The Blindness of Old Covenant, First-century Israel

NKJ Version

--   Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them. But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke:

“Lord, who has believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of YHWH been revealed?”

Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:

“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,

Lest they should see with their eyes,

Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,

So that I should heal them.”    

(John 12:35-40  /  Isaiah 6:9-10)

--   Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”  But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”

(Matthew 15:12-15)

-- But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that,

“‘Seeing they may see and not perceive,  And hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn,  And their sins be forgiven them.’”  

(Mark 4:10-12 /  Isaiah 6:9-10)

--   “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!   (Jesus from Matthew 23:16-23)

--   On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us:  ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’” Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.    

(read Acts 13:13-48,  this excerpt from vss 44-48)

--   Now as He [Jesus] drew near, He saw the city and wept over it [Jerusalem], saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”     (Luke 19:41-44)

--   So when they [leaders of the Jews at Rome] had appointed him a day [Paul], many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning till evening. And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying,

‘Go to this people and say:

“Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; And seeing you will see, and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.”’
Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!”
And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves.

(Acts 28:44-48 / Isaiah 6:9-10)

--   Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Just as it is written: “God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear,   To this very day.”  And David says: “Let their table become a snare and a trap, A stumbling block and a recompense to them.  Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, And bow down their back always.”

(Romans 11:7-10)

--   For I speak to you Gentiles…For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  

(Romans 11:13, 25)

--   Therefore I [Jesus] speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’  

But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.    

(Matthew 13:13-17)

Comments:  It is popularly believed that according to Romans 11:25-27 we are still waiting for some future “Jews” that are blind to believing in Jesus as Savior and Messiah, and will one day – at the "end of times" – quite suddenly convert to Jesus in a mass conversion.   As Scripture shows above, the Jews at the time of Christ not only seem to be exactly who are blind, and who the OT Scriptures were referring to and waiting for, but as Jesus and Paul say, they ARE the ones the OT was fully speaking about.
        So, the question must be asked:  Do we let multiple, clear verses inform us how we understand Romans 11:25-27 or do we let Romans 11:25-27 – which is ambiguous and has only a few details – explain to us what the rest of Bible means when it speaks of the Jews being blind?
          Modern American Christians have gone with the latter, and I believe most of it is due to having a heart for the lost.  But I also believe it is due in-part to being led by a current, common interpretation of Scripture that has romanticized those wily, quasi-magical Israelite “chosen people” that are found in Christian Dispensational myths about Armageddon and the “last days” (i.e. Scofield reference Bible, and Left Behind fiction to only name a few).

        It would seem obvious we should let multiple, unambiguous verses explain what Paul is speaking about in Romans 11.  This is what we call Scripture explaining Scripture.  If we don’t, we are left in the precarious position of saying Jesus and Paul were likely twisting Scripture to accommodate their own desires, and that all those Scriptures they quoted from the Old Testament were actually referring to some super-blind Jews in the future.

        I do not think there is any doubt that the OC, first-century Israelite generation is the one Paul is referring to in Romans 11.  And when the “fullness of the Gentiles” had come in during the Last Days – meaning between Christ’s resurrection and the destruction of the Temple in 70AD – there was a final conversion of many OC Jews and then all “Israel” was saved (meaning, all the chosen individuals, both gentile and jew).

        Well, you may ask: Why then, and how does that make any sense?  As I understand Scripture, both Jews and Greeks had been brought in at that time and prepared during that intense period of upheaval and persecution (40 years) so that all Jesus’ New Covenant Israel would be gathered, prepared and set to move into the new “land” (but this time it would be, and is, all of the Earth) after 40 years just like OC Israel had done so long ago.  That OC era was a shadow of the New Covenant (1 Corinthians 10:1-11) when the King -- the greater Moses (Heb.3:1-3) -- would one day lead His People into all the Earth, but this time, not just a small little plot of land.  Again, the land of Canaan was a mere shadow of the New Covenant land the King would brings His people in to conquer.  Remember, Jesus' Hebrew name is "Joshua".   Just a funny coincidence?  No way.

        So, to sum up, Paul is both describing the blind Jews of his time (see 2 Corinthians 3:14-16) and prophesying of a near future conversion of the remaining chosen, remnant of Israelites that would come in after those chosen Gentiles, of that time, had come to belief in Messiah.