Blind Witnesses

Blind Witnesses in Isaiah’s Courtroom Scene

Please turn to Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah 43. When you have that, go ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word. Bring out the people who are blind yet have eyes, who are deaf yet have ears. All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble.

Who among them can declare this and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right. Let them hear and say it is true. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.

Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior. I declared and saved and proclaimed. And when there was no strange God among you, and you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and I am God.

Also henceforth I am he. There is none who can deliver from my hand. I work, and who can turn it back?

Amen.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask today that your Word would open our eyes. We are your witnesses, Lord. As it describes here, people who are blind yet have eyes, who are deaf yet have ears.

We know that you are one who opens eyes and ears, and we pray that you would do so today. In Jesus' name, amen. Throughout this section in Isaiah, Isaiah highlights, or the Lord through Isaiah highlights in a number of ways how he brings himself glory in unexpected ways, in ways that people do not anticipate.

And in particular, that is highlighted here by the fact that he brings his people as witnesses, his people who are blind and deaf as witnesses. This is counterintuitive. Typically, when you bring a witness, it's someone who has seen and heard in very clear ways.

These are people who have eyes and have ears who are able to observe, but they are not able to understand because they are blind and are deaf. I named this sermon early on in the week, but if I were to rename it, I would simply call it Blind Witnesses, Blind Witnesses, because it highlights the irony that the Lord is using to demonstrate the way that he brings himself glory here.

The Courtroom Imagery in Isaiah 41–43

First of all, in this passage, when it says, bring out the people who are blind yet have eyes, who are deaf yet have ears, he is drawing the metaphor again of a courtroom scene. This is something that we have seen a few times before in this section in Isaiah.

He said in Isaiah 41 .1, Listen to me in silence, O coastlands. Let the people renew their strength. Let them approach. Then let them speak. Let us draw near for judgment.

So he imagines the people.

He describes the people all coming to him for judgment. Verse 21 of chapter 41 says, Set forth your case, says the Lord. Bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. And he continues on to describe this courtroom scene.

He describes this again. Several things have been elaborated at this point. Now we have the servant of the Lord who was elaborated on in chapter 42. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights, speaking of the Messiah that is to come, the Lord's chosen servant, the people being a failed servant of the Lord, but him having a servant who will serve in their place gives them this hope for salvation.

That has been added here and now we also have this notion of witnesses. That God is bringing forth witnesses and the nations will bring forth their witnesses as well. Any witnesses that they would deem fit.

These passages here are typically rendered as commands. These two verses, 8 and 9, bring out the people who are blind. All the nations gather together. Yet these are stated perfectly. By perfect I'm referring to the grammatical category which means something that has already been accomplished.

The Lord is reporting these things in what is known as the prophetic perfect, describing something that has not taken place yet as having already taken place. They have already been brought out. They have already been gathered together.

It is certain that this is already accomplished. It is so certain that it will be accomplished that he is describing it as something that has already been accomplished. So he speaks of his people who are blind yet have eyes, who are deaf yet have ears.

In the previous chapter in verse 18 it said, Hear you deaf and look you blind that you may see. Who is blind but my servant? Or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one? Or blind as the servant of the Lord?

He sees many things but does not observe them. His ears are open, but he does not hear. This is speaking of his people. They are blind. They can see and they can observe in the sense of being able to collect raw facts in front of them, but as far as being able to put them together and understand them and interpret them, they are incapable of doing so.

These are the ones that he has chosen to present his case, to be his witnesses. In verse 9, it says, All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare these things and show us the former things?

The nations here, all the nations that would oppose God's people, that would serve various idols, that would say that God is similar to any of the other idols, they may come together in judgment. They can bring whatever witnesses they would care to bring, but the Lord will still show them wrong because they likewise are blind.

They do not know what the Lord has accomplished. They may observe the things that he is doing, but they do not understand where they are going. They may have observed things that he has done, but they do not understand all his purposes for these things.

So the Lord brings us all together in verse 10. And you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me.

He speaks of his people as a witness. He speaks of them as a servant, and he invites a comparison to the nations who have also been gathered, just as his people have been gathered together. Remember verse 6, I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold.

Bring my son from afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth. Before, when he had been describing this courtroom, seeing all the nations are being gathered from the ends of the earth, and now his people are being gathered from the ends of the earth.

He's talked about his people giving him glory, everyone who is called by my name in verse 7, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. And so likewise the nations will also render him glory, though it will not be in the same sense.

His people will glorify him, through him upholding this people, and the nations will bring him glory through him destroying the nations. They will be exchanged, as it had said in verse 3, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba, in exchange for you. That great exchange, something that will happen. And so the people are gathered together, both God's people and the nations, they are all to bring their witnesses, and testify whether they understand what the Lord has done, what has taken place, and whether or not they are able to understand it.

