"DO NOT SEE!"

Matthew 13:13-15                    (ESV)

"13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing THEY "DO NOT SEE", and hearing THEY DO NOT HEAR, nor do THEY UNDERSTAND. 

14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: "'"You will indeed hear but NEVER understand, and you will indeed see but NEVER perceive." 

15 For this people's HEART has GROWN DULL, and with their ears they can BARELY HEAR, and their EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.'"

While hospitalized for the heart surgery recently, my favorite doctor (my wife) diagnosed me with hearing loss because I couldn't hear an alarm on one of the monitors.  She could hear the alarm plainly, but it was as if it wasn't even sounding as far as I was concerned.  This morning while cooking breakfast I couldn't see something clearly enough because the light was being blocked by a cabinet door.   And my mind immediately went to the scripture above and how JESUS tried to make things more clear for those listening.  

JESUS wasn't speaking about the physical type of hearing or seeing, rather that some people were not capable of discerning the TRUTHS HE spoke about, so HE had to speak in parables.   Their hearts and minds were so engaged by the things of "this world" that they couldn't hear or see the things "from above" that HE spoke about.   

Things haven't changed a lot over the past two thousand years.  The enemy still tries to keep things moving at such a pace that most people can't SEE and HEAR things from above.   Certainly "this world" would choose JESUS and the "things above" over things that are destined to be consumed by fire one day soon?  

Then why do I still get my focus on the things of "this world" when I know what their demise will be?  Can't I "understand" that the enticements of temporal things are only paintings that will soon lose all of their luster?  FATHER in Heaven, cause me to SEE what others "DO NOT SEE", the things that YOU desire for me to SEE!!!