God Spotlights a Nation and Blind Man!

 “Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

Joshua 2:8-11

“As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

John 9:1-3

Do you see what theme might connect these two passages above together?

In both we find that out of very difficult situations God received the glory.

One is the story of the spies in Jericho. Rahab speaks to them of the fear those in her city have because of the Israelites:

She declares: “the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.”

The power, the might and the fear of the God of Israel had spread among the pagan nations but it was not without a cost. The young nation had spent forty years in the wilderness after their disobedience and they also saw the hand of God deliver them from the Kings, Sihon and Og, along with so many other times recorded that God delivered them.

They found themselves in a place of needing deliverance before they were delivered.

God, in His strength and might, delivered them and in the process was glorified.

So too, the man born blind suffered for all of his life, not just with his blindness but also with the stigma that his sin, or the sin of his parents was the reason for his blindness. Jesus set the record straight for the disciples and told them he was born blind, not because of his or his parents’ sin “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him”.

Do you find yourself in the place of needing Gods’ deliverance?

Have you lived with a stigma all of your life?

Maybe you have tried to ‘deliver’ yourself and find it is impossible.

Maybe there is a stigma you have lived with and it is far too great to erase simply with the passage of time.

It is, in situations like this, that God can receive the glory due to Him as you surrender and stop trying to do what only He can do.

Give Him the credit and give Him the glory by giving up on your own efforts and surrendering to Him!