Blindness, Human Limits, and God’s Hidden Purposes

There are several sources of blindness. There are two sources in particular. First of all, there's sin. Because of sin, we are blind to things that God is accomplishing that we would otherwise be able to see.

This is the emphasis in the previous chapter where it says, hear you deaf and look you blind. And he laments how blind his servant is that he can see things but can't hear. That he can see things but doesn't understand them.

He has ears but he doesn't hear. So that is one source of blindness, is sin. Another source of blindness is simply our natural limitations. God's plan transcends man's ability to anticipate what he is doing.

And that seems to be more his intention here, is to not refer merely to his people as being blind on account of their sin, but even being blind on account of their natural limitations. That none is capable of understanding what the Lord has done because his plan is greater than any of their plans.

He is greater than all of them. Consider the various ways that this is true. The world does not know the things of God. 2 Corinthians 4 says that he has blinded the minds of unbelievers. They do not understand the things of God.

Even those demons who are very ancient, they have lived a long time, they are very intelligent, they are likewise, notice he's speaking of idols in this whole passage. They likewise do not know what he is doing.

They can study everything the Lord is doing. They do not know what is taking place. Consider the particular people that he is writing this to. Those who are going to go into Babylonian exile and be taken out of it.

They don't understand what the Lord is going to do. They don't realize that he is going to miraculously save them through Persia, even though he is very explicit about it in his word. That there is a limitation that they have, both by their sin and by their own human limitations that they do not understand that he will take them out of Babylon through unexpected means of Persia coming and defeating Babylon and Cyrus giving proclamation and even gifts necessary in order that the people be able to rebuild the temple.

Then leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ, while anticipating a Messiah, the particular means that the Messiah is given through the incarnation, is not something that anyone anticipated. Once again, though it is spoken of many times, the Bible speaks in such ways that the only possibility would be that the Messiah be one who is both God and man.

And yet the incarnation is not something that was anticipated because it is beyond man's ability to understand these things. Then even while Christ walked with his disciples on the earth and he told them about his death, that he would die, that he would rise again in three days, and the disciples afterwards in Luke 24 recount that he had told them all these things and hadn't understood, they hear these things with their ears but they don't process them to be able to understand it.

Oh, he must die in order to be raised again. All of these things surpass man's ability to anticipate both on account of his sin and on his natural limitations. But it is by people's observing these things and later being able to recount that they had observed these things and even testifying to these things and repeating the reality that has occurred before it comes to full fruition that God is glorified by blind servants.

The Mystery of Christ and the Already/Not Yet

There are many things now that we do not understand. There are many things in what he is doing that we do not understand. He has revealed many mysteries to us. He has revealed the mystery of Christ that he has drawn together Jew and Gentile into one that he has given a great forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

But there are mysteries that he has likewise not revealed. In Ephesians 5, that book that speaks repeatedly of the mystery of Christ, speaking of the union between Christ and the church as still being a mystery, means that we do not yet know what exactly will be accomplished, what it will be like for the church to be not just betrothed to the groom, but to have that union fully consummated.

These things are mysteries to us. We do not fully understand what is taking place. We are friends of God. He has told us much of what he is doing. Jesus has called us friends. We are not merely his servants so that we would not understand what he is doing at all.

And he has told us much of that, but he has not told us all of that. There are many things that remain yet to be seen. In 1 Corinthians 13, 12, it says,. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. Many things that we do not see and understand at this point. Romans 8, verse 18 and 19 say,. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. The glories that are to be revealed have not yet been revealed. What God is accomplishing is something that he has not revealed to us completely.

Also, how he has accomplished it is something that he has not revealed to us completely. Just later on in this very chapter it says,. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Now this verse gives great comfort that the Lord is working all things, even the difficult trials that affect us. All those things work together for good. The fact that we do not understand how exactly they are all working together for good is testimony in itself that he has not revealed all the ways in which he is working.

That we are still in a sense blind servants. We may not be blind as many were before the death of Christ that he opened eyes during his earthly ministry and most especially after and through the outpouring of the Spirit.

Many people see now with an enlightenment that is exceptional. Yet at the same time there is a sense in which he is still working in the same way through blind servants, through people who are observing what he is doing but not being able to process it, not being able to put all the cords together to understand the harmonies.

Later on in Romans 9 .22 it says,. Here he is answering the question of what God's purposes are and it's interesting that he phrases this as a question. I don't believe that we are to take this and say that maybe this is true, maybe not.

This is something that is certainly true that God is accomplishing this. But by phrasing it as a question I believe what Paul is intimating in part is there may be and almost certainly are many other additional answers for what God is accomplishing in his purposes of having arranged things the way he has where there are some prepared for destruction and some that are prepared for mercy.

