You are handed something that looks like a strange plastic spatula. “Cover your right eye and read the smallest letters you can on the chart on the wall. Now do the same with the other eye,” you are told. The person speaking to you records the results. In another office an assistant to the doctor puts a set of head phones over your ears. You are given these directions, “Raise your right hand when you hear a sound in your right ear and raise your left hand when you hear a sound in your left ear.” Following the same procedure as the eye test the results are recorded.
Why do children regularly get such tests at school or from a doctor? Why are all of us told to get our eyesight and hearing checked from time to time? In the case of those who are in school seeing and hearing are essential for learning. For us who aren’t in school we need our eyes and ears for work or to safely drive a car. In addition to meeting these practical requirements getting our eyes and ears checked regularly may at some point uncover a disease or deterioration. Often if these things are discovered early they can be successfully treated.
If sight and hearing are vitally important to our bodies how much more are those same things to our souls. If we are not seeing what God wants us to see and hearing what he wants us to hear we are in big trouble. Thankfully God has a spiritual eye chart and a spiritual hearing test to reveal any problems with the eyes and ears of our soul. We find them both in his Word.
As we direct our attention to the Word of God for our sermon from Isaiah 42 God will administer a spiritual seeing and hearing test and offer a cure for whatever he finds. Since this is eternally important I invite you to:
“LET GOD HEAL YOUR EYES AND EARS”
I. He reveals what makes a person blind and deaf
II. He offers a cure to those who don’t reject his care
Spiritual seeing and hearing are two themes that run throughout Isaiah’s prophecy. Again and again the LORD condemns his people for being blind and deaf in their relationship to him. Seeing and hearing are also frequently tied to faith and obedience while blindness and deafness are connected to unbelief and disobedience.
If we narrow the scope for background information just to Chapter 42 of Isaiah’s prophecy we will also learn that it was Jesus’ task to bring sight and hearing to God’s people. That is described in the first verses of the chapter. Then in these verses on which we are focusing in our sermon God speaks about his judgment on spiritual blindness and deafness and also the cure he offers for both. The timeless message for believers of all ages is, “Let God heal your eyes and ears.”
I.
When we go to an ophthalmologist or an audiologist he or she will administer a series of tests to reveal any problems with our eyes or ears. God sent Isaiah to diagnose the problem his people had with their spiritual seeing and hearing. “But those who trust in idols, who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back in utter shame. Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see! Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one committed to me, blind like the servant of the LORD? You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing.”
There was nothing wrong with the physical eyes and ears of the Israelites. Their bodies were working as God had created them to function. But the eyes and ears of their souls had ceased to see and hear. They had chosen to trust in idols instead of the LORD. Because they didn’t love God above all things they didn’t want to listen to him. What a shame it was that the very people of God who had been given so many spiritual advantages to see his wonders and hear his Word chose to close their eyes to his will and stop up their ears to his commands.
What caused this disastrous disease to infect God’s people? Can we blame it on what they saw around them? All the other nations were worshipping gods made of gold and silver. Perhaps that contributed to their lack of sight and hearing in their relationship with the true God. We could also point to the enticing sins that the Israelites saw going on among their neighbors. And the spiritual leaders in Israel are also partially to blame for the blindness and deafness of God’s people. But ultimately the responsibility must fall fully on each and every one of the Israelites who let their eyes and ears stop functioning. They chose to put their trust in other gods and let their loyalty be distracted from the one true God. They had allowed their hearts and minds to wander from God’s Word. And finally like a sick patient in denial over a disease the people who heard Isaiah’s prophecy chose to deny the results of their seeing and hearing check. In their pride they refused to acknowledge what they had become. They refused to hear the truth about the condition of their relationship with God.
But like a good doctor who sees a patient on a self-destructive course the LORD wasn’t going to be put off easily. He was going to impress on his people how serious their condition was and that they needed the cure he offered. He spoke through Isaiah, “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.” God’s patience with his people had come to an end. He was going to raise the level of his voice so that they would listen. He was going to do some things that would get the attention of his people. Then maybe they would accept his cure for their eyes and ears.
We know the rest of the story. For centuries God’s people were content to remain in their blind and deaf condition. And even when God came to them with a literal voice in a fully human body they covered their eyes to what he did and plugged their ears to what he had to say. Jesus, the Great Physician of body and soul, pronounced this judgment on them as he quoted Isaiah, “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand…You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.” (Matthew 13:13-15)
So are we ready for God to check our eyes and ears? Do some of the same symptoms infect us as the ones that infected God’s people at Isaiah’s time? Have we been God’s people for so long that we have started to crave the sins of those around us and even participate in them? And although we have seen so many wonderful things from God have we now begun to take them for granted? Are God’s words “going in one ear and out the other” like they did among God’s Old Testament people?
But let’s not talk in general terms. We need to get specific. Surely we aren’t blind to God’s care for us, are we? For a moment let’s consider where our eyes go when we look to the future. Do we look at our 401-K or our bank account and investments instead of the LORD for our security? Do we bow down to metal idols with four wheels and a shiny coat of paint? Has a home in a subdivision a few steps up from the one in which we live become a temple where we want to worship? Are those the gods we are working for? We may not have pagan neighbors worshipping gods through sex with prostitutes like the Israelites encountered, but immorality and perversion are a way of life for many in our country. Are we worshipping with them and subtly accepting their ways by what we watch and read and by the thoughts that we have? God’s Word speaks about the roles that please him in marriage and in home life. Have we become deaf to what he says and blind to the pattern he has given us because they are not considered fun and fulfilling by those in our nation? Swearing and foul language have become socially acceptable. You hear it on every radio and television program. Are we participating right along with our friends and neighbors? All of these questions lead us to the big question. Have we become spiritually blind and deaf?
