BELIEVING IS SEEING

There are several passages in the Scriptures which speak of people's eyes being blinded by God (Gen. 19:11; 2 Kgs. 6:18; Isa. 44:18; etc.), and based upon Deuteronomy 28:15, 28-29, it is because they fail to live according to what they do know.  They have some degree of light, but they refuse to live accordingly.  Moses wrote: 

"But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:  The LORD shall smite the with ... blindness, and astonishment of heart:  and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee. "

God allowed the continual rebellion of Israel throughout the centuries, but He also allowed them to suffer the consequences of their actions.  Israel was repeatedly enslaved by Gentile empires because they refused to obey God.  Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, made their lives miserable, and yet, they still did not repent.  Finally, "...when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Gal. 4:4-5).  It was Israel's rejection of Jesus Christ, that brought upon them the blindness spoken of by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11:25!  A millennium earlier, the Psalmist had written: 

"Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.  Pour out Thine indignation upon them, and let Thy wrathful anger take hold of them.  Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.  For they persecute Him whom Thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom Thou hast wounded.  Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into Thy righteousness" (Ps. 69:23-27).

I remember forty-three years ago today, how, as an atheist, I heard a television preacher present the Gospel, and falling on my knees in my living room, I repented of my sin and trusted in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.  My eyes had been opened because I believed God's Word.  I praise God for the events that led me to sit and listen, sit and hear for the first time, God loves me!  I have endeavored to live these many years loving Him back!  I wish I had done a better job of it!

We all have some light from God; if we do not respond to it, He removes it!

Matthew 25:29; Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18; John 8:12!!!!