We do not understand each one of those purposes. We do not understand all the what of where he is taking us. We do not understand all the how of even what he is accomplishing now though we have the great privilege of being New Testament saints who understand much more of the how and much more of the what than those had in previous times.

And this is true of all things. God does not work a little here and a little there and one day we will see a few threads come together. He is working in everything. Everything is replete with the workings of God.

The lot falls in the lap but it's every decision belongs to the Lord. Everything is taking place at the hand of God. He has his purposes in everything. He works all things according to the counsel of his will.

It says in Ephesians 1 .9. It says that he is making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Paul speaks of something that has been accomplished in Christ. Christ has united all things in him in heaven and on earth but he also speaks of something that has yet to find a fuller fulfillment. All things will know their purpose eventually in Jesus Christ.

All things will be known as having their purpose in him. He has arranged all things. All things were created for him. All things were created through him. All things were created by him. But the mystery is how everything is for him.

We do not understand all those details. Revelation chapter 15 says in verse 3. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb,.

Saying,.

Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord, God the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.

Note the relation to this passage. Why does he have these blind servants? In order that they may know that he alone is God. When it says, I am he, in Isaiah chapter 43, what it's saying is all these different gods are contesting for being ones of power.

But the only one who has power is me. I am he, says the Lord. In Revelation 15 verse 4,.

It says,.

For you alone are holy, God the Holy One of Israel, the one who is not like the other gods, because it is only he who is powerful, who understands. All nations will come and worship you. Why? For your righteous acts have been revealed.

The righteous acts exist in such abundant qualities that you are entirely unaware of how abundant they are. But they will all be revealed so that they will be known in fuller measure. Now once again, this is found fulfillment in Jesus Christ in that the nations are already coming to him.

His righteous works in the Old Testament have been revealed in great measure. Yet there is a continuing work that is happening during this era that still remains a mystery that we will discover more. And so we find ourselves to be blind servants.

Our eyes have been opened and yet at the same time we have limitations that God will glorify himself through, us observing what he is doing but not understanding completely.

Until the end.

Consider those who are in the exile, even those who are saved. Israel at that time is a mixed people. There are people in Israel who truly know the Lord, who are filled with the Spirit, without the Spirit's outpouring in the great measure that we enjoy him today, yet have the Spirit so they have life in themselves.

Through the work of God, their minds are enlightened and still they did not know what God was doing in taking them into exile and out of exile. They did not know that Babylon was necessary in order that salvation through Persia might happen.

They did not know that it was necessary for the staff and through the wickedness of the people in order that God's righteousness might be displayed. The details were not made known to them. And this principle is true in general.

The witness that God brings to this courtroom vindicates him and gives him an exceptional glory on account of that witness being blind. If you were to bring a witness to court and he is one who is a part of your tribe, a part of your kingdom and you're going to court, an international court against all the other nations, well of course you would expect this one to give an account that lines up with the things that you want him to say.

But what is happening here is there is no bias. There is no poisoning the mind of the witness with anything, either good or ill. It is simply what have you observed, you blind witness who does not understand any of the things that he is seeing.

Recount these things and then because I the Lord have arranged things so perfectly, will be able to show that even by this blind witness that does not understand these things have taken place on account of my greatness.

The Jews as they celebrated.

Of the Israelites.

And then later on the Jews, the people of Judea being split off from the rest of Israel, celebrated the various ceremonies that God had given. What are they doing at this time? They are being blind witnesses.

They are observing the sacrifices not knowing how they will be fulfilled in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They were observing the various feasts not knowing how they would point to Jesus Christ. Observing all the different regulations, all the different dietary restrictions, all the different clothing restrictions, not knowing how they pointed to the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

All of these things are then being a blind, not in the moral sense.

Of sin,.

But even in their natural limitations. They are blind witnesses testifying to what God is going to do not even realizing that they are testifying to what God is going to do. Even now as we proclaim God's word, as we treasure it in our heart and store it up in our heart, not knowing what those glories are that await for us, we ourselves are in a ways blind witnesses because though He has opened our eyes to many things, there are things that are still not yet revealed to us, but that He has spoken of in His word such that on that day we will open our eyes further and realize what He has accomplished.

These glories that He has spoken of are many of them will have been spoken of in such a way where we will see directly from the pages that we were witnesses to these things the whole time. And how do we not know all the details?

Well, we are simply a limited people that God is using to proclaim His glory by calling His shot beforehand, permitting us to observe these things without being able to process all of them, yet giving us a privileged position of being able to process much of it, especially as is known in the Incarnation and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But then ultimately having this more fully revealed on that last day.

And this is,.

If not evident already by the Scriptures that I have brought forward to you, just consider the fact that many believers cannot agree on what God has prepared for the end. Take a handful of believers and you will get a handful of different views of the end times.

And I know of no one who has such arrogance to think that he is perfectly certain about many of those details. They might have the broad framework down, but no one feels like even the things that are explained in the Scripture are perfectly manifest to them.

