We are embarking on a new year and a new decade, and the year 2020 infers vision. 20/20 is normal vision acuity—the clarity or sharpness of vision measured at a distance of 20 feet. When you have 20/100 vision, you have to be as close as 20 feet to see what a normal person sees at 100 feet. You have vision, but it is not as sharp as it should be. Sometimes it’s cloudy, blurry, or out of focus.
It is possible to have better than 20/20 vision. Over 81% of professional baseball players have 20/15 visual acuity. They see at 20 ft. away what someone with normal vision sees at 15 ft. This obviously allows them to see the ball better. Many things contribute to vision: the cornea, the lens, optic nerve, and the way the brain interprets the picture it sees. When vision is impaired, there are means to correct it, depending on the problem.
I cannot read my Bible or my notes without the vision-correcting lens of my reading glasses. I cannot see clearly the faces on photos on my phone. I recognize the persons, but the features are not sharp. I even need vision correcting glasses to follow a recipe when cooking. I’m sure many of you who are 40+ in years understand.
In addition, I also need more light to see. When threading a needle, even with my glasses on, I struggle to see the tiny thread and needle opening. Sitting in my chair, I don’t feel like getting up, but after numerous failed tries, and dropping the needle once or twice, I do. I have to hold it under a bright light, and then I can easily see to thread the needle.
There are many in the Church today who have lost their spiritual vision. They need the Holy Spirit to give them vision correction to bring back into sharp focus the spiritual conditions of themselves, their families, friends and neighbors— and America! They need more light to increase spiritual perception. The Bible has much to say about this.
No Word. No Vision. No Light.
After Joshua’s generation died, Israel entered into a 450-year cycle of sin and rebellion, during which time the nation became unspeakably corrupt, including the priesthood. This is recorded in the Book of Judges, and its final verse encapsulates the condition: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). There was no military leader nor spiritual leader to uphold the commandments of God.
I believe this is what we see in America today. Everyone does what is right in his own eyes. People actually say that everyone should believe his own truth. You have your truth, and I have my truth. It is incredulous to me that intelligent people could believe that there is more than one truth about something. What happens when one person’s truth is diametrically opposed to another’s? When one group seeks to legislate their truth to force others to accept it? What happens is long-standing, sound laws are turned on their head, forcing people to support their absurdities. What’s worse, the nation is plunged into a morass of deception and spiritual darkness.
This is how it went down in Israel: “And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli (the priest), and the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision. And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see. And ere the lamp of God went out in the Temple of the Lord where the Ark of God was…” (1Sam.3:1-3).
The word of the Lord was precious, not in worth, but in want. It was rare, because there were no prophets of the Lord speaking truth and giving godly counsel. The priesthood was corrupt. Eli had retired and the priesthood went to his two sons “whose sin was very great before the Lord” (2:17). They had sex with women right in the doorway of the Tabernacle. They took more than the priest’s portion from those bringing animal sacrifices, forcing them to give it, thus causing the people to abhor giving offerings to God. They were corrupted by the two great sins that snare many men in ministry today: Sex and Greed. God’s anger said: “I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not” (v.13). Eli was old and blind and could not see. But he knew what his sons were doing, and he did not restrain them!
Some in the Church say that preachers should stay out of politics and issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, and transgenderism. But I say, “We are the restrainers.” God will hold us accountable if we turn a blind eye to these sins taking place, not just in the world, but in the churches of America. This is what happens when the Word of God is rare, because preachers are giving motivational speeches with catchy clichés and amusing stories, but failing to give good, solid, sound teaching.
“There was no open vision.” There was no divine revelation, because there was not a man or woman of God receiving visions from God to give to His people. The corruption and wickedness of the priesthood had shut the heavens. The Spirit of prophecy had withdrawn, because there was no one to receive the word of the Lord, nor any teaching of His commandments. God had to raise up a little kid, an innocent child, Samuel, to speak to!
God was no longer speaking to Eli, because he had lost his vision, and not just in the physical sense. And he did not see when the lamp in the Tabernacle went out! The seriousness of this charge cannot be overlooked. It was to burn 24/7 and never to go out. God had commanded Moses that the priests were to make a special pure olive oil to light the seven candle lampstand that stood before the veil of the Holy of Holies that housed the Ark of the covenant. Every evening and morning they were to refill the lamps. God said it was a statute forever that the lamp was to burn continually (Lev.24:1-4).
This is the reason for the miracle of Hanukkah. After the Maccabees rose up and threw off their Greek invaders, they had to repair and cleanse the defiled Temple. Antiochus Epiphanies had offered up a pig on the altar, splattering its blood on the walls, and put up a statue of Zeus in the holy place. It had to be cleansed and rededicated according to the patterns God gave to Moses. There was only enough holy oil to keep the lampstand burning for a day, and it would take eight days to prepare more oil. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days until the new batch was prepared.
