Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #29 of Genesis 37, and we are currently reading Genesis 19:9-11:

And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

We came here because of the word “blindness.”  It is the same word that we found twice in 2Kings 6:17-19

And Elisha prayed, and said, JEHOVAH, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And JEHOVAH opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto JEHOVAH, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

We see that God smote the Syrian army of the king of Syria with blindness.  We talked about how Elisha then led them to Samaria, and they were completely unaware that he was the man they were seeking.  They were at the right place, Dothan, when they found him, but they become “ignorant” of that, and we discussed how this could not have been physical blindness.  It had to be a “blindness” in their understanding that they did not realize this.

In Genesis 19, the same word “blindness” is being used in referring to the men of Sodom.  We should remember that God uses Sodom, as well as Gomorrah, as types and figures of the corrupt apostate churches, or Israel of old.  For example, we read in Isaiah 1:9-10:

Except JEHOVAH of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of JEHOVAH, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Isaiah was writing to Israel, the leaders and people of Israel, and they are calling them “as Sodom,” and “as Gomorrah,” because they were spiritually on the same level.  They were just as corrupt and rebellious.

This is why when the Lord is describing the end time churches of our day…and we can see that their corruption, as far as their spiritual blindness and rebelliousness against God and His Word.  God also called them by the name of “Sodom” in Revelation 11, after the death of the “two witnesses.”  We read in Revelation 11:8:

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

The Lord was not crucified in Sodom or Egypt.  Where was He crucified?  It was outside the gates of Jerusalem, a type and figure of the earthly churches. 

So when God is striking the men of Sodom with blindness in Genesis 19, it is in a chapter that has to do with God’s final judgment.  The Lord does use Sodom and Gomorrah as figures of the coming of the Lord at the end of time.  And when did Christ come?  Judgment begins at the house of God, and we read in Luke 17:28-31:

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife.

The house is picturing the corporate church, and the housetop typifies the spiritual activity of sending forth the Gospel.  And we know that in Genesis 19 the account continues on to describe Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt. 

When Lot went outside his house to try to reason with this unruly mob, the two “men” inside of Lot’s house grabbed hold of Lot, pulled him inside the house, and they shut the door.  Then these wicked men wearied themselves to find the door after they were struck with blindness.  Who caused their blindness?  It was the two “men,” and they are God Himself, and we can prove this from the Bible with no difficulty just by going to the previous chapter where the three “men” visited Abraham, and Abraham called them, “JEHOVAH.”  These two “men” went on to Sodom to destroy the city.  That is God’s activity.  God is the Judge.  He is the one who has the power to destroy. 

Again, let us read Genesis 19:11:

And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

And in 2Kings 6:19, Elisha prayed to JEHOVAH, and he said, “Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.”  And the masculine pronoun “he” can only be referring to God.  Elijah is a type and figure of Christ.  This was the will of God.  Christ is submitting the request to the Father, but it was by the counsel of the Godhead that these men be smitten with blindness, just as it was God’s will to smite the men of Sodom with blindness so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

If you look up “blindness” in the Bible, God declares that He is the one who blinds.  If someone is born physically blind, that is God’s doing, no matter how it happened.  God is in control of who sees physically, and who does not see physically, just as God is in control of who sees spiritually, and who does not see spiritually.  Of course that is saying the same thing as the fact that God is in control of salvation – He controls who is born again, and who is not born again, and who is given eternal life, and who is not given eternal life. 

There is a Scripture that speaks of God blinding people, which we will discuss before we continue looking at this word.  It says in 2Corinthians 4:3-4:

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god…

Notice that the King James translators used the small “g.”  They did not capitalize the word “god” because they were under the assumption that this was referring to Satan.  I will read this verse, and then comment further.  Again, it says in 2Corinthians 4:4:

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

It is widely thought, and often taught, by theologians and pastors that this refers to Satan as the god of this world.  We know that Satan lost his authority to rule the world on May 21, 2011, but prior to that he was the ruler of this world.  He was “the prince of the power of the air,” and God acknowledges that.  But he certainly is not now, nor ever has been, the God of this world.  Only the God of the Bible is the God of this world, and it is only the God of the Bible who possesses the power, ability, and authority to blind men.  That verse in the Old Testament is in Exodus 4:11:

And JEHOVAH said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I JEHOVAH?

