"Then
Jehovah opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel
of Jehovah standing in the way" (Num. 22:31).
"Balaam
the son of Beor saith, and the man whose eye is opened
saith... falling down, and having his eyes open" (Num.
24:3-4; A.R.V. Margin).
"And
they come to Jericho: and as He went out from Jericho,
with His disciples and a great multitude, the son of
Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the
way side... And Jesus answered him, and said,
What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?
And the blind man said unto Him, Rabboni, that I
may receive my sight." And Jesus said unto him,
"Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole.
And straightway he received his sight, and followed Him
in the way" (Mark 10:46, 51-52).
And He
took hold of the blind man by the hand, and brought him
out of the village; and when He had spit on his eyes, and
laid His hands upon him, He asked him, Seest thou
aught? And he looked up, and said, I see men;
for behold them as trees, walking. Then again He
laid His hands upon his eyes; and he looked stedfastly,
and was restored, and saw all things clearly" (Mark
8:23-25).
"And as
He passed by, He saw a man blind from his birth... and
said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of
Siloam... He went away therefore, and washed,
and came seeing... He therefore answered,
Whether he is a sinner, I know not: one thing I
know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see" (John 9:1, 7,
25).
"...that
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in
the knowledge of Him; having the eyes of your heart
enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His
calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints" (Eph. 1:17-18).
"I
counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire, that thou
mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest
clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be
not made manifest; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes,
that thou mayest see" (Rev. 3:18).
"...to
open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to
light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may
receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them
that are sanctified by faith in Me" (Acts 26:18).
I think the
phrase used by Balaam might very well stand at the head
of our present meditation - "the man whose eye
is opened".
The
Root Malady of Our Time
As we
contemplate the state of things in the world today, we
are very deeply impressed and oppressed with the
prevailing malady of spiritual blindness. It is the root
malady of the time. We should not be far wrong if we said
that most, if not all, of the troubles from which the
world is suffering, are traceable to that root, namely,
blindness. The masses are blind; there is no doubt about
that. In a day which is supposed to be a day of
unequalled enlightenment, the masses are blind. The
leaders are blind, blind leaders of the blind. But in a
very large measure, the same is true of the Lord's
people. Speaking quite generally, Christians are today
very blind.
A
General Survey of the Ground of Spiritual Blindness
The
passages which we have just read cover in a general way a
great deal, if not all, of the ground of spiritual
blindness. They begin with those who never have seen,
those born blind.
Then there
are those who have been given vision, but are not seeing
very much, nor very clearly - "men as trees
walking" - but who come to see yet more perfectly
under a further work of grace.
Then there
are those who have true and clear sight as far as it
goes, but for whom a vast realm of Divine thought and
purpose still waits upon a fuller work of the Holy
Spirit. "That He would grant unto you a spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; having the
eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is
the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of
His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding
greatness of His power to usward who believe." Those
words are addressed to people who have sight, but for
whom this great realm of Divine meaning still waits upon
their knowing a fuller work of the Holy Spirit in the
matter of spiritual sight.
Then,
again, there are those who have seen and have followed,
but who have lost spiritual sight, of which they were
once possessed, and are now blind, but with the most
fatal additional factor: they think they see and they are
blind to their own blindness. That was the tragedy of
Laodicea.
Further,
there are those two classes represented by Balaam and
Saul of Tarsus, from whom we have quoted. Balaam, blinded
by gain, or the prospect of gain. That is, I think, what
is meant in the New Testament by following in the way of
Balaam; being taken up so much with the question of gain
and loss as to be blind to the great thoughts of God and
purpose of God, not seeing the Lord Himself in the way,
and by his blindness coming very near to being smitten
down on the road. The statement is quite definite there.
Balaam did not see the Lord until the Lord opened his
eyes, and then he saw the Lord. "The angel of the
Lord": that is the way which it is put. I have not
much doubt but that it is the Lord Himself. Then he saw.
Later he made that double statement about the matter -
"the man whose eye is opened," "falling
down and having his eyes open." Such is Balaam, a
man blinded by considerations of a personal character, of
a personal nature, how things would affect him. That is
what it amounts to. And what a blinding thing that is
where spiritual matters are concerned. If ever you or I
pause on that question, we are in very grave peril. If
ever for a moment we allow ourselves to be influenced by
such questions as, how will this affect me, what will
this cost me, what do I stand to get out of this or to
lose by this? That is a moment when darkness may very
well take possession of our hearts and we go in the way
of Balaam.
