SUNDAY 13TH MAY, 2018 MORNING PRAYER DEVOTION
SCRIPTURE READING:– JOHN 9:1-38
TOPIC:– YOU ARE NO MORE BLIND [1]
TEXT:– JOHN 12:40
Blindness is called “awar” in Hebrew which means variants. Also called “tuphlos”. When defective eyes and blared, inflamed lids are among the commonest and most disgusting sights. There are enumerated a number of diseases of the eye and a hundred prescriptions are given for their treatment.
That the disease occurred in children and caused destruction and atrophy of the eyeball is testified to by the occurrence of a considerable number in which there is marked diminution in size of one orbit. The commonest disease is a purulent ophthalmia, a highly infectious condition propagated largely by the flies which can be seen infesting the crusts of dried secretion undisturbed even on the eyes of infants.
This almost always leaves the eyes damaged with blared lids, opacities of the cornea, and sometimes extensive internal injury as well.
Spiritual Meaning And The Signification Of Blindness:
1. In the word blindness is predicated of those who are in falsity, and also of those who are in ignorance of truth. Both are called the blind; but which are meant in any special instance can be seen from the series or connection, especially in the internal sense. That they who are in falsity are called the blind, is evident from the following passages.
2. In Zechariah 12:4, a horse denotes the understanding; hence it is said that the horse should be smitten with astonishment, and that the horse of the peoples should be smitten with blindness, that is, should be filled with falsities.
3. In John 9:39-41, the blind in both senses are spoken of, namely, those who are in falsity, and those who are in ignorance of truth with those who are within the church and know what the truth is, blindness is falsity; but with those who do not know what the truth is [as is the case with those who are outside the church], blindness is ignorance of the truth, and these are blameless.
4. In John 12:40; Isaiah 6:9-11, the meaning that it would be better for them to be in falsities than to be in truths, because they are in a life of evil, and if they were instructed in truths, they would not only still falsify them, but would also defile them with evils; for the like reason that the men of Sodom were smitten with blindness, that is, the doctrinal things were filled with falsities. Why this was done was shown above.
5. What is blind signified what is false, therefore in the representative Jewish Church it was forbidden to sacrifice anything that was blind, Leviticus 22:22; Deuteronomy 15:21; Malachi 1:8. It was also forbidden that anyone of the priests who was blind should draw near to offer upon the altar, Leviticus 21:18, 21.
6. That blindness is predicated of ignorance of truth, such as prevails with the Gentiles, is evident in Isaiah 29:18. Here the blind denotes those who are in ignorance of truth, being chiefly those outside the Church. Bring forth the blind people and they shall have eyes; and the deaf and they shall have ears, [Isaiah 43:8]; I will lead the blind in a way that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, Isaiah 42:16.
7. Isaiah 42:6-7; Luke 14:21 where the Lord’s advent is treated of, in that they who are in ignorance of truth should then be instructed; for those who are in falsity do not suffer themselves to be so instructed, because they are acquainted with the truth and have confirmed themselves against it, and have turned the light into darkness, which cannot be dispelled where the Lord’s kingdom is treated of, and it is evident that the poor, maimed, lame, and blind are not meant, but those who are such in the spiritual sense.
8. In Luke 7:22, as according to the sense of the letter, by the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, the dead, the poor, only these are meant; because it was actually the case that the blind received sight, the deaf hearing, the lepers health, the dead received life.
Prayer Points:-
1. I command you spirit of blindness, come out of my life, in the name of Jesus Christ.
2. O Lord God, open my spiritual eye to see beyond the physical, in the name of Jesus Christ.
3. O Lord God, heal my physical eye problem now by fire, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Happy Lord’s Day!