Scripture Text: Luke 4: 18

Isaiah 9:2 says: "The dwellers in darkness and the area of the shadow of death have seen a dazzling light".

The Messiah brought renewal and redemption. This was mostly spiritual, but it might also emerge physically. Jesus began his work by declaring that the messianic age had arrived.

He read from Isaiah to say this prophecy was being fulfilled: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. I have been sent to proclaim freedom for the imprisoned, sight for the blind, release the oppressed, and the year of the Lord's favor (Lk. 4:18).

From then on, He performed miracles to prove his messianic calling, restoring sight to the blind, opening the ears of the deaf, casting out demons, and healing the lame, but these only showed humanity's spiritual blindness and need for spiritual healing.

The Messiah came to heal and restore all men who were blinded by the god of this age and kept captive by sin.

The Cause of Spiritual Blindness

Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they had free communion with Him. Though God warned them that disobedience would kill them, the serpent promised to open their eyes and make them like God, knowing good and evil. Their violation immediately replaced their innocence, which had allowed them to enjoy unfettered and delightful association with God, with a consciousness of sin and the sad realisation that their relationship with God was forever changed.
Disobedience exposed them to sin and rebellion and distanced them from God. The sin they permitted to thrive would spread rebellion and wickedness across the human family.

Degeneration corrupted humanity until it was spiritually blind and could not see God's glory. As mankind forgot its exalted estate and grew preoccupied in the carnal world, seeking the things that fulfill the flesh and represent sin, paradise faded.

Apostle John warned, "Do not love the world or anything in it. Whoever loves the world does not love the Father. For sinful man's appetites, eye lust, and bragging of his possessions and actions come from the world, not the Father. Whoever does God's will lives forever (1 John 2:15-17).

Ironically, opening our eyes to good and evil blinded us to God's glory and the unseen spiritual world. More carnal thinking blinds us to spiritual reality, leading to idolatry—worshiping created things instead of God.
As sin spread like a cancer through humanity, estrangement from God intensified until man worshiped dumb idols and sank into depravity.

Paul wrote to the Romans: For while they knew God, they neither honored Him nor gave thanks to Him, but their reasoning became senseless and their stupid hearts were darkened. They claimed wisdom but became idiots and traded the grandeur of the everlasting God for images of mortal man, birds, animals, and reptiles. God delivered them over to sexual impurity in their sinful hearts to degrade their bodies with each other. They worshipped and served created things instead of God, who is forever glorified. Amen.
Paul says, "To the pure, all things are pure," but to the corrupted and unbeliever, nothing is pure. Their minds and consciences are defiled (Titus 1:15).

Israel called to be a beacon to nations

God told Abraham to leave his idol-worshipping people and follow him. God wanted to create one country for the Messiah to come and restore man to good standing with God, allowing him to enjoy relationship with God without sin.
To be a beacon to the Gentiles and transmit God's truth to the ends of the globe, Israel was given the revelation of God (Isa. 49:6).

This word revealed God's salvation plan through Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Anything that obscures Jesus Christ's revelation distorts God's plan. If we lose sight of Israel's ultimate mission and calling, we focus on temporary blessings and miss our salvation.

The writer to the Hebrews says Abraham and all true believers were still living by faith when they died, hoping for the glorious city God had prepared for them. Instead of receiving the promised gifts, they saw and welcomed them. They admitted to being aliens on Earth. Such statements indicate a desire for independence. If they had thought of the country they left, they could have returned. Instead, they wanted a heavenly country. God has prepared a city for them, so he is not ashamed to be called their God (Hebrews 11:13-16).

His dealings with Israel represented His Eternal plan of Redemption, yet many of the people grew oblivious to spiritual principles and saw their redemption to Canaan as an end in itself. If we get caught up in the present, we lose sight of our redemption—the heavenly recompense Abraham sought.

Israel received all the exterior laws, ordinances, and temple rituals of Moses' law to illustrate heavenly things through shadows and types. Many individuals grew to trust the shadows and kinds as if they represented their reality, blinding them to the spiritual things they were meant to illustrate. In current times, people see church as a building with special sanctity rather than the living stones, the members.

Pride caused spiritual blindness, and the nations worshiped dumb idols in darkness. Following the revelation of the only True God, Israel was spiritually more advanced than the surrounding heathen countries. Lord advised people not to be haughty or they would forget the Lord and become like the pagans: When you are full, praise the LORD your God for the good country he has given you. Do not forget the LORD your God and ignore His rules, laws, and decrees that I am delivering you today. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, build fine houses and settle down, and your herds and flocks grow large, your silver and gold increase, and all you have multiplies, your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of slavery.

Those who don't realize they're fallen and estranged from God won't see their need for redemption or the Redeemer. When the Redeemer came in humility, those who were proud of being the chosen people hated him (Isa. 53:3). They believed their relationship to Abraham guaranteed their status in God's household (Jn. 8:31-47). People grow blind to their wicked, fallen state as they flatter themselves (Ps. 36:2). I would not have known what sin was without the law (Romans 7:7). Moses gave the law to make us aware of our sinful nature (Romans 3:20) and our need for redemption. Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowing, you teach anti-stealing, do you steal? You who forbid adultery, do you commit it? Do idol-haters loot temples? If you brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking it?

Ez.36:22 says, “God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (Romans 2:17-24). Our condition must be acknowledged for healing and repair. That's why so many of Jesus' followers were social misfits, individuals with wounded pride and lacking self-confidence. Jesus healed a born-blind man in John. Jesus rubbed saliva-made mud on the man's eyes and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam. He followed instructions and restored the man's sight. The Pharisees were suspicious and hostile to this pleasant turn of events. In this tale, Siloam signifies “sent,” and only those who are washed and cleansed in God's sent one will be healed. Trusting their eyesight keeps them blind. The tale finishes with Jesus telling the Pharisees, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” Some Pharisees with him asked, “What? Are we blind?Jesus responded, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains” (John 9:39-41).