Like the Israelites of old we could blame the world around us for luring us to worship false gods. And we might point the finger at the popular sins of our day that seem to be a part of every person’s life as another reason for our refusal to see and hear what God wants us to see and hear. We also might find fault with the religious leaders in our lives for going easy on sin. But we would be misguided with such an approach. The bottom line problem is that we by nature don’t want to see what God is showing us or hear what he is telling us. 1 Corinthians 2:14 states this clearly, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Jesus expressed a similar thought in John 3:19, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” Whether we want to admit it or not we are as blind and deaf as the people of Isaiah’s time. We fair no better when God checks our spiritual eyes and ears.
II.
Thankfully God offers a cure for spiritual blindness and deafness. He cures those who don’t reject his diagnosis and his prescription for healing. The LORD went on to say through Isaiah, “ I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” And he added this thought in verse 21, “It pleased the LORD for the sake of his righteousness to make his law great and glorious.” Mixed right in with his judgment on their stubborn sinfulness God promised to offer a cure for his blind and deaf people. In Isaiah 29:18 the LORD had said, “In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.” Isaiah 32:3 also declared, “Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.” God’s Son would come and give sight to the blind through the power of his Word. Hearts would be changed through his ministry. Faith would replace unbelief.
Unfortunately most of God’s people rejected the prescription they were given. They insisted that they could see fine and that there was no problem with their hearing. So they remained in the blindness and deafness of unbelief. In our gospel lesson for this Sunday we heard Jesus declare, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” Indeed that judgment fell on those who thought they could see and hear and rejected the Son of God.
Now just imagine for a moment what you would do if you saw someone ignore the medical advice they were given or refuse treatment for a certain condition and then suffer terribly for it. You would probably make a vow to yourself not to do what they did. Let’s say you knew someone who ignored a test for glaucoma and then lost his sight. Or what if you knew of someone who went deaf because he ignored the advice of a doctor to have an ear infection treated. I knew a doctor in Tulsa who expressed his frustration over people who don’t take their medicine and follow their doctor’s direction. He used to say, “Being a doctor is a lot like being a pastor. You can only offer the medicine for a person’s illness. People have the option of listening to you or rejecting what you say.” God offers the same cure for our spiritual blindness and deafness that he offered to the Israelites. But are we rejecting his care?
Listen again to what the LORD said through Isaiah, “ I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” If we don’t reject God’s diagnosis that we are blind and deaf he will lead us down the right path. He will turn our darkness into light.
For a moment I want you to think back to the gospel lesson for this Sunday from John 9. Do your remember what Jesus did to the man who was blind? “He spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.” That seems strange, doesn’t it? In fact I wonder if some people didn’t think that Jesus had lost his mind. How can you go up to a poor blind man and smear some “spit-mud” in his eyes? It might have appeared as though Jesus was insulting the blind man. How can you expect mud to make a blind man see any better? If anything it would make matters worse. Eyes that work aren’t helped by a mud pack much less eyes that are blind.
But perhaps Jesus was teaching a lesson to the blind man and the crowd by what he did. He may have been revealing the fact that in order for a person to see he has to become completely blind. Can you understand how we might apply that to spiritual sight? If we think that we can see even a little bit of God’s truth on our own we are still blind. If we believe that we have some ability on our own to see what God wants us to see and to walk in his ways without his help we still have no sight. God must spread the mud of his law over our eyes. He shows us who we are and what our life is like without him. We are mud. He must make our blindness complete so that like beggars along the road of life we become completely dependent on him.
When we know we cannot see then there is a cure for our blindness. Jesus told the blind man with the mud in his eyes to go and “wash in the Pool of Siloam.” We hear in the gospel lesson, “So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.” Was it the water that cured the blind man? No it was the powerful words of Jesus. In a similar way Jesus has cured our blindness through the water of baptism. It is not the water but the words and promises of Jesus that have cured our spiritual blindness.
Recall another one of Jesus’ miracles. Do you remember that time when he healed a man who was deaf by putting his fingers in the man’s ears. That miracle is recorded in Mark’s gospel. Once again we can learn a lesson through the way Jesus healed the man. He illustrated the fact that we must be completely deaf in order to begin to hear as God wants us to hear.
But are we rejecting the cure that God offers for our spiritual eyes and ears? To answer that question we need to look into our heart and at our life. Are we trying to keep the light of God’s Word out of some corner of our heart? Is there a pet sin there that we don’t want anyone to see and that we foolishly think is hidden from God? Does the way we live show that we have shut our eyes and ears to the commands of God? When we look at our life next to the Ten Commandments are we happy with what we see? If we are pleased with it we are blind and deaf.
We have the cure for our blindness and deafness. It is the Word of God. But we can refuse to take the medicine that God prescribes.
Eye checks. Ear checks. We know why it is important to have both done as the doctors recommend. We want to protect our eyesight and hearing. In these verses from Isaiah the LORD would have us multiply our concern for our spiritual sight and spiritual hearing. God invites us to let him check our eyes and ears. He reveals what makes us blind and deaf. He offers a cure for both. Let’s take our medicine. Amen.
