“Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, ‘Are we blind also?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.’ “(John 9:40-41)
“Look both ways before you cross the street” my Mother would tell me regularly. Walking to High School … yes I walked to High School but not in six feet of snow. I did have to cross a busy May Avenue with four lanes of traffic and carefulness was a premium.
Any one of us who drives a car or truck knows the meaning of ‘blind spot.’ If we’re traveling down a busy interstate at sixty-five or seventy miles per hour, carefulness is a premium.
Every one of us has our own blind spots. These blind spots prevent us from seeing the truth about ourselves or someone else … and that’s a very frightening thing to consider. Our blind spots could be our traits, values, words spoken, actions taken, habits, feelings, our thoughts and more … but ‘blind spots’ they are!
In the context of John 9, Jesus has been approached by a blind man in a very public place and these Pharisees witnessed what happened. Jesus healed the man’s blindness. So why did this group of religious leaders want to argue … even deny … that Jesus was in fact the Son of God? The answer is actually very clear: Blind spots!
The fact is … our blind spots are so often undetectable with our own minds and hearts! We need help and the only real source of dependable and reliable help is the truth of God’s Word (John 8:32). We must be willing to “buy the truth and sell it not” (Proverbs 23:23).
If you and I are willing to look closely and carefully into the “mirror for the soul” (James 1:23-25) that is crystal clear to look into … not only can we see more clearly where our faults, weaknesses, prejudices and selfishness exist … God provides the remedy to overcome these blind spots that are preventing us from staying focused on the right things!
Because the Word of God provides for us “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3), we can find examples and instruction to make the necessary corrections. Recorded in 1 Samuel 3:19-20 is the inspired commentary on the life of a great man of faith who served the Lord and His people as a priest, prophet and would end up being the last judge of Israel. “So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord.”
What a wonderful description of this man of God, right? Here is where the truth about him and us is shown. As good as Samuel was, he was human and imperfect even as we are … and this man of God had ‘blind spots’!
This prophet of God made the mistake of appointing his sons as judges to rule in his place. What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong is that his sons were not the men of character their father had demonstrated in his life. The inspired account of this event is recorded in 1 Samuel 8 and we would all be wise to read and pause.
Samuel had a ‘blind spot’ when it came to his family! It is so easy and our adversary ‘camps out’ on our blind spots. So whether it is family, someone or something … we must all be willing to offer the prayer of David recorded in Psalm 119:29,”Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me Your law.”
Look both ways when crossing the roads in your life!
Bill Fairchild, Jr.
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