Then, on
the other hand we have Saul of Tarsus. There is no doubt
about his blindness; but his was the blindness of his
very religious zeal, his zeal for God, his zeal for
tradition, his zeal for historic religion, his zeal for
the established and accepted thing in the religious
world. It was a blind zeal about which afterward he had
to say, "I verily thought that I ought to do many
things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth"
(Acts 26:9). "I thought I ought." What a
tremendous turn round it was when he discovered that the
things which he thought, and passionately thought he
ought to do, in order to please God and to satisfy his
own conscience, were utterly and diametrically opposed to
God and the way of right and truth. What blindness!
Surely he stands as an abiding warning to us all that
zeal for anything is not necessarily a proof that the
thing is right, and that we are on the right road. Our
very zeal as a thing in itself may be a blinding thing,
our devotion to tradition may be our blindness.
I think eyes have a very large place in Paul's life.
When his eyes spiritually were opened, his eyes naturally
were blinded, and you can use that as a metaphor. The
using of natural eyes religiously too strongly may be
just the indication of how blind we are, and it may be
that, when those natural eyes religiously are blinded, we
will see something, and not until they are do we see
something. For a lot of people, the thing that is in the
way of their real seeing is that they see too much and
see in the wrong way. They are seeing with natural
senses, natural faculties of reason and intellect and
learning, and all that is in the way. Paul stands to tell
us that sometimes, in order really to see, it is
necessary to be blinded. Evidently that left its mark
upon him, just as the finger of the Lord left its mark
upon Jacob, for the rest of his days. He went into
Galatia and later wrote the Letter to the Galatians; and
you remember he said, "I bear you witness, that, if
possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes and given
them to me" (4:15); meaning that they noted his
affliction, they were aware of that mark which had lasted
from the Damascus road, and so felt for him, that if they
could have done so, they would have plucked out their
very eyes for him. But it is wonderful that the
commission which came when he was naturally blinded on
the Damascus road was all about eyes. He was blind, and
they led him by the hand into Damascus; but the Lord had
said in that hour, "to whom I send thee to open
their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and
from the power of Satan unto God".
Well, all
these have their own message for us, but they cover the
ground fairly generally in relation to spiritual sight.
There are, of course, many details, but we will not seek
to search those out at the moment; we will get on with
this general consideration.
Spiritual
Sight Always a Miracle
When we
have covered the whole ground in a general way, we come
back to notice one particular and peculiar feature in
every case, and that is, that spiritual sight is always a
miracle. That fact carries with it the whole significance
of the coming into this world of God’s Son. The very
justification of the coming into this world of the Lord
Jesus Christ is found in the Word of God; because it is a
settled matter with God Himself that man now is born
blind. "I am come a light into the world" (John
12:46); "I am the light of the world" (John
9:5): and that statement, as you know was made right
there in that section of John’s Gospel where the
Lord Jesus is dealing with blindness. "When I am in
the world, I am the light of the world", and He
illustrates that by dealing with the man born blind.
So
spiritual sight is a miracle from heaven every time, and
that means that the one who really sees spiritually has a
miracle right at the foundation of his life. His whole
spiritual life springs out of a miracle, and it is the
miracle of having sight given to eyes which never have
seen. That is just where the spiritual life begins, just
where the Christian life has its commencement: it is in
seeing.
And whoever
preaches must have that miracle in his history, and he
himself is dependent entirely upon that miracle being
repeated in the case of every one who listens to him.
That is where he is so helpless and so foolish. Perhaps
it is here that, in one sense, we find "the
foolishness of preaching". A man may have seen, and
may be preaching what he has seen, but no one listening
to him has seen or does see: and so he is saying to the
blind, See! And they see not. He is dependent entirely
upon the Spirit of God coming and, there and then,
working a miracle. Unless that miracle is wrought, his
preaching is vain, so far as the desired effect is
concerned. I do not know what you say when you come into
a gathering and bow your head in prayer, but there is a
suggestion for you. There may be present that which has
come out of a miracle in the one who is giving it forth
in preaching or teaching, and you may miss it all. The
suggestion is that you ever and always ask the Holy
Spirit to work that miracle in you afresh in this hour,
that you may see.
But we go
further. Every bit of new seeing is a work from heaven.