Now, they are given to us to be understood. I'm not saying that they are mysteries that are not designed to be understood, but there is a fullness of revelation that we just yet do not appreciate that will be made known.

Why God Chooses Blind Witnesses

These are God's purposes. He says in Isaiah 43, verse 10, You are My witnesses, declares the Lord, My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Just consider what that verse is saying for a minute.

This is not usually why you choose a witness. Usually you choose a witness because he knows and understands. God is choosing His witness in order that the witness would know and understand. It is by being witness of these things in a blind way, not fully processing what God is doing, Him making it known only later that He is able to show how great a Savior He is.

The fact that it is beyond our comprehension, that it is beyond comprehension before the Incarnation, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and then now the glories that await still not known to us in fullness.

He has chosen us to be blind witnesses in that way in order that we know His greatness. The reverse of how you think of a witness. Witness because someone knows, no, witness in order to know. Likewise, why a servant?

The various gods have their servants in order to be served. The Lord has His servants. He did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. He has His servants. We serve Him in order to have benefit from Him, in order to have a greater appreciation of Him.

It is through the service of Him, it is through the witnessing of Him that our blessings are accomplished. God is blessing us through all these things, even through choosing not to reveal the glories that are to later be revealed.

It is very ironic that the Jehovah's Witnesses choose this particular passage from which they get their name to be sort of their life verse, as it were. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord my servant, whom I have chosen.

Jehovah's Witnesses appeal to this to speak of themselves as ones who understand what God has done and what God will do, and yet they clearly do not understand. They do not understand what God has done.

They cannot explain the gospel as being forgiveness of sin by the substitution of Jesus Christ. They have a view of works righteousness. They do not understand that God has joined with man in the person of Jesus Christ in the incarnation.

In fact, as they argue against the doctrine of the Trinity, they typically... I've never met a Jehovah's Witness who actually understands what the doctrine of the Trinity is. Even speaking with them for a long time, they still, at the end of it, do not understand.

And I don't mean... A lot of people will say that because someone doesn't agree with them. I am saying they simply do not understand what the belief is. They will argue against it. They will try to show you all sorts of passages that say the Father is not the Son.

And the clear answer is, yes, the Father is not the Son. You simply don't understand what the doctrine of the Trinity is. Jude 1 .10 says, but these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

This is how many people go about life. They have an arrogance about them that does not realize that the things of God are often deeper than our natural intuition would lead us to realize. And your natural intuition.

Should lead you to realize.

That the things of God are going to be deeper.

Than you anticipate.

Do not be like an unreasonable animal. Recognize that while we are witnesses in God, while God has revealed much, there are things that He has not completely revealed. And there are things about Him that are beyond our comprehension.

There are things that will be revealed. There are things that simply cannot be revealed because they are unlike anything in creation. There is no analogy that can be given for the nature of God. He is one being in three persons.

Marvel at God’s Works and Rest in His Secret Things

In summary, first, you should marvel at the things of God. This should give you reason to consider the wonders of what God has done. If you were someone who grew up in a church, as I am, a lot of these things that we read about seem very normal to you.

It seems very normal to speak about the Incarnation, to speak about the Resurrection, etc. But if you contemplate what it must have been like to anticipate things beforehand and how these are so far outside of the ability.

To anticipate,.

It will give you a sense of how great it is, the work that God has done, and how great it must be, the work that He is doing now that we don't fully understand. Marvel at those things. Marvel at what God has done.

Develop in yourself a wonder at the Incarnation, at the Resurrection. Do not allow these things.

To grow dull to you.

And likewise, anticipate what God will do. Anticipate it with humility. This is also a great reason for peace. Because if you recognize that you are not supposed to understand what God is taking you to in complete detail, how God is taking you there in complete detail, if you are able to allow the secret things to be the secret things, leave those things to the Lord,.

It will give you.

A great reason for peace. These all belong to the Lord. Psalm 131 says, O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me, but I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. We should not raise our eyes beyond where they are to be raised. We should not occupy ourselves with thoughts that are too high. But rather, we are to be quieted knowing that we cannot understand all the things of the Lord, that He has left some of these things to be revealed much later, and His ways are much greater than our ways.

His ways are much higher than ours.

Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father,.

We thank You.

For the wonderful Gospel that we have in Jesus Christ. We thank You for the Incarnation. It's something that could not be anticipated, and yet it was spoken of so many times. The Resurrection was not anticipated yet.

The Lord had spoken to His disciples about it so many times. We look forward.

To the work that You will do,.

To the work that You have accomplished and are doing. We thank You that on that final day when every last enemy is placed under Christ's feet, we will see Him face to face. And we thank You for the marvelous wonders that we will behold on that day.

In Jesus' name,.

Amen.