Blind Eyes and Hard Hearts

“But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him:  That the saying of Esias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?”  John 12:37-38

Jesus had been having a conversation with a group of Pharisees and a few Greeks as well.  He told the people to whom he was speaking that He would be “lifted up from the earth” and would “draw all men unto” Him which indicated the method by which He would die.  However, the crowd remarked that the law said that Christ would abide forever, so they wondered why Jesus said He would be lifted up, that is, crucified.  They refused to believe that the Messiah would die.  He replied that the Light was now with them and to walk in the Light while they have it, forego the dark, and believe in the Light that they could become children of Light.  This might have been their only opportunity to believe in Jesus.  Jesus left them to consider their future and what decision they would make.  He then hid himself from them.

The Jews apparently were determined that they would not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, no matter what.  Isaiah had predicted this would happen many years prior.  It is so sad that the majority of the world’s population do not believe.  The statistics for the U.S. indicate that around 75 per cent of the people in America are lost.  That explains why our nation is in such turmoil.  We used to be called a Christian nation, but now with true believers being in the minority, and as their numbers diminish every year according to polls, I guess we are officially a nation of unbelievers.

The scriptures foretold of Jesus, yet most of the Jews did not believe those reports by the Old Testament prophets.  Even King David, whom they revered, foretold of Christ with specific details about His crucifixion in Psalm 22.  Those who rejected Christ would not humble themselves before God, therefore, they could not see the “arm of the Lord”–Jesus– in the miracles that Jesus did.  Isaiah said that God had blinded the eyes of the Jews and hardened their hearts so that they couldn’t see or understand.  I will admit that Isaiah’s statement is hard to comprehend.  Would God intentionally harden a person’s heart or spiritually blind his or her eyes so that he or she could not receive the gospel?  In Exodus, Chapters 7 through 14, we are told several times that God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” so that he wouldn’t let the Hebrew people go.  So, what does that signify?

In the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, when He was preaching and doing miracles, many of the Jews chose to not believe in Him.  Because of their persistent refusal to acknowledge His true identity as the Son of God, God allowed them to continue in their blindness and obstinacy.  Genesis 6:3 says that the LORD’s “Spirit shall not always strive with man”.  People who put off coming to Christ take a chance that God will stop drawing them, therefore, bringing spiritual blindness and a calloused heart upon themselves.  Pharoah, an idolater, had already hardened his heart to God.  Thus, God just allowed him to continue on the path that he had chosen for himself.  If a person prefers to follow his or her own path, rejects God’s way of salvation, and displays no interest at all in repenting of sin and trusting in Christ, he or she could be setting himself or herself up for an eternity of damnation.

Matthew Henry wrote, “It was spoken of Christ, that He should be glorified in the ruin of an unbelieving multitude, as well as in the salvation of a distinguished remnant”.  Whether one ends up in heaven or hell, Jesus still gets the glory.