Spiritual blindness is God's punishment for pride. Many Israelites were blinded spiritually like the Gentiles in their ignorance and pride. Then Jesus told them, “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” After saying this, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still would not believe in him, so that the prophet Isaiah's word might be fulfilled.They couldn't believe. He saw his beauty and spoke of him, so Isaiah said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” However, many of the authorities believed in him, but they did not confess it for fear of the Pharisees, who loved man's glory more than God's. They refused to believe in the sent one, therefore God hardened their hearts so they couldn't see.

The Soncino commentary on Isaiah 6:9 summarises unbelieving Israel's hardness of heart and spiritual blindness: “The people's insensibility to all that is Divine and indifference to the prophet's exhortation result in a lack of understanding and perception. The Soncino then discusses how long this blindness will last: “Only desolation, destruction and exile of the sinful majority will bring to an end the deplorable conditions.” For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will break them up and take them without help. I'll return home till they confess. In their suffering, they will seek my face (Hosea 5:14).

Accepting guilt is the first step to healing. Many falsely soothe unbelieving Israel by claiming God's favour despite sin and disbelief. Their hope is carnal, but no flesh will inherit God's kingdom. The flesh, where the deceiver thrived, has been condemned and defeated. God doesn't regard people. We should dread and adore him for his Israel dealings. Consider God's compassion and sternness: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided you persevere in His goodwill. Otherwise, you'll be disconnected. If they don't keep unbelieving, God can graft them in again (Romans 11:22). All unbelievers are spiritually blind to the beauty of their Messiah, even if the Scriptures seem to highlight Israel's spiritual blindness due to their past revelation. Just as a blind person cannot appreciate a sunset, a spiritually blind person cannot see the gospel's splendor without the Spirit of God. ..Even if our gospel is disguised, it is for the dying.

Unbelievers cannot see the Gospel of the glory of Christ, the image of God, because the god of this age has blinded them (2 Cor. 4:3-4). Light is unseen yet makes things visible (Eph. 5:13). We only “see” light when it illuminates anything. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe (Eph. 1:18, cf. 2 Cor. 4:6).

The Messiah opens the eyes of those seeking healing: We have not gotten the world's spirit but the Spirit from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. The Spirit teaches us spiritual realities in spiritual words. Because they are spiritually discerned, things from the Spirit of God are foolishness to those without the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10-14).

Just as the serpent deceived Eve by appealing to her senses (the woman “saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom”), the evil one continues to seduce people with fleshly desires to distract and blind them from God's eternal promises and invisible glory. I stress in the Lord that you must no longer live like the Gentiles, in futile thinking. The hardening of their hearts has made them ignorant and distant from God. Without sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality, indulging in every sort of impurity with a constant longing for more (Eph. 4:17-19).

Adam and Eve were immediately filled with guilt for disobeying God, but modern psychology advises us to hide our guilt as the result of a restrictive upbringing that harms our self-image. We may try to conceal our guilty conscience, but it should drive us to Christ for redemption. The Law of Moses was given so sin may be viewed as completely sinful (Rom. 7:13).
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22).

Many are being duped into trading their eternal inheritance for a fleeting earthly shadow. Despite their ignorance, people adore produced objects over the creator. The devil brought Jesus to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth and their splendor to entice him. He said, “All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus replied, “Away from me, Satan! ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’ (Matthew 4:8-11). Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at God's right hand (Matt. 10:39).

Focus on heaven, not earth. Your life is hidden with Christ in God because you died. Colossians 3:1-4 says you will appear in glory with Christ, your life. Thus, we focus on the invisible. The visible is temporary, but the unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Carnal eyes cannot understand how sad their position is from God's perspective. The rebuke to the church of Laodicea shows that even believers can be blind to spiritual truths when they become carnal and preoccupied with worldly comforts: You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I recommend buying gold purified in the fire from me to become rich, white clothing to cover your shameful unclothedness, and eye salve to see (Revelation 3:17-18).

God's mercy and judgment coexist. Psalm 85:10 is fulfilled in Jesus Christ's gospel: Mercy and truth meet; righteousness and peace kiss. If we recognize that we are blind and wretched sinners worthy of judgment, we can plead to His kindness and be restored, but if we stubbornly refuse to heed His warnings and come to Him in self-righteousness, He hardens us until we are given over to the deceiver. “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” Spiritual blindness is judged when the Lord gives people who have opposed the truth over to a delusion: they die because they refused to love the truth and be redeemed. For this reason, God sends them a great illusion to believe the lie and condemn everyone who have not believed the truth but have delighted in evil (2 Thess. 2:10-12).

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, wicked desires, and greed, which is idolatry. These will bring God's wrath (Colossians 3:5). Jesus heals the blind. He gives eye salve so we can see. But there's no time to delay because the more we oppose God and harden our hearts, the more He gives us our delusions—the judicial consequence of our hubris. As Scripture continually warns, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Ps. 95:

If you would like to give your life to Christ just say this short prayer:
"Lord Jesus, I come to You now, come into my life, take control of my life and change my world. I say bye-bye to the devil, I enter into the Kingdom of Light. Thank You Jesus, in Jesus mighty name I pray, amen!

If you've said this short prayer, congratulations!!!

God bless you!

Peace!

Also read: http://www.messianicgoodnews.org/restoring-sight-to-the-blind-isaiah-61/