rape, another horrendous crime.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal, they lay down for the night and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend. “Watson, look up and tell me what you see.” Watson replied, “I see millions and millions of stars.” “What does that tell you?” Watson pondered for a minute.
“Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that God is all-powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Why, what does it tell you?” Holmes said, “Watson you idiot, someone has stolen our tent.”
Some of you who are here this morning have allowed your eyes to be blinded to the reality of sin in your own life. Notice verse 20, “Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.”
So, are you aware of the spiritual blindness around us, what about yourself? Have you been blinded by sin?
Next I want you to notice…
II. The Reason for Spiritual Blindness.
We have already dealt with this a little bit, but the reason for spiritual blindness is of course sin. Sin darkens the eyes of those who are involved and they begin to no longer realize their awful condition.
2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
Blind and deaf. That’s the way God described the Israelites in today’s text. Just as there are different degrees of physical blindness and deafness, God says the same thing spiritually. Isaiah was in fact saying, “Nobody is as blind and deaf as the Israelites!” What made them so blind and deaf? You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing. It wasn’t the fact that they COULDN’T hear or see, but that they WOULDN’T see or hear.
My wife claims I have the same problem…
There was nothing wrong with the physical eyes and ears of the Israelites. Their bodies were working as God had created them to function. But the eyes and ears of their souls had ceased to see and hear. They had chosen to trust in idols instead of the LORD. Because they didn’t love God above all things they didn’t want to listen to him. What a shame it was that the very people of God who had been given so many spiritual advantages to see his wonders and hear his Word chose to close their eyes to his will and stop up their ears to his commands.
What caused this disastrous disease to infect God’s people? Can we blame it on what they saw around them? All the other nations were worshipping gods made of gold and silver. Perhaps that contributed to their lack of sight and hearing in their relationship with the true God. We could also point to the enticing sins that the Israelites saw going on among their neighbors. And the spiritual leaders in Israel are also partially to blame for the blindness and deafness of God’s people. But ultimately the responsibility must fall fully on each and every one of the Israelites who let their eyes and ears stop functioning. They chose to put their trust in other gods and let their loyalty be distracted from the one true God. They had allowed their hearts and minds to wander from God’s Word. And finally like a sick patient in denial over a disease the people who heard Isaiah’s prophecy chose to deny the results of their seeing and hearing check. In their pride they refused to acknowledge what they had become. They refused to hear the truth about the condition of their relationship with God.
We have seen the reality and the reason for Israel’s spiritual blindness, notice next…
III. The Results of Spiritual Blindness.
On November 30, 1991 fierce winds from a freakish dust storm triggered a massive freeway pileup along Interstate 5 near Coalinga, California. At least 14 people died and dozens more were injured as topsoil whipped by 50 mile-per-hour winds reduced visibility to zero. The afternoon holocaust left a three-mile trail of twisted and burning vehicles, some stacked on top of one another 100 yards off the side of the freeway. Unable to see their way, dozens of motorists drove blindly ahead into disaster. (Today in the Word, August 16, 1992.)
Many people today are blindly headed for certain destruction. However, like a good doctor who sees a patient on a self-destructive course, the LORD wasn’t going to be put off easily. He was going to impress on his people how serious their condition was and that they needed the cure he offered. He spoke through Isaiah in verses 14-15 (different translation), “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.”
God’s patience with his people had come to an end. He was going to raise His voice so that they would listen. He was going to do some things that would get the attention of his people. Then maybe they would accept his cure for their eyes and ears.
We know the rest of the story. For centuries God’s people were content to remain in their blind and deaf condition. And even when God came to them with a literal voice in a fully human body they covered their eyes to what he did and plugged their ears to what he had to say. Jesus, the Great Physician of body and soul, pronounced this judgment on them as he quoted Isaiah, “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 "And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ’Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; 15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” (Matthew 13:13-15)
The end result of spiritual blindness is an eternity in hell.
However, I want you to know that there is a...
IV. Rescue from Blindness.
Read verses 1-3, 6-7, and 21.
There is One who does not want you to die in your blindness. He does not want you to die in your sins! He wants you to take part in the plan of salvation that He has provided. Verses 1-3, and verses 6-7 were all verses of prophecy looking forward to when God would send His Son Jesus Christ to deliver us from our sins. He has made a covenant and has become the light for the Gentiles (that’s us!). He doesn’t want you to sit in darkness, but He wants to deliver you out of the prison house! Have you been rescued?
Conclusion:
So are you ready for God to check our eyes and ears? Are you as blind as a bat and need your ears cleaned out? Do some of the same symptoms infect you as the ones that infected God’s people at Isaiah’s time? Are God’s words “going in one ear and out the other” like they did among God’s Old Testament people?
Do you look at your bank account instead of the LORD for our security? Do you bow down to metal idols with four wheels and a shiny coat of paint? Has a home in a subdivision a few steps up from the one in which you live become a temple where you want to worship? Are those the gods you are working for? We may not have pagan neighbors worshipping gods through sex with prostitutes like the Israelites encountered, but immorality and perversion are a way of life for many in our country. Are you worshipping with them and subtly accepting their ways through what you watch and read and by the thoughts that you have? Have you allowed anything into your life which God prohibits? If so it is sin.
Are you as blind as a bat and do your ears need cleaned out? The Israelites where blinded and deaf due to their sin. How about you?
