Allow Me to Explain (67 of 439) – Deaf and Blind

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67. Who makes people deaf and blind? Exodus 4:11, John 9:1-3 vs. Mark 9: 25

I get a little nervous talking about things like healing, but here we go.

Exodus 4:11
So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?”

John 9:1-3
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi,who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

Mark 9:25
When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it: “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”

I think the argument here is that Exodus and John teach that people are blind or deaf, etc. because God made them that way, but Mark seems to say that an unclean spirit made that boy deaf and dumb. So which is it? God or the devil? Good or evil?

I think the short answer is Yes.

But that’s never good enough. 

There are two camps in these discussions. There are those who say that God never causes illness or infirmity, and then there are those who say that He does, sometimes, for His own purposes, and He’s God so He can do that. I’m going to try to hit both.

Exodus

In Exodus 4, God is telling Moses the plan to send him to Pharaoh – the most powerful man in the world, and also Moses’ estranged grandfather – to demand that he free the Israelites. Moses is a little nervous about this plan, and he’s making excuses. He stoops so low as to remind God of his stutter, and verse 11 is God’s reply.

First of all, God is merely asking who has made these people. He does not say, “Who makes a man mute?” He says, “Who makes the mute man?” God is the author of life, but all is not as God intended. The world is under the influence of sin and death until Jesus comes back. People have free will. Bad things happen, and babies aren’t always born in perfect physical condition, facilities deteriorate, and sometimes unclean spirits get a hold of a person.

If we really read the text, God is just saying that he made these people – whatever their current condition. God made Moses. He knows how Moses’ mouth works, and even though he stutters, God can use him.

If that’s too bed-of-roses, and you want to believe that God gave Moses his speech impediment deliberately, then I have to appeal to Romans 9:

On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

We know and we trust that God has a plan, and that He is good. Our highest call in life is to be instruments for His glory and purpose on the earth, so if that means giving a man a slow tongue so that He can use an unlikely candidate to free a nation of people, then so be it. Let it be known that Pharaoh was not moved to action because Moses was a slick public speaker – quite the opposite – and God is glorified.

John

Jesus is preaching the same story here.

People assumed – as many do today – that illness and infirmity are punishments from God for our sin. To many people, it’s a fine line between infirmity as a punishment for our sin, and infirmity as a consequence of our sin, but written on that line is the nature and character of God.

Punishment for sin would imply that God is vindictive and exacting. Consequence for sin teaches that God graciously allows us free will. We applaud parents who decide sometimes to not intervene on behalf of their grown children, because those children have to learn the consequences of their actions.

Oh, but not when we’re the children and we want God to be a big teddy bear. Oops.

The crowd in John 9 assumed that this man’s blindness was punishment, and so they ask Jesus who is to blame. Jesus gently redirects the conversation to what really matters. It’s not about finger-pointing or collecting gold stars for good theology. It’s about the glory of God.

Maybe it was sin that made him blind. Maybe it was God. Maybe it was the devil. Maybe it just happened because the world is broken. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that Jesus is here to demonstrate the love and power of God in that man’s life.

Mark

This kid was deaf and mute because a spirit had access to him, and was hindering him. Everybody knows it. The father knows it. No discussion here: a spirit handicapped him.

But again, Jesus is here to set him free.

So who makes people deaf and blind?

Sometimes the devil. Sometimes we do. Sometimes it just happens because our world is deteriorating because of sin. If you choose to believe it, sometimes God does – for His own perfect purposes. I’m not sure why there has to be just one answer. That’s kind of like asking if people get illnesses from other people, or unclean shopping carts, or poor diets.

The point is, illness and infirmity are never our identity, and they are never more powerful than our God. There was never a handicapped person that God couldn’t use. There was never a sick person that Jesus or His Name couldn’t heal. We can argue all day over each individual case, or we can turn to God for answers and/or healing.

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