Yes, this is speaking of the natural realm of physical ailments that men have due to having corrupt bodies, and the curse that is upon mankind may show itself in imperfections in our fleshly bodies.  When Adam was created, he was created with perfect sight, perfect hearing, as well as perfection in everything else.  But since the fall, there are imperfections in our bodies due to the corruption of sin, and these imperfections of our bodies can show themselves in a great many ways, including being blind.   If someone is born blind (and there is a man spoken of in the New Testament who was born blind), it is God who brought that to bear.  God is the one who forms the child in the womb, knits the child together, makes the child able to see, and so forth.  But in some cases, He withholds sight so that the child is physically blind.  God takes full responsibility when He says, “Who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I JEHOVAH?” 

And He is the God of this world who has blinded the minds of them which believe not.  That is, those who are not elect and predestinated before the foundation of the world are not part of God’s true elect children in any way.  So they are already blind in their hearts, in the deadness of their souls.

But at the time of the end when God opened the Scriptures, He especially smote the wicked who were under the hearing of the Word with blindness.  That is, the blindness that was already in their hearts becomes evident as God was (and is) revealing truths that can only be spiritually discerned by comparing Scripture with Scripture and spiritual with spiritual.  Remember what is says in 1Corinthians 2:13-14:

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We discussed that to “know” and to “understand” is spiritual sight.  It is spiritual sight if the eyes of your understanding are opened.  To not be able to know them means that you are “blind.”  And given that this is the nature of things, especially in God’s end time program when He opened the Bible and revealed an abundance of spiritual information, the people who are natural minded simply could not understand, no  matter how much they clung to the true Gospel.  They wanted to be associated with it as much as possible as they listened to Family Radio and Mr. Camping at that time, and they wanted to understand these things, but then there was something they just could not get, and it angered them.  It may have been the doctrine of annihilation rather than the doctrine of suffering forever in hell, or it may have been the doctrine of the end of the church age, and they failed to discern the truths of these things, and they were struck with blindness.

And blindness is a sorrowful thing in spiritual matters because it reveals the condition of the sinner’s heart, which is “stone,” and deadness; it is desperately wicked.  When there is an inability to understand spiritual things, the problem stems from the heart, and that is why it is a very grievous thing when God smites someone with blindness.  As we read in 2Kings 6, it was God who smote the men with blindness.  It was God in Genesis 19 who smote the men of Sodom with blindness. 

And that is terrible, and it is God who at the time of the end has smitten people with blindless.  In 2Thessalonians 2, in the context of the man of sin, Satan, taking his seat in the temple (the corporate church) showing himself that he is God, we read in 2Thessalonians 2:9-12:

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

You see, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.  It is God doing it.  It is God who is sending the “blindness,” and God is allowing this by lifting His hand of restraint off their desperately wicked hearts. And the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things, so it is prone to lies.  It is geared to head in the direction of lies, and to believe the lie.  That is all God had to do.  His Spirit was restraining those who were professing to be Christians within the churches and congregations, and He was allowing them to have some understanding over the course of the church age, including the professed Christians that came out the churches.  But at the end, He just lifts His hand, and now they believe a lie.

Now think of Elisha in Dothan, and remember that Dothan is related to Dathan.  They have the same Hebrew consonants, but with different vowel points.  We talked about how Dathan relates to those that are envious.  The root word is #1881 or #1882 in Strong’s Concordance, and it is translated as “commandment,” or “law.”  They went to Dothan, the place of the Law, or commandments, or the place of the Word, and Christ is in Dothan, and  Christ is in the Bible.  These men went to the Bible, and when they went to the Bible, it was Christ, as typified by Elisha, who prayed, “Smite these men with blindness,” and they were smitten with blindness.

Then it was Elisha who came out to them and said, “This is not the place.  I will lead you to the place.”  And they followed him away from Dothan, away from the actual place they had been seeking.  And Elisha was the man they were seeking.  They were seeking Christ, and yet they cannot “see” Christ.  They cannot see Him when He is standing right before them, just like the men of Sodom wearied themselves to find the door, let alone entering the door.  They wearied themselves to even find the door.  And who is the door?  “I am the door,” the Lord Jesus said in John 10:9: “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.”  Again, they wearied themselves to find that door, indicating that they could never be saved.