Psalm 121, 122, 123; Jer. 25:8-17; Rom. 10:1-13; John 9:18-41
The sovereignty of God extends to the Babylonians and other nations, not just Israel. He has prepared the Babylonians as the agents of His judgment against His people and they will do His will whether they know it or not. Does that mean that we are nothing but automatons, without the ability to act independently? Are we simply pieces on a grand chessboard or are we truly human? The Babylonians very character and the character of Nebuchadnezzar defined them in a certain way and the Lord uses our natural inclinations to accomplish His will while allowing us the freedom to be human. We see again and again that Jesus knows people inside and out and we also know that the Father consistently uses other nations and their rulers by allowing them to act in accordance with their natures, knowing they will be disobedient to their created nature but His purposes require them to act according to their unredeemed nature. We can submit to God’s will and be used for noble purposes or He will use our will for other purposes less noble but no less important. Sin really messes up the entire system.
The Pharisees are easily toyed with by Jesus. He has played them well here by using mud to effect this healing. If He had spoken and healed him, as He was certainly able to do (He spoke and Lazarus came back from the dead), they would have been less upset. Jesus knew their nature and that if he broke the Sabbath restrictions they had established they would default to the belief that even though Jesus healed this man born blind they were more religious and righteous than He. All that He did required faith to see and believe and they were unwilling to do so. This man, however, was not bitter for all the years he spent as a blind beggar but was prepared to believe in the one who healed him. His parents were afraid of the threats to de-synagogue those who confessed Jesus but this man couldn’t be bullied by such threats as he had always been de-synagogued because of his deformity. Their judgment on him was that he was born in “utter sin” and yet in the end they are the ones judged as blind by God.
The Lord didn’t set the truth far from our reach. Paul says, however, that sin keeps us from seeing and grasping that truth. We prefer a system that allows us to be in control of our destiny and we are not and have not been since the garden of Eden. We ceded control over the future when we chose to rebel against God. Paul says that he prays for the Jews that they will come to the Lord in faith for salvation but they prefer the law as a means of righteousness even though it produces not righteousness but sin. The only one who has ever been judged righteous under the law is the one who was condemned under the law by men. It is a difficult thing to admit that you have been so wrong about righteousness as to have condemned God as a sinner and yourself as something more like a saint.
The Church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against both foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.
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