The Spirit of Stupor: Exploring Divine Blinding

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So we continue to look at these very, very interesting words and curious words of Paul in regard to the salvation of Israel. He says, I say then, has God cast away his people? And you heard the response yesterday, God forbid, or certainly not, absolutely not. And then to prove that, he points out the remnant that was called in Elijah’s day, and he said to Elijah, I have got 7,000 who have still not bowed the knee to Baal. And then he also said, I am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. So how are these particular points he makes proof that God has not cast away his people? How is it that simply saying, I’m a member of the tribe of Israel, I’m a member of the tribe of Benjamin, and I’m a saved Christian, how does that prove that God has not cast away his people? How does it prove that God has not cast away his people when he saves just a remnant of 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal? And the answer to that is that the remnant is a representation of the whole. When Paul uses a remnant to prove that God has not cast away his people, he is showing that that remnant represents the whole. That is why he says in verse 16, For if the first fruit is holy, who are the first fruits? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The lump is also holy, and if the root is holy, so also are the branches. So, you see, what he is saying here is that because he made the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that in them all families of the earth shall be blessed, then that remnant represents the whole blessing that is yet to come. Which is why Paul says in verse 28 of the same chapter, 11, concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, that is the Jewish people, Israel. But concerning the election, that is, they are enemies, you see, because they haven’t accepted the good news of Jesus Christ. But concerning the election, they are beloved. How amazing. They’re still loved. for the sake of their fathers. And so God has a great plan in saving the whole of Israel, as it says in verse 26, and so all Israel will be saved. But then, as I pointed out yesterday, he confuses us even more, at least initially, by saying, what shall we say then? That Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Now, years ago, I used to assume, I just automatically assumed that when God blinded people or when the rest of the people were blinded, they were lost. They were done for. You can wipe them off, clean the slate, wash the plate. They’re done for. They’re rejected. My goodness, how I was blind myself, and how I so easily dismissed God’s plans for the salvation of all. What is this blinding all about? Read on. The next verse says… Just as it is written, well, let’s read 7 to get the connection. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Just as it is written, God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear to this very day. And, you know, how do we Christians handle a verse like that? Well, we either quietly feel without verbalizing it that God is very harsh. and that he is casting off people by blinding them. Or we also dismiss the wording, saying, well, that’s how Israel saw it. They saw it. They saw God as blinding people, when in fact it’s actually people that blind themselves by resisting him. But all of that fails to interpret according to Scripture. Here we have God giving them a spirit of stupor. We have him saying that he gives them eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear. What is that all about? Well, let me surprise you by saying it’s all part of the plan of salvation. Let’s just remind ourselves, as I did yesterday, of the words of Jesus in the book of John. Jesus heals the blind man. He makes that paste, remember, from his spittle and the dust or soil of the ground, and then he smears it on the blind man’s eyes and tells him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam, wasn’t it? Yes, that’s right. Now, he knew what the Pharisees would think of his doing that. He could have simply touched the man’s eyes or not even touched him at all and said, see, and he would have seen. But he made that clay from spittle and mud. Why? Because he was provoking the Pharisees, those who resisted him. It was the Sabbath day, you see, and they considered it a work to do what Jesus did with that clay, making that clay. And so when the whole controversy and the argument had died out a little, Jesus said, In verse 39, for judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, that is, the literally blind, and also spiritually blind, but who are humble and call upon Jesus to believe, then they are made to see. But those who do not see, that is, those who think they see when they don’t, who think they’re wise when they’re not, Then let’s read it again. For judgment I have come into this world that those who do not see may see and that those who claim to see or those who see may be made blind. Jesus purposely makes people blind to spiritual things. Now, are you sinking? Is this sinking in? Am I telling you something awful and that Jesus is creating loads of people that will be lost? No, on the contrary, the very opposite. Jesus makes people blind because they’re not yet ready for mercy. They resist him. He… put before them a miracle of loving kindness and grace in the healing of that blind man. He put that before the Pharisees, knowing full well that their resistance to him would become even more resistant. So in other words, exercising grace, showing miracle in the presence of those who do not want to believe, will make them more hard and resistant than ever. Why? so that ultimately their hardness and resistance will become intolerable. And verse 9, it says, and David says, “…let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and bow their back always.” What is this? Is this Jesus or the Father or God throwing people into perdition? No, not at all. You need to understand that blinding is the same as suppression in chapter 1 of Romans. Paul is totally consistent with his argument. What does he say in Romans chapter 1? That the wrath of God, which is God’s loving wrath acting in judgment in order to save people… The wrath of God is revealed against all the unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Now what does that mean? It means they hold the truth down. Suppress to hold it down. So what does God do? Verse 24, 26, and 28, verses 24, 26, 28 of chapter 1, He hands them over. He gives them over. To what? To the idols that they choose instead of God himself. What a strange act of God that is. And what is it? It’s hardening. When people resist God, refuse Him, suppress Him from their consciousness, God says, the only way I’m going to get to you is to give you more of what you want, more resistance, and it will harden you all the more as you go to your idols. And that hardening ultimately will become like a vast, dreadful, empty desert in your soul. There will be no satisfaction. There will be only stress and anxiety and worry and fear and guilt. And that will press you towards ultimately, when I reveal myself, begging me for mercy. That is how the gospel works with the hardened. For those who have been hardened enough already, whose suppression has come to its results, they listen to Jesus and they hear and they’ve become humble and they want to receive him as their saviour. And so there are those who are, because everybody I understand is suppressed in one way or another, to one degree or another, so they have come to the end of their suppression and they want to receive Jesus as their Savior. But those who have not come to the end of their suppression and keep holding out against him, they come finally to the end of their tether, either here in this life when they’re young maybe or when they’re old, or in the final judgment, and then they break. And that break is the great pain of the fire and brimstone symbolic wording for the confrontation with God. And ultimately, they are ready to receive him. Now let’s put all this in practical terms in regard to your loved ones. Perhaps your loved ones have walked away from God. Perhaps they’re into drugs or other addictions, and you worry like heck for them, and you beg for God to save them, and you ask him to bring them to the light. And when you talk about your loved one to others, you say they’ve lost their way, they’ve gone the wrong direction, and so on. But let’s have more faith, and let us say this. Well, God is taking my loved one on a very dark journey. He is allowing them to suppress him and is giving them over to even more suppression of him. And they are choosing alternative gods to our God. And so they’re coming to the end of their tether. But I’m trusting God because he knows how to take my loved one through darkness. And he will know the point at which that darkness is absolutely too much to bear. And my loved one will finally break under the pressure and call upon God for love and mercy. Believe that in regard to your loved ones. We get so terribly depressed and overwhelmed by what our loved ones go through and how they resist God. We thought they would love Jesus because we taught them as children and we wonder why they have just walked away from him. Well, God is giving them over, Romans 1, 24, 26, 28, to their idols, to their suppression of him, until they break. And you be ready for when they break, because then telling about Jesus will be like talking about rain on a parched land. Thank you. Thank you. So thank you, and if you’d like to make a donation, it would be so much appreciated. Send your donation to Faith Quest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160, or make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. See you next time. Cheerio, and God bless.