Eyes that do not see…….

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed..”  Luke 4:18 NKJV

Jeremiah uses the eye to confront God’s people when they refuse to respond to the Lord’s gracious invitations; Jeremiah indicts them as people “who have eyes but do not discern” (Jer. 5:21).  They choose not to respond to God.  

In the gospels, Jesus meets the spiritual needs of people, sometimes accompanying the spiritual healing by restoring sight to the blind.   We should not be surprised at the association of restored physical sight with spiritual healing, for that is exactly what Jesus promised to do early in His ministry in Nazareth. (Lk 4:18).

At times the Scriptures speak of God’s hardening the hearts of people and causing them not to respond favorably toward His grace as their being blinded by God.  Immediately after Isaiah sees the Lord “seated on a high, elevated throne” (Isa. 6:1), God tells him, “Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and they eyes blind” (Isa. 6:10). 

Through the prophet Isaiah God dulls the people’s understanding so that they do not respond to Him in faith.   “For Isaiah to declare faithfully what he knew to be so would not result in an admission of guilt and a turning to God.  Rather, it would bring about a more adamant need.”  

Later, God speaks to Isaiah of His people choosing of their own free will not to respond.  “They do not comprehend or understand for their eyes are blind and cannot see; their minds do not discern”, God declares (Isa. 44:18).

The blind eye in many cases refers to the spiritually-dead person who will not respond to God in faith and gratitude.   They refuse to give up their free will to serve God.

On the other hand, God often prompts His people to respond to Him in faith.    In the dramatic story of Balaam and his donkey, “the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his sword drawn in his hand…” (Num.22:31).    Likewise, the Lord opens Elisha’s servants’ eyes so that he might see the “chariots of fire” all around him, protecting them from the enemy (II Kings 6:17).    God’s grace is likened to His opening the eyes of His people so they might see what He is doing for them.

The eyes in Scripture represent variously the character of a person, his moral condition or his disposition toward or away from God.   The writer of Proverbs reminds us, “The ear that hears and the eye that sees---the Lord has made them both” (Prov. 20:12).   We are responsible for how we use our eyes----that is, how we live our lives before the Lord.

God knows each person and He knows their innermost thoughts.   “The eyes of the Lord guard knowledge”, (Prov. 22:12) and He sees if there are any offensive or evil thoughts in us (Ps. 139:24).   In these Scriptures, God’s eyes represent His righteous judgment of sinful people and nations; His eyes represent His pure justice in the affairs of man.