Selective Blindness

[1]

Luke 4:16-17, 28-30 Good News Translation

¹⁶ Then Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath, he went as usual to the synagogue. He stood up to read the Scriptures ¹⁷ and was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written, …

²⁸ When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were filled with anger. ²⁹ They rose up, dragged Jesus out of town, and took him to the top of the hill on which their town was built. They meant to throw him over the cliff, ³⁰ but he walked through the middle of the crowd and went his way.

 

Ever since I was a kid, this story has intrigued me. Here Christ preaches to His home town crowd in the familiar old synagogue. What He says riles them up so much that they grab Him, and the whole mob drags Him over to the edge of a cliff intending to throw Him over. Standing momentarily immovable there on the edge of the cliff, He simply starts walking right through the midst of the mob and away from them.

Suddenly those who were clutching Him all lose their grip on Him. He disappears from their view, although He is still right there. A ripple occurs in the mob as they temporarily move aside to let Him pass—but they don’t see Him and cannot feel or sense Him. They see someone enough to make way for him, but they don’t perceive that it is He. He casually walks back though the village and doesn’t visit again until their anger is forgotten, maybe never.

That reminds me of Lot’s experience in Sodom, told in Genesis 19. All the depraved men in Sodom were trying to beat down Lot’s door to get at two strangers they had seen enter there. Suddenly the angels inside the house strike these perverts “blind.” But the blindness is more than a lack of sight. They can’t even find the door that they were trying to beat down immediately before. They apparently can’t even feel the door. The fact that they were still trying to get at these strangers indicates that they were seeing everything except their goal. If they had been truly blind—as in unable to see anything—they would have been crying out in terror.

Another occasion occurred in Acts chapter 12. Four quaternions, or 16 guards had been assigned to keep Peter in prison until he could be executed the following day. Their very lives depended on his not escaping. An angel marches Peter past all of them undetected. Evidently, they didn’t discover his absence earlier, or they would have fled, or tried to fall on their swords as the jailor in Philippi attempted to do—see Acts 16:27.

In my blog published on January 22, 2022,[2] I told the story of Mrs. Wangai who escaped death at the hands of the Mau Mau freedom-fighters/terrorists in the decade of the 1950s because her captors didn’t see her leave their clutches.

Apparently, God still employs this selective blindness in modern times to benefit his children. In Matthew 13:14 (GNT) it says the following: “They will look and look, but never perceive.”

You are still willing and able to strike Your children’s enemies with selective blindness, Lord, to protect Your children. Thank you!

 

 

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[1] https://www.holyspiritcathparish.org/throwing-jesus-off-a-cliff/

[2] http://wils-thoughts.blogspot.com/ 

Beating Cancer

 

[1]

Deuteronomy 10:21
Good News Translation
²¹ Praise him—he is your God, and you have seen with your own eyes the great and astounding things that he has done for you.

 

Great and marvelous are Your works, O God.

Sylvia and I drove over 8,700 miles or 14,000 kilometers through nineteen states during the months of June, July and August this year—without mishap. Closer to home, twice Sylvia was driving when each of our vehicles was totaled, yet she walked away from each accident. Last year she fell approximately 30 feet down a nearly vertical rock face and survived well enough so that, although she broke six or seven bones and gashed her head wide open, she is now living principally without pain.

Cancer struck me some 16 years ago. I am still fighting it and keeping it at bay, so far. The major reason for our trip this summer was to gain a new weapon in that battle at Uchee Pines Institute. My latest weapon against cancer is whole body hyperthermia, or a fever bath. Here at home, I have a steam tent to raise my body temperature above 102º F (39º C) for 20 minutes. Since I started the fever bath in July, my cancer indicator PSA has dropped by fully 50%. I appreciate your prayers on my behalf. For more details send me an email, or comment on this blog.

Since the cancer started, I have overcome West Nile Virus only through the intervention of God. I have had COVID-19 and survived it well due to my being vaccinated and God’s protection. For me, taking advantage of the skills and knowledge God has given humans through modern medicine, far from denying our faith, instead acknowledges His ultimate control over all things here on earth. Today, I am seeing because of modern medicine and traditional Adventist hydrotherapy, even though painful blindness struck me a year ago.

Indeed, I praise You, O God, for the great and astounding things You have done for me!

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 [1] A picture of me in my steam tent. The steam generator is on the floor to the right of the tent.