Sometimes thing seem to pop into my head from nowhere and the cogs start moving. The subject of Israel’s blindness is one of these things from nowhere, but it is still fascinating enough to me for me to give it some serious thought.
Remember the passage in Luke where Jesus pronounces the blindness of Israel when He rode into Jerusalem on the donkey and wept over the city (Luke 19:41-42)? I just assumed that this moment started the clock on the corporate blindness of the nation, but now I don’t really think so. I believe the blindness of the nation started much earlier. I believe He blinded them to the truth back in Matthew 12 after the Pharisees accused Him of casting out demon in the name of Satan during that vicious exchange. That apparently was the last straw with these stiff-necked and extremely self-righteous men that followed Him around like the religious police just to find fault with Him, and I believe it was the point where He wiped His hands of the whole official Jewish religious establishment, because this was when He finally accused them of blaspheming the Holy Spirit and then proceeded to prophecy to them about His crucifixion and resurrection only a short time away before He left them.
It was after that heated incident, that He started teaching in parables. We find in Matthew 13:10, the confused disciples asked Him why He started speaking in parables and in His answer in the next few verses, (Matthew 13:11-15), His implication to them was that that the scribes and pharisees (representatives of the official religious establishment) had already been blinded to the truth and I infer that after this point they would have been more of a distraction than anything else, for from this point forward His lessons were intended for the spiritual discerning and those open to learning the truth. This view of the national blindness, I believe, is also supported in Luke 13 for after the Pharisees try to scare Him away from Galilee by telling him that Herod was out to kill Him, we can almost feel His frustration as we read in Luke 13:34 the passage about Him gathering the nation together:
Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen [gathers] her brood under [her] wings, but you were not willing! (NKJV)
This, of course, is conjecture on my part but I find it very interesting and as this is the first draft, it may expand as more information is found and gathered.
God Bless, Jim
8-19-11
jimbussell 