How sin blinds and binds

And [Delilah] made [Samson] sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he knew not that the Lord had departed from him.But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house

Judges 16:19-21

And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned … but neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the word of the Lord.

In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, … came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they beseiged it … [And] the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes … Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.

Jeremiah 37:1, 2 39:1, 6, 7

 

Samson and Zedekiah learned a powerful lesson that has spiritual implications for us today. If you allow sin to rule in your heart, it will both blind you and bind you.

The blinding effect of sin is so subtle that we often fail to realize it. Like a cataract slowly clouding the eye, sin slowly dims our spiritual perception.

Often we first see the effects of spiritual blindness when the reading of the Word of God begins to feel like a ‘chore’ in our life. We feel as though it says nothing to us. And that may well be the case. For why would the Spirit of God give me further truth when I am disobeying the truth that he has already taught me?

And so, unable to commune with God through His Word, we will stop reading it. And when we stop reading the Scripture, we will be unable to sense right from wrong, so we will flounder spiritually. Like a blind man groping through an unknown and dangerous building, the sinful Christian often finds himself groping, stumbling, and falling as he navigates life.

Samson’s physical blindness was preceded by spiritual blindness. Before the Philistines ever put out his eyesight, he already had lost his spiritual perception. “He knew not that the Lord had departed from him.”

Satan is a master at blinding. As the “god of this world” he has “blinded the eyes” of the billions “that believe not.” This we expect. But how sad that he has blinded the eyes of so many believers through sin.

Yes, they may continue to go through the motions of Christian living. But, like Samson, the motions are empty routine, devoid of power, because the Lord has departed from them. And so skillful is Satan’s blinding, that, like Samson, they do not realize it until it is often too late.

It’s not long after sin blinds us that it begins to bind us. Just as a blind man is hindered by the fact that he cannot see, so the spiritually blind man’s effectiveness is limited by sin. Ironically enough, spiritual blindness causes the believer to begin to live by sight rather than faith.

The world becomes a dangerous place for the spiritually blind man – just as it is for the physically blind. Unseen perils await him everywhere, and he often falls prey to them. Unable to see God’s will for his life, he goes nowhere. Unable to sense the needs of a dying world, he does nothing. Unable to discern the traps of the enemy, he becomes entangled in them. Sin has bound him.

How sad, yet how somber, the lessons that we learn from these men. Yet, it is a timeless lesson. Sin will always blind and bind those who will not leave it alone. What sin is blinding and binding you today?