AP

Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them: Your eyes have seen all that the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land.  With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders.  But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.

Deuteronomy 29:2-4

What an important lesson there is for us here! – about God’s electing grace, our personal saving faith, and the task of evangelism.

All the evidence of God’s sovereign power at work in his world, and the truths of the Gospel of his redeeming work in Christ, are available for all to see and hear, but unless this is attended by the enlightening work of the Holy Spirit it all appears before blind eyes and falls on deaf ears!  What Moses says here foreshadows what Paul would write to the Ephesians one and a half millennia later: “As for you, you were DEAD in your transgressions and sins, … … But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, MADE US ALIVE with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by GRACE you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:1, 4-5).

Clearly, dead people have blind eyes and deaf ears; similarly we are all born SPIRITUALLY DEAD, with spiritually blind eyes and deaf ears.  The evidence is ALL THERE, and renders us GUILTY if our hard hearts refuse to believe it (“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is NOT heard.” – Psalm 19:1-3 and “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who SUPPRESS THE TRUTH by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is PLAIN to them, because GOD HAS MADE IT PLAIN to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are WITHOUT EXCUSE.”- Romans 1:18-20), but unless God takes the initiative and opens our ears and eyes we remain DEAD in our ignorance.  “The pleasures lost I sadly mourned, but never wept for thee, till grace these SIGHTLESS EYES received, thy loveliness  to SEE.”

Two important things flow from this: firstly, we are NOT saved by any good, or even potential good in us, but by God’s SOVEREIGN GRACE ALONE (very humbling); and secondly, we should put as much time and effort into talking to God about our unbelieving friends as talking to our unbelieving friends about God.