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THE BOOK OF ACTS – BLINDED AND BLIND

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BLINDED AND BLIND!

“As I arrived on the outskirts of Damascus about noon, a blinding light blazed out of the skies and I fell to the ground, dazed. I heard a voice, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?’

“Who are you, Master?’ I asked.

“He said, ‘I am Jesus, the Nazarene, the One you’re hunting down.’ My companions saw the light but they didn’t hear the conversation.

‘Then I said, ‘What do I do now, Master?’

“He said, ‘Get to your feet and enter Damascus. There you’ll be told everything that’s been set out for you to do.’ And so we entered Damascus, but nothing like the entrance we had planned — I was blind as a bat and my companions had to lead me by the hand.” Acts 22:6-11 (The Message).

Blinded and blind! Paul’s vivid encounter with the alive and living Jesus outside Damascus was forever engraved in his memory and coloured his understanding of the ways of the God. Was he writing about himself when he penned the words, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”? 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV).

En route to Damascus, it was a spiritually blind Saul who was bent on wiping out the people who were following Jesus in a new way of living. Then a blinding light shone in his eyes, blinding him so that he had to be led by the hand into the city. Blind on the outside, it was the first time he had really “seen” the light. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6 (NIV).

Jesus claimed the title, “Light of the World”. On the first day of creation, God declared, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. What was this light, since the heavenly bodies were only created on the fourth day? John gives us the answer. “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it…The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” John 1:3-5; 9 (NIV).

Before He made the physical lights, God assigned the earth to Jesus to be the light of understanding and truth in a world controlled by the prince of darkness. His presence dominates the Old Testament but His people were blind to Him. He tried to alert the religious leaders of His day to this truth in His encounters with them but they persistently rejected His claims because they were too blind to recognise Him.

“‘Your father, Abraham, rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.’

“‘You are not yet fifty years old,’ the Jews said to Him, ‘and you have seen Abraham!’

“‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!” John 8:57-58 (NIV).

That sent His opponents over the edge! They refused to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

This kind of blindness is a choice. “‘This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly, that what he had done has been done through God.'” John 3:19-21 (NIV).

“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 (NIV).

Whose Fault Is it?

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WHOSE FAULT IS IT?

“Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in Him.

This was to fulfil 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 hardened their hearts, so that 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 12:37-41 NIV.

This is John’s commentary on the ways of God.

Perhaps, after years of reflection on the life of the Master whom he had followed for three and a half years, heard, watched and puzzled over during the years of His public ministry, grieved over when He died and rejoiced over when He rose again, John began to understand the truths of the sacred Book he had come to love. The pieces of the puzzle were fitting together as he studied and meditated on the Scriptures and, with the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, understanding began to grow.

Why were the Jews so stubborn in their unbelief? The many miracles that Jesus had done, which John called “signs”, had failed to convince them that He was their Messiah. No matter what He said or did, they remained unmoved. Like their ancestors, they resisted God’s love, rebelled against His covenant and rejected Him as their God, preferring their own ways in spite of the disasters it had brought on them, to the ways of God which would have brought them peace.

John realized that the prophet Isaiah had spoken of this phenomenon which was evident in the history of his people from the time that they were delivered from slavery in Egypt right up to his day. It was not God who had forced them to choose the way of disobedience. It was their choice, time after time, which led them down the path of war, destruction and exile.

How significant that John identified the Lord, whom Isaiah had seen in a vision while he was in the temple grieving the death of the king Uzziah, as Jesus, the second person of the Trinity! Throughout the Old Testament, it was the pre-incarnate Jesus, sometimes identified as “the angel of the Lord” and sometimes as God Himself, who had direct dealings with His people. Even the patriarch Abraham had glimpsed the Messiah by faith and rejoiced; and Moses had met Him at the burning bush and was introduced to Him as the “I AM”.

“Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” “You are not fifty years old,” they said to Him, “and you have seen Abraham!” “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I AM!” John 8:57, 58 NIV.

The same Jesus whom their forebears had rejected then was the one they rejected now even though He had come in person to reveal the true nature of the Father. Like Pharaoh who had been given every opportunity to acknowledge the Hebrews’ God and submit to Him but persisted in disobeying until God hardened his heart, these people were in the same boat. Their hardness of heart was the consequence of their own choice. God was simply confirming in their hearts what they wanted.

This is a sobering fact. God gave and honours every person’s right to choose. Even if we choose to believe lies and follow the way of death, He will continue to confront us with the truth but He will not force us to choose against our will. We choose our own path and our own destiny even if it is to walk away from God and be separated from Him forever.

It  grieves His heart to see people going to their own doom because He has created us for better things but He will not violate the most priceless but risky gift He gave to mankind. It is up to us to heed His word, believe the truth and submit to His love — but if we don’t, He will confirm our choice so that it will be impossible in the end to change our minds.

And we will have no one to blame but ourselves.