When God’s people lose their spiritual vision because the word of the Lord is rare, they lose their spiritual hearing too. The Spirit of God withdraws, and the Light of God goes out. It begins with sin in the house of God and in the temples of God, which are the bodies of believers. Sexual misconduct is tolerated: adultery; un-biblical multiple divorces are rampant in churches today. Homosexuality is accepted; often because they are good musicians and singers the church needs. And like Eli, those who should keep order in the church have turned a blind eye, and there is no restraint!
Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keeps the law, happy is he.” Where there are no clean, anointed men and women in touch with the Spirit of God, to receive and deliver a word from the Lord, the people perish. This Hebrew word means to let go, to let loose, to cast off restraint, to go wild. Most translations read to cast off restraint. This is what happened in the time of the Judges that precipitated Eli and his sons. Everyone did what he wanted to do, and Satan used their unbridled lusts to lead them into debauchery and spiritual darkness.
Hosea 4:6-7: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you; then you shall be no priest to me: seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore, will I change their glory into shame.”
God said His people were cut off, because they rejected knowledge, which refers to perception, discernment, and understanding. “Lack of knowledge” was a direct charge against the priests: “You shall be no priest to Me!” They were no longer preaching the knowledge of God to the people. Their preaching/teaching was void of God’s truth and light. They had forgotten the law of God. Again, we see a parallel in America: Many preachers, teachers, pastors, ministers have forgotten the laws of God or outright reject them. They support homosexuality, same-sex marriage, living together, abortion, rejecting biblical truth, and God is saying: “You are not my priests! You are not my ministers!”
The Danger of Rejecting Truth
When one rejects biblical truth, he does not become neutral as some would have us believe. There is no neutrality in God’s Word. When truth is rejected, error enters. This is what Paul said to Timothy: “I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ…. Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2Tim.4:1-4).
There is a difference between preaching the word and giving a motivational speech, which is what many preachers give today. And God forbid that they should reprove and rebuke! They prefer to stick to exhorting. But without all three, they are out of balance. All three must be done with longsuffering and doctrine. It’s not either/or. If the message is only about how much God loves you and wants to bless and favor you, etc., and there is no sound doctrine to restrain people from sin, it is out of balance. These teachers attract those with itching ears to flock to them, because they don’t want to hear preaching that confronts their lusts. On the other hand, if the message is always harsh, beating people over the head with the Bible, it is legalistic and out of balance. God is a God of balance.
I don’t want to bore you with Greek grammar, but I must explain one important matter: “They shall turn their ears away from the truth” is in the active voice, which means the subject (they) is performing the action of the verb (turning away from the truth). “And shall be turned unto lies” is in the passive voice, meaning the subject is receiving the action. Someone is turning them to the lies. The point: When people make the decision to turn away from the truth, they are then turned to lies. Paul said, “And because they would not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved…. God should send them strong delusion that they might believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth…” (2Thes.2:10-12).
Hosea’s prophecy stated that when the people were increased—when they were prosperous, they sinned against God. I know this speaks of Israel, but it sounds like America. Abundance and blessings led to sin and godlessness. After WWII, America became the greatest nation on the globe. Her prosperity and renown rose exponentially. A devastated Europe looked to her for rescue and rebirth. A newly-formed Israel looked to her for support and aid. Then came the sexual revolution of the 60’s. Look at America today: People don’t even know what sex they are! Prayer and Bible reading were banned from public schools, and violence has risen drastically, including mass shootings which are now common. The restrainers were removed, and the people have gone wild.
Write the Vision! Make it Plain!
The prophet Habakkuk had lamented to God how the wicked seemed to get away with their evil. They were not punished. There was no justice for their victims. The wicked were getting off while the righteous suffered. God answered him, saying that He sees all, and will use the Chaldeans, a dreadful and terrible nation, to take the rebellious people of Israel captive. Then He instructed Habakkuk, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that reads it. The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry” (Hab.2:2-3).
God wanted the people to be able to understand His words: Make it plain! Some ministers today are not speaking God’s Word plainly. Paul said, “We use great plainness of speech” (2Cor.3:12). This is speech that is bold, frank, hard, but easy to be understood. Instead, their vision lacks the hard-hitting, toe-treading truth this backslidden church-age needs. Instead, they tiptoe around the issues of what God’s Word calls sin and damnation so as not to offend anyone. It does not seem to occur to them that they offend God. Their vision is clouded with carnality and spiritual smugness. Like Israel of old: “They have eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear; and hearts that cannot understand” (Isa.6:9-10, Matt.13:13-14).
They need the Holy Spirit to give them vision correction, and they need more light to increase perception. My prayer for 2020 is that of Paul’s: “I pray the eyes of your understanding be enlightened” (Eph.1:18). May we open our hearts to receive the word of the Lord and the vision correction we need for spiritual clarity and perception. I, for one, will continue to preach it with plainness of speech. May they who have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says unto the church.
About The Author
