Blindness in Part by F. D. Starr

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 15, 1911

Blindness in Part

By F. D. Starr

F. D. STARR

“Blindness in part is happened to Israel.” Rom. 11:25. Partial blindness is a peculiar condition. Having had the misfortune to be in this physical state for a limited time, some reflections have come quite forcibly to my mind concerning the import of this scripture.

Those who are afflicted with spiritual blindness are not always completely deprived of sight. Peter says of some that they are “blind, and can not see afar off.” 2 Peter 1:9. If they were totally blind, they could not see either near or far off.

One of the most noticeable characteristics of this partial loss of eyesight is that the afflicted one is not able to discern between a substance and a shadow. He may stumble into a tree, thinking it to be nothing but a shadow; or he may lift his foot high to step over the shadow of a fallen tree, thinking it to be the tree itself.

The poor, blind Pharisee brought to view in Matt. 23:16–26, was in this very predicament. With him the external forms of religion were of supreme importance, while true moral obligations were of little account. He mistook the shadowy ritual for the eternal obligations of the divine code, and vice versa. “I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” Hosea 8:12.

So it is with the poor, blind antinomian of to-day: he can not discern between that which was merely a shadow of good things to come, and the substantial demands of the decalogue. A shadow is but an imperfect outline of what it represents, “and not the very image of the things.” Heb. 10:1. “Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances [“rites,” or “ceremonies,” margin], imposed on them until the time of reformation.” Heb. 9:10. This is the description of the ceremonial law, or law of ceremonies; it became extinct at the cross which cast that shadow.

A shadow has no weight, but the demands of the decalogue are very weighty. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” Matt. 23:23.

Mercy is a matter of the decalogue—“Showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep my commandments.” Do we desire to obtain mercy? Then let us keep his commandments. Faith is also a matter of the law; for “whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” and “sin is the transgression of the law.” Judgment is a matter of the law; for by that law all will be judged in the final day. James 2:12.

It was because the shadows of the old dispensation were being substituted for the moral precepts of the law and true faith in Christ, that it became necessary to call the council of which such a lucid account is given in Acts 15. Many could not look to the end of that which is abolished, such as the carnal ordinances and shadowy sabbaths. But the sabbath of the decalogue, given in Eden (before the age of shadows), the memorial of Jehovah’s rest, was the substance and not the shadow. “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Ps. 119:18.

Forest, Idaho.