Text: Isaiah 42:14-21
Imagine for a moment that you have led a blind person to one of the most beautiful places on earth – perhaps the Grand Canyon or a tall skyscraper where you can see the beautiful sights below. How are you going to show that blind person the beauty that you can see with your eyes? The answer is that you can’t show a blind person the beauty of things that we see. When we are born into this world, we are all spiritually blind. Just like the physically blind person cannot see the beautiful sights of this earth, we were unable to see the beauty of the salvation that God earned for us. God gives us sight. Today through Isaiah, we see the Promises to the Spiritually Blind. The first promise is that those who remain blind will be judged, and second, Jesus provides deliverance and rescue.
Part 1: Those who remain blind will be judged
As we look at this prophecy from Isaiah, we consider first of all the audience that heard Isaiah’s message. Isaiah proclaimed God’s Word to people who were spiritually blind. The nation of Israel had gone from a time of peace and prosperity to a time of warfare. The Assyrian Empire had conquered the ten northern tribes of Israel. The Assyrian Empire had also threatened the 2 southern tribes but God had defeated them. The spiritual blindness of the people stemmed from the fact that they were looking for a strong political leader to save them from their earthly enemies. They were not looking for a spiritual savior to save them from their sins.
The Jews in Jesus’ day had the same kind of spiritual blindness. The Pharisees were also spiritually blind. They did not see Jesus as their Savior from sins. Their blindness was very similar to the blindness of the people at the time of Isaiah. The Pharisees wanted a political leader to save them from the Romans. They did not see a need for a spiritual savior because they thought that they had saved themselves through their own good works. This idea of salvation through our own good deeds is the spiritual blindness that we are all born with. Our sinful nature thinks that works are the way to heaven.
Isaiah describes the results of this natural state of blindness in verse 20. There he says, “You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing.” The people of Israel had certainly seen many things throughout their history. They had been delivered from slavery in Egypt. They had seen miraculous signs as they were brought to the Promised Land. King David led the country into a time of prosperity. Just recently the Angel of the Lord had come and defeated the Assyrian Army. In spite of everything that God did for them, the people did not pay attention to God’s saving message. They did not hear his proclamations of the coming Messiah.
God gave them a message of judgment. He warns that those who trust in a god other than the true God will be put to shame. He said, “But those who trust in idols, who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back in utter shame” (42:17). The Israelites saw evidence of this when the people had worshipped the golden calf at Mt. Sinai. The people trusted in idols when they looked for the wrong kind of savior. They trusted in idols when they trusted in their own works. Because of this God would bring judgment. He says, “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” (42:15). There were two judgments coming on Israel. First the Babylonians would conquer them. Second, there is the judgment that will come on all people. On that day God will wipe this earth away with all its wickedness.
Look at the Pharisees. They were so blinded to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah that they could not see the evidence that was plainly in front of them. Rather than seeing the healing of a blind man as an incredible miracle, they begin talking about the fact that Jesus did work on the Sabbath day. Now of course there is no provision in God’s laws against performing miracles of healing on the Sabbath day. The Jews at that time had added many rules to the Sabbath day and they interpreted these rules in whatever way they saw fit. Jesus was doing the will of God. The Sabbath rest was pointing ahead to the Messiah. However the Pharisees did not see this.
The Pharisees were even confused among themselves. They had convinced themselves that Jesus was a great sinner for breaking this Sabbath rule of theirs but then they wondered how he could still perform this miraculous sign. They were blinded to the fact that Jesus was true God walking among them. The Pharisees claimed to be spiritually wise. They claimed that they knew the way to salvation. But the truth was that they were spiritually blind. Jesus confirmed that fact throughout his ministry.
Many people today are spiritually blind. Just like the Pharisees, religions of works are everywhere. Every religion that does not follow the Bible ends up calling on its followers to do certain acts to achieve whatever it is that religion refers to as heaven. There are even many religions which try to use the Bible but end up creating false gods that the Bible doesn’t speak about. Two examples like this are the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Even in Christian Churches, there are many leaders that point their people to look to themselves rather than Christ. People are told they need to perform works of penance. People are told that they need to decide to dedicate their lives to Christ. They need to pray harder in order to overcome sin.
