They Could Not Believe

Lesson #202

In this lesson we will look at a reason why the people did not believe. Again John quotes from the prophecy of Isaiah; “Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, “He has blinded their eyes     and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”” (John 12:39 – 40 ESV). Since they “could not believe,” one might ask, “Why could they not believe?” The answer is not straight forward and is viewed differently by people who hold to different views about how people come to salvation. Let us begin by involving God in the reason. We might say that God had determined to leave the people in their blindness and hardness of their hearts, and to deny them his grace. Without his grace their hardness will not lessen, enabling them to believe. We must remember that salvation is a gift freely given by God. The question is what prompts this gift? Is it based on God’s sovereignty or on our faith? If you say our faith, then what prompts your faith? As I think about this I see little difference between creation and evolution, and between God’s sovereignty and free will. For me, Scriptures is clear; God spoke the universe into existence from nothing, not evolution and God adds to the body of Christ through his sovereignty, not our free will.

God chose the Jewish people to be his people, who he planned to use as a means of revealing himself and his plan of salvation to the world, but from the beginning they were a rebellious self-centered people who were unwilling to humbly serve the Lord. Instead they wanted to serve themselves. There were times when God wanted to do away with them, but he didn’t and he still hasn’t, but when they were unwilling to accept Jesus as their Messiah, God set them aside for the time and turned to the Gentiles to help him. This ushered in the church age of grace, which I believe comes to an end during the tribulation period because of the great multitude that obtain salvation during the tribulation. I believe they are part of the body of Christ, part of the church. I believe, that during the tribulation period, God’s attention turns from the church back to the Jewish people. We must leave this discussion and return to our study.

It seems that since the Jews did not obey God’s plan for them, requiring him to turn to the Gentiles to help carry it out, “He has then blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn to me, and I would heal them.” (NET). The day will come when God will touch the hearts of the Jewish people and then they will realize that Jesus was indeed their Messiah, but for now only a few are chosen to understand and receive the gift of eternal life. We must be careful not to look down on the Jews for their disobedience because the American church has through disobedience turned from a Biblical church to a cultural church, allowing our wonderful country to slip into the hands of the powers of darkness. We are very quickly turning from the kingdom of light to the domain of darkness where all forms of evil lurk. At this point our suffering is not from persecution (it would be better if it was), but from the effects of not walking with the Lord as we should. When we live the way we want to live, the results are usually, in the end, not so pleasant as the lives of so many Christians show.

Prayer

Father, the thought that comes to mind as I come to the end of this lesson is from Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (ESV). If this was the way we lived, the western church would look so different today as would be the direction of our country. Father, have mercy on us as you judge our failure.