“And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did the sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” (John 9:1-3)
There is a truth in this account of the blind man that many like to gloss over, for it does not suit their taste of who they perceive God to be. This man was born blind because our Lord wanted him to be born blind, He saw him in the womb and caused him not only to be born with the inability to see with his eyes, but kept him in the bondage of that infirmity for many years, so “that the works of God could be made manifest in him.” That is the part that most Christians like to look at, that gives encouragement to them in the incredible blessings and power of Christ, but not the beginnings of this man. Not the inconceivable sorrow of parents as they looked upon their new born baby, one who they thought would never see a blue sky or the storm clouds approaching, one who would require nearly constant care for his entire life, one who would in one form or another need continuing assistance from someone.
We enjoy the account of the miracle of sight that our Lord blessed him with, how he stood up before the pharisees, one of the most often repeated verses in all of Christianity is in John 9:25 “One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see,” and how he worshipped the Lord when he finally met Him again. The first part of this man’s life, almost four decades worth, and how the Lord God blinded him for this very purpose many like to skip over. Why do you think that is, why do so many today want only to serve a “pick and choose” God, why do they fear to look upon a God who does what He chooses to do whenever He desires to?
We love to look upon the Ark of the Covenant, even the story of when the Philistines captured it and the statue of Dagon crumbling before it (1 Sam. 5:2-7), but not so much the tens of thousands that our Lord killed just for looking in it (1 Sam. 6:19). We will tell the account of Noah, of the eight souls that our Lord saved from the flood (Genesis 5-9), but we don’t want to think about, much less discuss the hundreds of thousands who screamed as they drowned, or all the animals that died in the same way, a way that God chose for them to die. We adore the account of the empty tomb our Lord walked out of (Matt. 28:1-8) but will take a pass on the one who made a whip before He went into the temple. Just the happy parts please, I don’t ever want to have to feel bad.
How do you think the man in question felt when he had time to sit down and really think about those first few decades of his life, what were his thoughts toward his Creator when he came to the realization that the Lord God was responsible for his blindness in the first place. Herein lies the topic of this letter to you then my friends, how would you feel?
My adoring, Christ centered wife had a childhood that you would not wish on your worst enemy, and this life lasted the exact same amount of time that the man in John nines blindness lasted, from birth until she accepted Christ as Savior. She doesn’t blame the Lord for all those years when evil was placed upon her, nor of the times that she walked in the world by her own accord, but she continues to thank Him and glorify His name that He brought her out of the darkness, and she has become and is becoming more each day one who is willing to speak not only to those who are still trapped as she was, but to all that will listen about her wonderful Savior. If you are a born-again believer you must know and accept this, that everything that happened to you before you heeded the knock on the door of your heart, Christ knew about. It does not matter how bad it was, how much pain and suffering you endured, He knew about it and He let it happen. Let that sink in for a moment.
Why would He do that, why would the Lord God allow someone that He foreknew was going to enter His Kingdom for all of eternity allow such suffering and trouble to enter one of His children’s lives? So that the works of God would be made manifest in them. When those rare occasions happen that I give my testimony to someone, they generally look at me in disbelief and pity, for I have seen the face of death several times. My response is always the same though, I give God the glory, it is one of the ways that He has manifested His works in me. What I find magnificent is those believers who suffered before they knew Him as Lord, and how well they suffer for Him now, now that there is a known purpose for their suffering. The trials and tribulations are rejoiced over, they do not seek them, but they in no way hide from them or try to get an answer from the Lord for their reasons. He has sent them, that is enough, and we will find a way in them to glorify His name.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) The lost can never understand this, and the weaker brother will have difficulty in comprehending it, but to the obedient servant of Christ, a broken leg is a good thing, cancer is a good thing, death is a good thing, those whom He has written in the palm of His hand (Isaiah 49:16) receive only good things, and no evil will befall them (Psalms 91:10). Why would we be concerned with the death of this mortal temple when we are being taught to die to self every day, why would we fear anything that comes our way when everything that comes into our lives has gone thru the throne of His grace first. I know my lovely wife does not blame our Lord for any of those things that happened in her life before Christ, and I’m guessing that the blind man felt exactly the same way. Now can you?
