King Of The Jews - Part 9Paul's spiritual blindness which mirrored Israel's spiritual blindness was revealed to him by his being blinded physically for three days, a picture of Israel's blindness for "three days". With God "A day is as a thousand years". As an aside, in point of fact, ancient Rabbis calculated mankind existing 6,000 years from Adam until the Messiah would come and usher in the 1,000 year period of Peace known as the "Millennium". That last thousand years would be a "Sabbath" day or period of "rest" just as God created the world in 6 days and rested on the seventh. We are rapidly approaching the end of the 6,000 years from Adam. Paul continued to be afflicted with ophthalmia, a terrible eye disease which many believe was the "thorn in his flesh" which plagued him until his death. However, God used him just as he was, blinded in part, to carry the light of the Gospel to the Gentiles. Paul was appointed by Christ Himself to be the Apostle to the Gentiles, just as Israel was to be a light to the nations to show the glory of God. Several verses in the Old Testament showed that God would call the Gentiles unto Himself. (The term "the nations" generally speaks of the Gentile world). God used Isaac's blindness to aid in conferring the birthright on Jacob instead of Esau. Leah, Jacob's first wife, was possibly partially blind, as she was described as being "tender-eyed" in Genesis 29:17. Just as Rachel was Jacob's true love and he was tricked into marrying Leah, so will Israel be tricked into a covenant with the Anti-Christ. But God is in control. Abram had a child by Hagar, his wife Sarai's handmaid. Abram sired Ishmael, but Ishmael was not the child of promise. God had other plans; a miracle birth, a child by Sarai, long past child-bearing age. Before the birth of Isaac, God changed Abram and Sarai's names to Abraham and Sarah meaning the father and mother of many nations. So, Ishmael is not the child of Abraham as Islam claims, he is the child of Abram a subtle but huge distinction. In all these examples a pattern begins to emerge. Time after time, God uses the second to accomplish His will. Isaac instead of Ishmael, Jacob instead of Esau, Rachel instead of Leah, David instead of Saul, and for a season, the Gentiles instead of the Jews. Jesus is "the second Adam". "Go and tell this people...see ye indeed but perceive not". Isaiah 9:6 "But though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on him: That the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled...'He hath blinded their eyes'". John 12:37,38,40 However, like the man who was touched by Jesus the first time and received partial sight, there were certainly many Jews who believed on Him and accepted Him as their Spiritual King, otherwise there would have been no opposition from the Pharisees and no call for His death by them. "Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God". John 12:42 Regarding the Pharisees Jesus said, "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind". Matthew 15:14 "Jesus cried and said...he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness". John 12:44-46 But whosoever believes not on Jesus dwells in darkness. Whether Jew or Gentile, Muslim or Buddhist, Hindu or Bahai, from A to Z, atheist to Zoroastrian and every "religion" between. If they don't know Jesus Christ as Savior they are lost in darkness, permanently. "In whom the god of this world (SATAN) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them". II Corinthians 4:4 "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him". John 3:36 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast". Ephesians 2:8 & 9 Not only was Israel blind spiritually but deaf also. Through the prophet Isaiah, God said to the people of Israel, "Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not". God through Zechariah said Israel had "stopped their ears, that they should not hear...therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. Therefore it came to pass that as He cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts; But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not". Zechariah 7:11-14 These verses speak prophetically to the rejection of the Messiah Jesus and the great diaspora of the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem that Jesus had prophesied. They also speak of prior offenses to God in their behavior and resulting judgements, but like much of the Scriptures there are dual and often multiple fulfillments of prophecy. But for the moment we will dwell on the fulfillment which revolved around the ultimate rejection of God; the rejection of His Son. However, God still loves Israel with a fierce and jealous love and has great plans and promises for them. "And I will bring them and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness". Many of us reading the above verse have seen the first part fulfilled today. I believe that Israel was deaf to Jesus' words because He was revealing the mystery of Grace to them that had been hidden throughout the ages. The Psalmist prophesied of Messiah, "Grace is poured into thy lips". Psalm 45:2. Even his enemies recognized the incredible power of His words, admitting that "never man spake like this man". John 7:46 And yet they did not receive His words. The Jews and most especially the Religious Hierarchy were zealous guarders of the Law of Moses. They accused Jesus of coming to destroy the law. He refuted that charge by rightly claiming, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law...: I am come not to destroy but to fulfill". Matthew 5:17 By his virgin birth, living a sinless life, dying a substitutionary sacrificial death as the innocent lamb of God, Jesus did fulfill the law, every jot and tittle. As they prepared the mock trial that would condemn Jesus to death, Caiaphas the High Priest himself said, "it was expedient that one man should die for the people". John 18:14 |