It is not something done fully once for all. It is
possible for us to go on seeing and seeing, and yet more
fully seeing, but with every fresh fragment of truth,
this work, which is not in our power to do, has to be
done. Spiritual life is not only a miracle in its
inception; it is a continuous miracle in this matter
right on to the last. That is what arises from the
passages we have read. A man may have had a touch, and,
whereas before he was blind and saw nothing, now he sees;
but he sees only a little, both in its measure and in its
range, and he sees imperfectly. There is a certain amount
of distortion about his vision yet. Another touch is
required from heaven in order that he may see all things
correctly, perfectly. But even then it is not the end,
for such as are seeing things correctly, perfectly,
within that measure, have yet possibilities from God of
seeing such vast ranges. But is it still a spirit of
wisdom and revelation which is required to effect it. All
the way along it is from heaven. And who would have it
otherwise, for is not this the thing which gives to a
true spiritual life its real value, that there should
forever remain in it the miraculous element?
The
Effect of the Loss of Spiritual Sight
Then we
come to that final word. To lose spiritual vision is to
lose the supernatural feature of the spiritual life, and
that produces the Laodicean state. If you seek to get to
the heart of this thing, this state of things represented
by Laodicea, neither hot nor cold, the state which
provokes the Lord to say, "I will spew thee out of
My mouth"; if you seek to get to the heart of it and
say, Why is this, what is the thing lying behind this?
The one thing that explains it is simply this, that it
has lost its supernatural feature, it has come down to
earth; it is religious, but it has come out of its
heavenly place. And then, you see, you get the
corresponding rebound to overcomers in Laodicea, "He
that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me
in My throne". You have gone down a long way to
earth, you have lost your heavenly feature, but for
overcomers in the midst of such conditions there is still
a place above, showing the Lord’s thought as over
against this condition. To lose spiritual vision is to
lose the supernatural feature of the spiritual life. When
that has gone out, be as religious as you like, the Lord
only has one word to say - Buy eyesalve: that is your
need.
The
Need of the Hour
That brings
us, then, to the need of the hour, the need which, of
course, is the need of every hour, of every day, of every
age. But we are made more and more aware in our time of
this need, and in a sense, we can say there never was a
time when there was a greater need for people who could
say and can say, I see! That is the need just now. Great
and terrible is that need, and not until that need is met
will there be any hope. Hope hangs upon this, that there
would arise people in this world, this dark world of
confusion and chaos and tragedy and contradiction, people
who are able to say, I see! If there should arise a man
today who had position, to exercise influence and be
taken account of, and such a man who saw, what new hope
would arise with him, what a new prospect! That is the
need. Whether that need will be met in a public,
national, international way or not, I do not know, but
that need must be met in a spiritual way by people on
this earth who are in that position, who really can say,
I see!
You see,
Christianity has so largely become a tradition. The truth
has been resolved into truths and put into a Blue-Book,
the Blue-Book of Evangelical Doctrine, a set and fenced
up thing. These are the evangelical doctrines, they set
the bounds of evangelical Christianity in preaching and
in teaching. Yes, they are presented in many and various
forms. They are served up with interesting and attractive
anecdotes and illustrations, and with studied originality
and uniqueness, so that the old truths will not be too
obvious, but will stand some chance of getting over
because of the clothes in which they are dressed up; and
a very great deal depends upon the ability and the
personality of the preacher or the teacher. People say, I
like his style, I like his manner, I like his way of
saying things! - and much depends upon that: but when all
those trappings have been stripped off, the stories, the
anecdotes, the illustrations, and the personality and the
ability of the preacher or teacher; when that has all
gone, you have simply got again the same old things, and
some of us come along and outdo the last man in the way
of presenting them in order to gain for them some
acceptance, some impression. I do not think that is
unkind criticism, for that is what it amounts to; and no
one will think that I am asking for a change or dismissal
of the old truths.
But what I
am trying to get at is this: it is not new truths, it is
not the changing of the truth, but it is that there shall
be those who, in presenting the truth, can be recognised
by those who listen as men who have seen: and that makes
all the difference. Not men who have read and studied and
prepared, but men who have seen, about whom there is that
which we find in this man in John 9 - the element of
wonder. "Whether he is a sinner, I know not: one
thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see".
And you know whether a person has seen or not, you know
where it has come from and how it has come: and that is
the need: that something, that indefinable something,
which works out in wonder, and you have to say, That man
has seen something, that woman has seen something! It is
that seeing factor which makes all the difference.
