Blind As A Bat!

Blind as a Bat!

Have you ever heard the saying, “Blind as a bat?”

The saying "blind as a bat" is not true. Bats are not blind. In fact, bats have relatively good eyesight and are nocturnal and even see well at night! They also have echolocation so have a hybrid sight that gives them even more senses than other animals. Bats actually have very strong visual capabilities! Most bats are insectivores so they are really helpful and we’d have a lot more insects if they were not around!

My daughter watched some youtube videos and found that bats are like puppies with wings! If you watch those videos they look quite lovable, although, you shouldn’t touch them or keep them as pets since they are wild animals.

But the saying blind as a bat comes from when someone just can’t see things. And even more when someone doesn’t understand something. If you don’t understand something, then someone may say that you’re blind as a bat or you can’t see past your nose. So “seeing” is equated with “understanding”. So then if you can’t understand then you are “blind”. Don’t you see?

In John chapter 9, Jesus healed a blind man on the Sabbath. Now the Pharisees were legalistic when it came to working on the Sabbath as being a major sin and even healing on the Sabbath to them was considered a major sin.

Do you believe that healing or doing good on the Sabbath is a sin? No!

Mark 2:27,28

27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. That means doing good works on the Sabbath is not a sin. The Pharisees did not understand this concept! They had a 1D understanding of the Bible. They were blind when it came to the Sabbath.

John 9:26-34

26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

So the Pharisees interrogated the man who received sight and even dragged his parents into it to interrogate them. Basically, the Pharisees knew that Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath and that infuriated them. After interrogating the man further and apparently just to interrogate, the man smarted back that it was remarkable that they would not acknowledge where Jesus came from, when coming from God is the only thing that could explain how Jesus could do the things He does.

The Pharisees did not appreciate having their eyes pried open. They wanted to keep their eyes closed! If you find someone like a Pharisee, just get away from them! They are blind guides!

Matthew 15:14

Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

His reply infuriated the Pharisees so much they threw him out of the Synagogue. That was like a death penalty since if you were not in-good with the Synagogue, you could not work or eat or have fellowship with other Israelites. You basically had to leave town to survive so it was a very harsh and cruel punishment for the man who had been healed of his blindness.

Throwing people out of the Synagogue was a power play the Pharisees did to people to keep their power and it worked many times to keep people in their place. If someone believed in Jesus, they would keep quiet about it because if they didn’t the Pharisees would throw them out of the Synagogue!

John 12:42,43

42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.