Isaiah 59:10
We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
The verse pictures spiritual blindness and inability to find the way, groping for the wall, stumbling even in daylight at noonday as in the night, and living in desolate places as though dead. In its nineteenth-century setting it described the present dreadful state of the nation amid calamity, calling for deep humility on the part of God's people. The cause was that the people had forsaken and forgotten God, had chosen other gods and followed corrupt ways until God turned from them, and had trampled upon God's law, broken His everlasting covenant, and despised His Sabbath.
It describes the character of the priests and rabbis in the time of Christ, for though light and truth stood before them in Jesus, they were spiritually blind and groping and stumbling. They clung to prejudice, misled the people by false reasoning, and perverted the words of prophecy to sanction error. Light and darkness and truth and error were set before those leaders for decision by weight of evidence through carefully comparing Scripture with Scripture. Had they laid aside prejudice and compared written prophecy with the facts characterizing the life of Jesus, they would have perceived the harmony between the prophecies and their fulfillment instead of remaining in darkness.
The verse belongs to the definition of Christ's work given in Isaiah 59 through 62. That work was to save the people over whom Satan was exercising his power, to work out the purposes planned in the counsels of heaven, and to set things in their right light after God's vineyard had been worked by unrighteous scribes and Pharisees. It also describes the state of the world just prior to the second coming of the Lord, when the end of all things is at hand and iniquity abounds. This is because men have transgressed the law and broken the everlasting covenant given on condition of obedience, and because of continual transgression. The world comes more and more under the sway of seducing spirits as men turn away from God and His righteous government, while men professing godliness indulge their own traits of character and become self-indulgent and self-centered unless conscientiously under the control of God.
It shows the spiritual condition of those who resist light and evidence: they are blind to what is true and do not recognize what makes them stumble. Their ways become crooked, and their blindness can lead others away from the right path. Walking in this blindness as the Jews did means not being under the control of the Spirit of God and entering into fatal delusion. Those in this blindness walk in the sparks of their own kindling and cannot distinguish between the fire they have kindled and the light God has given, which leads them to judge God's message by His messengers. Thus if particular messengers such as Elder Jones or Elder Waggoner were overthrown by temptation many would reject their work as a mistake, though their fall would not prove they had no message from God. The same groping like the blind when lacking the light of truth also applies to sincere people among the nations who have no knowledge of God's written law or of Jesus but desire to learn a better way, who though turned aside by evil may show the work of divine grace in their character and be guided by the light they heed.