The Deaf Can’t Hear, And The Blind Can’t See
My wife hasn’t asked me lately if I‘m deaf. But she has asked a few times in our 55-year marriage if I have heard a word she said. Now that I have hearing aids, if I wear them, it does help with my hearing deficit. However, I have it from good sources that both husbands and wives tend to hear only what they deem significant.
The prophet Isaiah accused the Israelites of being both deaf and blind. He states, “Your ears are open, but you hear nothing. You have seen many things but have paid no attention.” (Isaiah 42:20). Sometimes, both seeing and hearing can be like we are in the dark where our seeing and hearing are limited.
Seeing and hearing need to result in our absorbing or understanding what we see or hear. We may listen to a different language and not understand what is being said. Another example of seeing but not understanding would be, if I were to see a surgery occurring, I would not know what I am seeing. I do not want to see any exposed human internal organs. I don’t want to see what a surgeon sees!
Isaiah found that God’s people had trouble seeing all of God’s good and miraculous blessings. There were also often deaf to God’s word of promise and hope. They were in the dark and could not see or hear God.
Paul also found the Christians at Ephesus sliding back into the darkness of sin. They were in darkness instead of living as the light of God in goodness, righteousness, and truth. Paul tells the Ephesians to wake up and live as the light of Christ and expose the deeds of darkness around them instead of being part of the darkness. (Eph. 5:8-14)
Jesus said, “While I am in the world. I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5) Jesus brought the light of sight to a man blind from birth. Restoring sight to someone blind from infancy had never been heard of in Israel.
On a Sabbath, Jesus spat and made some mud from the ground and put it on the blind man’s eyes. He then told the blind man to go to the pool of Siloam and wash. When the man washed at the pool, he could see.
His upset neighbors demanded to know how he could now see. They were not satisfied when He said that the man they call Jesus had put mud on his eyes, and when he washed at the pool, he could see. They took the man to the Pharisees because they were unwilling to accept that the man had sight when he had never had it before. Like his neighbors, the Pharisees refused to believe Jesus was responsible for the blind man’s ability to see.
The Pharisees held Jesus as a sinner and anyone who acknowledged Jesus would be removed from the synagogue. The religious leaders refused to believe the man when he repeatedly said Jesus healed his blindness. They put the man out of the synagogue when he wouldn’t change his story. He did not care what the Pharisees thought. He said about Jesus, “One thing I know. I was blind, but now I see.” (John 9:1-41)
