Around the world, “at least 2.2 billion people” have some type of “vision impairment” (WHO 2023). I’m blessed to live in a country where I have easy access to eyecare and the glasses I need to see well, but the World Health Organization says that for about 1 billion people with vision impairment, it “could have been prevented or is yet to be addressed.” That’s a lot of people who have trouble seeing, and a whole lot who aren’t getting the help they need for it.
In the Bible, God addresses blindness and sight impairment on both a physical and spiritual level. When Jesus walked on earth, He healed those who were physically blind (Mark 8:22-26; John 9:1-7). At His return, prophecies promise healing for all those with vision problems (Is. 29:18; 35:5-6). Healing and relief from all physical illness or injury is one of the many wonderful things that God promises we can look forward to in His kingdom (Rev. 21:1-4; 22:1-5).
More importantly, though, God is concerned with the problem of spiritual blindness. From His perspective, on a spiritual level, most of the world is blind. In other words, they’re unable or unwilling to “see” His truths. Even some in the church are spiritually blind. Thankfully, He is just as capable of healing spiritual blindness as physical blindness, and He’s making spiritual eye-opening accessible today.
How Does Spiritual Blindness Happen?
As we read about the problem of spiritual blindness in the New Testament, we learn about two sources for that blindness. One is Satan, the adversary of God. Paul writes about this in a letter to the Corinthians.
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4, NET
So that’s one source of blindness. Satan is actively trying to thwart God’s plan to save humanity and bring them into His family. Satan won’t ultimately succeed, but he does have power in the world today and he can blind human minds so they don’t see Jesus’s light (unless, of course, God steps in and removes this blindness).
Another type of blindness is self-imposed. This type of blindness affected the people who didn’t understand Jesus’s parables, and was one of the reasons that He spoke in parables.
Then the disciples came to him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He replied, “You have been given the opportunity to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but they have not. For whoever has will be given more, and will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. For this reason I speak to them in parables: Although they see they do not see, and although they hear they do not hear nor do they understand. And concerning them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
‘You will listen carefully yet will never understand,
you will look closely yet will never comprehend.
For the heart of this people has become dull;
they are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes,
so that they would not see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’“But your eyes are blessed because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
Matthew 13:10-17, NET (with quotation from Isa 6:9-10)
Note that the lack of sight on the part of some of his hearers was their choice. “They have shut their eyes,” Isaiah said in the passage Jesus quotes. As descendants of ancient Israel and inheritors of the covenant God made with that people, the Jews of Jesus’s day had access to God’s truth. They were the people who should have been able to see, and yet many did not.
God’s Mercy for The Unseeing
Paul addressed the question of his Jewish contemporaries’ blindness at length in Romans, particularly in chapter 11. Here, Paul pointed out that God graciously chose to have mercy on those who should have known better, but still “shut their eyes” and rejected Jesus as the Messiah, by treating them the same as unbelievers (Rom. 11:32). In the end, those who should have known better yet did wrong anyway will receive harsher judgement than those who didn’t really understand what they were doing (Rom. 2). It is to the Jewish people’s benefit for God to conclude those who rejected Jesus were blind unbelievers rather than people who should have been able to see His light but rejected Him anyway (Heb. 10:26-39).
Furthermore, Paul said there’s another positive that came from some people in Jesus’s time shutting their eyes against the truth. He writes, “that blindness in part is happened to Israel” so that the non-Israelite nations could be welcomed into God’s covenant people (Rom. 11:35, KJV). It’s all part of God’s long-term plan to bring as many people as possible into His family.
“He said [to Paul], ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you; delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”
Acts 26:15-18, WEB
Jesus’s mission of eye-opening continued with His apostles, whom He empowered to share His gospel message. He opened up the opportunity for people to enter covenant with God to everyone one earth, not just those from a particularl physical background. Now, anyone can have their eyes opened to the truth (including, Paul makes sure to point out, the Jewish people who’d initially shut their eyes [Rom 11:11-16]).
- It is also worth noting here that God will give everyone an opportunity to choose between life and good, or death and evil. If that opportunity does not come in this life, it will come at the second resurrection (see “Rethinking Heaven: Capturing A Vision Of The Resurrection” and “Rethinking Hell: A Clearer View of God’s Judgement“).
A Warning for Today
When Paul talked about the Gentile’s eyes being opened, he was talking about people who had no background with the One True God learning about Him for the first time. Sometimes, though, as with some of the Jewish people of Jesus’s day, blindness can happen to people who think they know God well. Jesus talks about that again in relation to the New Covenant church when addressing the church of Laodicea in Revelation.
“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth! Because you say, ‘I am rich and have acquired great wealth, and need nothing,’ but do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, take my advice and buy gold from me refined by fire so you can become rich! Buy from me white clothing so you can be clothed and your shameful nakedness will not be exposed, and buy eye salve to put on your eyes so you can see! All those I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent! Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home and share a meal with him, and he with me. I will grant the one who conquers permission to sit with me on my throne, just as I too conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Revelation 3:15-22, NET
This is a serious warning. And it’s for all who have ears to hear what Jesus is saying to the churches. That ought to include us. Somewhat ironically, if you think the warning doesn’t or can’t apply to you, then you’re likely someone who needs to hear it the most (1 Cor. 10:12). Thankfully, there’s a cure to this spiritual blindness. We can humbly accept the warning, go to Jesus, and ask Him for healing.
Open my eyes so I can truly see
Psalm 119:18, NET
the marvelous things in your law.
Like this psalmist, we can pray that the Lord would open our eyes so that we can see the marvelous things contained in His word. He wants people to come to Him (Matt. 11:28; John 7:37-38) and He wants His people who’ve lost their way to return (Joel 2:12-13; Mal. 3:7). Healing spiritual blindness is important to Him today, since He deeply desires all people to see the truth and choose life (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9).
Featured image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
Song Recommendation: “Open the Eyes of My Heart” by Paul Baloche
Like An Anchor 