Spiritual blindness has a way of working in our hearts. Our sinful nature wants nothing to do with God. Our sinful nature is always trying to get us to follow after false idols. We become blind to the sins of the world. Think about how comfortable we become with the sins of our society. 20 years ago certain sins were condemned by almost everyone, now you can find them openly tolerated in society. The devil also can blind us to a point that we become complacent about our faith. He convinces us that we know all we need to know about Jesus. He convinces us to make other activities more important than time spent in God’s Word. He uses this trick to slowly take us away from the saving truths of God.
People who die in spiritual blindness will face eternal judgment. It is entirely our fault if we fall back into the blindness of our sin. Fortunately for us we have a loving Savior who provides deliverance and rescue.
Part 2: Jesus provides deliverance and rescue
In addition to the pictures of judgment, Isaiah also gives us a picture of deliverance. Verse 16 says, “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” Isaiah paints several beautiful pictures about what the Messiah was going to do when he came. Jesus would certainly lead people down unfamiliar paths. Jesus took people away from that idea of a political savior and pointed them to the true spiritual Savior that he always intended to be for us. Jesus would take away the spiritual blindness and he would give spiritual sight.
The people of Israel at Isaiah’s time would have to go through the Babylonian captivity. And yet God would rescue them after their 70 years in captivity. That would certainly be a major deliverance and yet it was not the main deliverance that God wanted the people to focus on. As I said, Isaiah paints many beautiful pictures. Probably the most beautiful picture is found in Isaiah chapter 53. There we see a picture of the events of Good Friday. Isaiah told the people that their Savior would endure much pain and suffering. The Savior would be slaughtered. And yet this would be a beautiful sacrifice. Through that sacrifice all of our sins would be forgiven. God gave his people the clear message of their Savior.
Think about the miracle of Jesus I mentioned before. Jesus performed a miracle that transformed a man’s physical blindness into physical sight. At first, that is all that Jesus did for the man. Jesus left before the man could even see him to thank him. Because of this miracle, the man realized that Jesus was someone special. He even referred to Jesus as a prophet. In spite of the Pharisees, the man healed of his blindness continued to give glory to Jesus. After the Pharisees kicked this man out, Jesus came to find him.
Jesus revealed that he was the Messiah. This healed man worshipped Jesus. This man had not only received physical sight, he also had received spiritual sight. The spiritual sight was far more important. This man now knew that he was saved from his sins. He was saved from the coming judgment. He had forgiveness and eternal life. He had been delivered from the judgment that all people deserve because of sin.
Our prayer is that Jesus will continue to give sight to those who are spiritually blind. There are so many people that have been led astray by false religions and even by false teachers in Christian churches. Only the power of the Holy Spirit can overcome this spiritual blindness. As Christians we proclaim that wonderful gospel message to those who think that they are saved through their own good works. If we are confused about what the errors of these other churches are, there are many resources out there for us to use. As we proclaim the gospel to these people we also need to be careful because the devil can use the spiritually blind to take us back into blindness.
That is the main reason that we need the spiritual strength and sight that only our God can give us. Jesus has delivered us through his death on the cross and he continues to deliver us from the spiritual blindness of this world. He strengthens us through his means of grace – the gospel in Word and Sacraments. This gospel is powerful. It forgives our sins, strengthens our faith and gives us the grace to continue the life of faith. Our strength always comes from the full and free forgiveness found only in Christ. Only this forgiveness can cure us of spiritual blindness. Christ directs our eyes away from ourselves. Jesus points us to his cross.
Conclusion
People who are born physically blind learn to live with their situation. They are able to function because they develop their other senses to compensate for their lack of sight. Being born spiritually blind is different. We cannot have spiritual life while remaining spiritually blind. We need Christ to take away our spiritual blindness. Jesus has rescued us through his cross. He sends the Holy Spirit to us to work faith in us and remove our blindness. Now we have life. We have spiritual sight and we can clearly see the love of our God.