Psalms 8:1 and add 31:1-3
My Shepherd found me foraging about in His green pastures and guided me to Luke 18. The passage where He laid me down to feed was Luke 18:31-34:
Luke 18:31 ¶ Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
Luke 18:32 For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:
Luke 18:33 And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.
Luke 18:34 And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.
Jesus had exhorted His disciples to pray always and not to faint (Luke 18:1-8). He warned them against self-righteous condemnation of others (Luke 18:9-14), and rebuked His disciples for their misguided efforts to protect Him from what they regarded as frivolous and perhaps annoying intrusions on His time (Luke 18:15-17), but a rich young ruler came to Him unimpeded by the disciples, interestingly (Luke 18:18-27). The young ruler desired eternal life and was taught it was beyond what he was willing to pay. When Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,” His disciples exclaimed: “Who then can be saved?” (Luke 18:26). Jesus assured them that what is impossible for man is possible for GOD (Luke 18:27). Peter declared that the disciples who followed Jesus had “left all, and followed him” (Luke 18:28). Jesus assured them of their reward and stipulated it would be realized now, in this world, and in the world to come (Luke 18:29-30).
“Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them” something they simply could not hear with understanding (Luke 18:31-34).
Isn’t it interesting that after the words of His prophecy found no place in their hearts, their eyes being blinded, Jesus encountered and healed a blind man named Bartimaeus (Luke 18:35-43; see Mark 10:46-52)? The entire chapter is a message on heart blindness:
In a condition of heart blindness, we fail to see God rightly, and the consequence is a failure to be persistent in prayer (Luke 18:1-8).
In heart blindness, we fail to see ourselves and others rightly: the Pharisee saw himself as righteous and the publican as sinful (Luke 18:9-14).
In heart blindness, we fail to value and cherish children as He does, seeing in them a heart prepared to believe (Luke 18:15-17).
In heart blindness, we think riches testify to God’s favor, and, if challenged to give up the possession or the dream of riches, find ourselves unable to see that what is impossible for men, to purchase eternal life, is possible only for GOD, Who delivered the price in full by the blood of His own Son (Matthew 18:18-27).
In heart blindness, we who have forsaken all to follow Him can’t see the multiplicity of blessings we enjoy, the manifold benefits of our present service both now and in the world to come (Luke 18:28-30). Had Peter and the rest failed to notice that since they began following Jesus, they never lacked anything? Happily, they do finally notice this: “And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing” (Luke 22:35). It’s important to note something mentioned in Mark’s account: our present blessings, though many, are “with persecutions” (Mark 10:28-31).
But in my mind, the most serious symptom of heart blindness is the incapacity to hear the Word of God when it is spoken clearly and directly (Luke 18:31-34). It’s almost impossible to understand how anyone hearing Jesus say what is recorded in this passage could fail to understand His words. Makes me wonder what heart blindness in me might be interfering!
Fitting that this chapter should end with the remarkable story of blind Bartimaeus receiving his sight because his heart was not blind. With his heart, he “saw” Jesus, the “son of David,” through the crowd and sought Him through the obstacles placed before him by men. With his heart, by faith, he saw his hope and cried for sight; then with his eyes he saw, and his first sight was Jesus speaking to him: “Thy faith hath saved thee” (Luke 18:42; see 35-43).
Along the still waters, I reflected on all this and asked, what is the key truth here that will help me avoid heart blindness? “Believe,” came the answer! What opened the eyes of Bartimaeus? Faith! Jerry, you can never go wrong if you’re reading right—with faith-sight! The disciples couldn’t understand some of the most straightforward language you’ll find anywhere in Scripture because their ears were blocked with a wrong focus, a wrong presupposition, and a wrong attitude toward Jesus. They believed He was there to set up the promised eternal kingdom, and could not see that He was there to reestablish His temporal kingdom, the one He had given to Israel, which He had withdrawn and given to the Gentiles, and came to return it to Israel. She missed it! He continued with the Gentiles—and finally brought forth the possession of the kingdom in this nation “under God.”
In the valley, the key principle of the present rule of Christ over the kingdoms of man (Revelation 1:5; Ephesians 1:12-21; etc.) was spoken in the voice of the sound of many waters and filled me like water fills a glass: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
At the table, He anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup for the day and mingled in it sufficient measures of His grace to sustain me. Goodness and mercy came along, and we walked together into His harvest.
Praying for revival! 🙏
Going live asap:
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