Those with Eyes to See and Ears to Hear—Where Are They?

(from Journal, 6-24-2003)

Possibly the greatest frustration for a Christian is when people reject their witness and testimony of Christ and His love. He has placed a burning desire to share the love that Christ has shared with us. We all expect others to respond to the preaching of the good news through our lips and are disappointed when they don’t. Some of us newly minted Christians even ran out there with our hair on fire trying to convert everyone.

When it did not happen, in utter frustration, we ask, “Why don’t they believe?” The answer from Christ’s lips is so counterintuitive that very few preachers even go there; you won’t hear it preached on Sunday morning.

Why won’t they believe? The simple answer: They have not been given the spiritual tools to be able to perceive at this time the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. The mysteries are spiritually discerned. It is through their unbelief in Yahweh that their eyes are blinded. Once their heart believes, then the scales will fall from their eyes, and they will be able to see the “things God has prepared for those that love Him.”

Why can’t they see? The Holy Spirit in John answers the question directly: “Therefore they could not believe because…He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart and be converted, and I should heal them” (John 12:40).

The Spirit is quoting His own words through Isaiah: “And he said, Go, and say to this people:
Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed” (6:9-10).

So, God gives some people, most people—at this time—a spiritual sleep, a slumber of unbelief.  This unbelief blinds them spiritually so that they cannot perceive the things of God. We must be patient, enduring the rebuffs and rejections, knowing that every incident dovetails into His grand scheme of things. It is all working for good as we wait on Him to renew our strength.

Parable of the Sower

A parable is a “dark saying” that purposely clouds the meaning for some hearers. Christ spoke in parables to prevent the masses at that time from understanding the message of the kingdom. The disciples asked Him, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” Christ said, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” He chooses in His unfathomable knowledge the likes of us and has given us knowledge of the mysteries of life. And to those of us who now have the knowledge of His secrets and mysteries, He gives even more (Matt. 13:10-15). It is all Him.

The above explains Matthew 13’s The Parable of the Sower. The word is sown into four types of earth: the wayside where the fouls (Satan’s minions) gobble up the word; the stony places where the lack of topsoil causes the seed to not bear fruit; the thorns where the seed/word is choked out by the cares of this life. But the last is the good ground of a good and honest heart and which bears three levels of spiritual fruit production: 30-fold children; 60-fold young men and women; and 100-fold spiritual fathers and virtuous women. We don’t know what kind of ground the people have when we witness to them. If it is the former three types, then it gets grim.

If it is good ground, then fruit of various levels of production will be harvested. We are not to figure out which type of ground it is. We are to sow His seed and let Yahweh do His wonders. That is our job. For His word will not return to Him void but will accomplish what He wants done. “One plants, one waters, but it is God who gives the increase.”

We should not, therefore, huff and puff and try to convert the world. We do what we can while maintaining rest in Him. This is trusting Him that He will reach those whom He will reach. In the meantime, we study that we may be ready to feed His lambs and sheep the words of truth.

The Arm of Yahweh

In frustration, Isaiah lamented: “Who has believed our report? To whom is the arm of Yahweh revealed?” (53:1). Believing in Yahweh as the Savior will reveal to us that Yahshua was the arm of Yahweh. Yahshua (Christ) was the “expressed image of the invisible God.” And by believing in this report that Yahweh raised that human vessel from the dead, we are saved from sin and sinning. Yahweh saves us by raising up the man Yahshua. By believing in this resurrection, we tap into the Root of eternal life.

The election has obtained this right state with God through faith in His resurrection. Yah has blinded the rest of Israel [twelve tribes]. “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles (nations, the ethnos) be come in” (Romans 11:25).

We can see Yah’s ordering of His Vision for His earth in that last sentence. The Twelve Tribes of Israel, though lost, are in the earth today. They are blind as to their identity as the “lost sheep of the House of Israel.” They will stay spiritually blind until God’s ordained timing for them is fulfilled after a certain number of Gentiles have come into His Kingdom.

He ordains everything. We may not fully comprehend His plan, but we must rest our minds, knowing that “He does all things decently and in order.” The One who knows the number of hairs on our heads surely knows how to fulfill His will in earth as it is in heaven.

The original question was this: Why don’t they believe? The answer: It is not their time yet. Yah is fair and just. He has a time for everyone. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”

The frustration will subside when we begin to believe that everyone slated to repent and turn with their whole heart to God has a timing pre-ordained by Him. If you can perceive the above, then “blessed are your eyes for they see.” This should give us rest.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock