SEEING BLINDLY AND HEARING DEAFLY
TEXT: ISAIAH 6:9-13
KEY VERSE: “And he said, Go, and tell this person, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not” (ISAIAH 6:9).
The late Martin Luther King Jr. observed that, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”. This thought comes to mind as we watch the mad throng of people striving to outpace one another in their open rebellion against God. Among them are very educated, highly placed people and even religious folks who one would have thought would perceive the absurdities in all these.
This situation is like the experience of the Jews in Prophet Isaiah’s day. They were in a state of backsliding, having shun divine entreaties and warnings from the prophets. Rather than profit them, Isaiah’s fresh prophecies only helped to harden them the more – they had primed their eyes, ears and hearts to discountenance God and His word.
Today, we face a similar situation. The world is fast drifting into spiritual and moral darkness that, a few decades ago, would have been considered unimaginable.
It is amazing to see that in spite of the progress the world has made in every other field of human endeavour, more and more people are settling for a life of wilful ignorance when it comes to godliness.
Their conscience is truly seared with a hot iron. That is why they do not see the absurdity of indulging in and even promoting abominable perversions and a culture of death. It is even more disheartening to see religious professors blatantly contradicting God’s word in a bid to please the world.
It is a major and dangerous handicap to hear God’s word and not understand, and see signs of the endtime and not perceive. It is your responsibility to ensure that you develop and maintain a right relationship with God. By all means, avoid hardening your heart against God’s word
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: It is dangerous to give up godliness; it is damning to be given up by God.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: MATTHEW 4-5
MEDITATION
Judicial blindness, dullness, deafness and ignorance: What they mean.
- The prophet’s strange assignment vv9,10.
a. To decree dullness of hearing to their lives.
b. To curse them with spiritual insensitivity.
c. To pronounce judicial blindness and deafness into their eyes and ears. - What does this strange assignment means?
Nothing strange.
a. Judicial blindness is the natural consequence of rejecting the light.
b. Judicial deafness or dullness of hearing or ignorance is the natural consequence of refusing to hear the word of the Lord.
c. Spiritual hardness of heart is the natural consequence of ignoring or despising the word of God, either written or spoken word.
For example, the same sun that melts a candle wax is the same sun that hardens a clay. The problem is not with the sun but with the nature of the material. So the problem is not with the message of the prophet but the response of the eyes, ears and the heart to the message that either make the man better or worse. - What God expects from you
a. When you are experiencing judicial blindness i.e. lack of spiritual vision, it is time to cry to the Lord to have mercy and deliver you from blindness or else things would grow worse from partial vision to total spiritual blindness.
b. When you are experiencing judicial deafness and you are loosing interest in hearing the sound doctrine or the word of God, you need to reconsecrate your life and ears to hear His word and be obedient or else, things will deteriorate, and loss of interest will degenerate to hatred.
c. When you discover that your heart is getting hardened and no more happily responsive to the word of God, then you need to ask God to break and melt your heart or else, you are on a danger zone.
d. Sinners are already experiencing judicial blindness, deafness and hardness of heart. A soul winner must plead for mercy and earnestly pray for the removal of judicial blindness, deafness and hardness of heart of sinners so that the gospel will have a positive effect and impact.
Oh Lord, remove all spiritual cataracts and blindness from my eyes and let me be seeing your visions and glory
Lord, remove all the spiritual wool in my ears and open my inner ears totally and give me love of the truth more and more
Holy Spirit divine, break my heart and make responsive to your word at all times
Pray for sinners in the church along these prayer points. It is because of these problems we still have many sinners and evil people in the Church. May God visit His church afresh
