Bringing Light to the Blind
Image via Wikipedia“Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but My servant, or deaf as My messenger whom I send?” (Isa. 42:18–19a)
Isaiah refers to two kinds of blindness in the passage before us. He speaks first of the blindness of those who are in the midst of persecution and tribulation. There are times in our lives when we can’t see what the next day holds. We make plans, but we have no idea what God is going to do with them. We have suspicions about what the next year will hold, but we can’t be sure because things change so quickly in the world around us. Our families might break up, we might suddenly lose a job, or we might be told that we have some chronic illness. These are things we never expect, and, when they happen, they make us uncertain of the future in a more poignant way than before. During such times, we might be described as blind in a very real and disconcerting sense.
The Jews were certainly this way after having spent 70 years in captivity. All they knew was their suffering and their fear. They could not see around the next corner, and many of them were afraid to try to look. They were like blind men stumbling through life and tossed about on currents that were taking them into the unknown.
When we go through such “blindness,” we need to be led by the hand of the Lord. That is exactly what He has promised to do: “ ‘I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight.’ ” This is the promise we have from our Lord. But to find comfort in this promise, we must admit how blind we are. We need to come to the point where we confess our utter dependence on Him and ask Him to lead us. When we humble ourselves in this way, we can be assured of His help.
But those who refuse to believe the Lord, who continue to rely on their idols rather than on Jehovah, are blind in a different sense. This is Isaiah’s second reference to blindness, in verse 18. There were Jews who were blind to the promises of God and refused to see His work in their history. Isaiah spoke not to the world but to the Jewish people, calling them “the LORD’S servant.” It is one thing to be a pagan who has never heard the truth, and it is quite another to be a person who has been exposed to the preaching of God’s Word and still refuses to believe. Such blindness will be heavily judged, just as God harshly punished those Jews who refused to see in the midst of great light.
Are you frustrated because you are so uncertain about the future? Have things recently changed for you in such a way that you are insecure and even frightened about what the next day holds? If so, trust in the Lord. Even if He has seemed silent, trust in Him. Read Isaiah 42:14–16. Take these words to heart and be encouraged.