Oh yes, it
is a far bigger thing than you and I have yet
appreciated. Let me tell you forthwith that all hell is
banded together against that, and the man who has had his
eyes opened is going to meet hell. This man in John 9 was
up against it at once. They cast him out, and even his
own parents were afraid to take sides with him because of
the cost. "He is of age, ask him". Yes, this is
our son, but do not press us too much, do not involve us
in this thing; go to him, get it cleared up with him,
leave us alone! They saw a red light, and so they were
seeking to by-pass this issue. It costs to see, and it
may cost everything, because of the immense value of
seeing to the Lord, and as against Satan, the god of this
age, who hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving. It is
the undoing of his work. "I send thee to open their
eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from
the power of Satan unto God". Satan is not going to
take that, neither at the beginning nor in any measure.
It is a tremendous thing, to see.
But oh,
what a need today for men and women who can stand
spiritually in the position in which this man stood and
say, I was blind, but now I see, and this one thing I
know! It is a great thing to be there. How much I do not
know, one thing I do know, I see! which was not the case
before. There is an impact, a registration, with that.
Life and light always go together in the Word of God. If
a man really sees, there is life, and there is uplift. If
he is giving you something secondhand, studied, read,
worked up, there is no life in it, other than, perhaps,
that temporary and false lift of interest, passing
fascination. But there is no real life which makes people
live.
So one does
not plead for changing the truth or having new truths,
but for spiritual sight into the truth. "The Lord
hath yet more light and truth to break forth from His
Word", which is true. Let me get rid of that thing
which has been fastened upon us here if I can. We do not
seek for new revelation, and we do not say or suggest or
hint that you may have anything extra to the Word of God,
but we do claim that there is a vast amount in the Word
of God that we have never seen, which we may see. Surely
everybody agrees with that: and it is just that - to see,
and the more you see, really see, the more overwhelmed
you feel about the whole thing, because you know that you
have come to the borders of the land of far distances,
lying far beyond a short lifetime’s power of
experience.
Now just to
close, let me repeat, that, at every stage from
initiation to consummation, spiritual life must have this
secret in it, I see! Right at the commencement when we
are born again, that should be the spontaneous expression
or ejaculation in the life. Our Christian life ought to
begin there. But all the way along to the final
consummation it must be that, the working out of this
miracle, so that you and I are maintained in this
atmosphere of wonder, the wonder-factor repeated again
and again, so that every fresh occasion is as though we
had never yet seen anything at all.
But I may
as well say at once that usually a new breaking in of the
Spirit in that way follows the eclipse of all that has
gone before. It seems that the Lord has to make it
necessary, so that we come to the place where we cry out,
Unless the Lord shows, unless the Lord reveals, unless
the Lord does a new thing, all that ever has been is as
nothing, it will not save me now! Thus He leads us into a
dark place, a dark time. We feel that what has been has
lost the power which it once had to make us buoyant,
triumphant. That is the Lord’s way of keeping us
moving on. If you and I were allowed to be perfectly
satisfied with what we have got at any stage, and not to
feel the absolute necessity for something we never have
had, should we go on? Of course not! To keep us going on,
the Lord has to bring about those experiences where it is
absolutely necessary for us to see the Lord, and know the
Lord in a new way, and it must just be so all the way
along to the end. It may be a series of crises of seeing
and seeing again, and yet again, as the Lord opens our
eyes, and we are able to say, as never before, I see! So
it is not our study, our learning, our book knowledge,
but it is a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him, the eyes of our hearts being
enlightened, and it is that seeing which brings the note
of authority that is so much needed. That is the element,
the feature, that is required today. It is not just
seeing for seeing’s sake, but it is to bring in a
new note of authority.
Where is
the voice of authority today? Where are those who are
really speaking with authority? We are languishing
terribly in every department of life for the voice of
authority. The Church is languishing for want of a voice
of spiritual authority, want of that prophetic note -
Thus saith the Lord! The world is languishing for want of
authority, and that authority is with those who have
seen. There is far more authority in the man born blind
seeing, in his testimony - One thing I know that, whereas
I was blind, now I see - than there is in all Israel,
with all Israel’s tradition and learning. And may it
not be that that was the thing about the Lord Jesus that
carried such weight, for "He spoke as One having
authority, and not as the Scribes" (Matt. 7:29). The
Scribes were the authorities. If anybody wanted an
interpretation of the law, they went to the Scribes. If
they wanted to know what the authoritative position was,
they went to the Scribes. But He spoke as One having
authority, and not as the Scribes. Wherein lay that
authority? Just that in all things He could say, I know!
It is not what I have read, what I have been told, what I
have studied, that is with power, but this - I know! I
have seen!
The
Lord make us all to be of those who have eyes opened.