In the sixth sign of John, corresponding to the Day of Atonements, Yeshua saw the man born blind sitting in darkness, anointed¹ his eyes with clay, and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam. The man went, washed, and came back seeing. Uninterrupted from the fifth sign, the Light of the World, who had led Israel in the wilderness, continued to shepherd His people into His Presence. Yeshua saw (eido, Strong’s G3855) the spiritual significance of the man born blind (Jhn. 9:1-12). The sightless Israelite typified “hadam,” blinded from unbelief in caving to the snake’s deceptions and pride. Blindness is a metaphor for the darkness that enveloped humanity when they saw with their own eyes, took, and were exiled from Eden’s light. Yeshua came in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil by cleansing and bearing away our sins so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Through the victory of His shed blood, salvation is depicted as opening the eyes of the blind, seeing the Creator’s wisdom of what is good and not good, and learning to discern the way of life from the way of death. This blog explores the ramifications of God opening humanity’s eyes so that we might learn discernment.

The disciples asked, “Whose sin is responsible for this man’s blindness from birth?” Yeshua replied that neither this man nor his parents were responsible for his blindness, but rather, he was born blind “that the works of God should be displayed in him.” God had not caused his darkness but used His loss of sight to display His saving power. As foretold in Genesis, when He cursed the serpent for opening the eyes of Adam and Eve to know nakedness,² God intended humanity’s sight to be restored, to see wisdom, what is good and not good, through the victory of His shed blood (Gen. 3:15). Yeshua continued, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Jhn. 9:4-5, NKJV). Because everyone turned to his own way, He who knew no sin took upon Himself the iniquity of us all. For the transgressions of His image bearers, He was wounded and bruised, stricken, that we might in Him become the righteousness of God by being in His light (Isa. 53:5-8; 1Co. 5:20-21).

Yeshua approached the Israelite man born blind and spoke to him. The blind man responded with shema, belief in action, as he groped his way to the Gihon’s water pool (water sent from under the temple mount) and washed. Light came into his eyes. Sight changed his appearance so much that people questioned if he was the man who sat and begged. And he told them, “I am he.”

Light dawned through Yeshua’s atoning work, freeing us from evil’s dark clutches and allowing us to see (eido) truth and believe it, no longer blinded to our own seeing of what looks good and taking it (unbelief). Using tabernacle language, Paul defined the good news of salvation as Yeshua’s glory shining upon us, the menorah shining upon the twelve loaves in the holy place (2Co. 4:3-5). The tabernacle where heaven and earth are connected, the image of God, the human Yeshua, stands performing the High Priest’s duties, giving us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. It is Yeshua’s face shining upon us and blessing us, the New Covenant priestly blessing of being in the sanctuary Presence on the Sabbaths. When the eyes of our understanding are opened, we will know the hope of our calling and the riches of His Presence, our inheritance.

The whole Gospel story is that of humans, His image bearers, re-entering God’s holy Presence, listening to His voice and trusting in His wisdom. In Genesis’ seven-day creation-sabbath text, Eden’s environment of abundance was our inheritance. The herbs and trees with seeds provided a wealth of food, and the sparkling bdellium stones of fire paved the walks with God, opening our eyes to discernment. The path from exile to the new creation is the seven-week wilderness-sabbath journey, paved with sparkling manna dew, bringing us, in Jubilee, to the Mountain of our inheritance.

In a young child, walking develops eyesight. Listening to God’s voice (eating the Bread of Life, the manna) enlightens our eyes, giving us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding so that discretion delivers us from the way of evil, from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness (Pro. 2). When we believe, trusting in Him with all our hearts and leaning not to our own understanding, acknowledging Him in all our ways, He will direct our path to His Tent of Meeting.

The Day of Atonements teaches that in an unclean state, His people do not discern good from evil because they cannot dwell in God’s holy Presence. The High Priest confessed the people’s sins upon the Azazel goat’s head while Israel listened. God charged Israel with not having “truth, mercy, or knowledge of God in the land” (Hos. 4:1). Israel’s lack of discernment required YHWH first act to open their minds, motivating them to “pursue the knowledge of YHWH” (Hos. 6:3). People in moral darkness can never find the true God or choose the real Savior out of the plethora of false gods. Satan appears as an angel of light (Isa. 40:5). Preparing His nation to receive Him, God sent John the Baptist to “give knowledge of salvation to His people by the forgiveness of their sins…to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death” (Luk. 1:77, 79). “To believe in Him whom He sent” (Jhn. 6:29) involves a revelation, an opening of the eyes. He brings all into “the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Imaged in restoring the blind man’s eyes, the Day of Atonements’ two-goat sin offering pictured Israel’s unbelief healed by the forgiveness (cleansing) and removal of their sins (holiness). And the law of holiness is the law of His temple (Eze. 43:12)

Takeaway:
Biblically, blindness is an image of spiritual darkness or incapacity to perceive moral distinctions. God planned “to open humanity’s eyes,” turning us from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to Him, so that we may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are made holy by faith in Christ Jesus (Act. 26:18). Opening our eyes to see God’s light is the restoration and perfecting of holiness, a new creation, of each person’s transformation into a temple of the living God.

Fun Factors:
In the sixth sign, John 9:3-5, Yeshua spoke 42 words (like the 42 laws he gave Moses the first time he went up Mount Sinai), totaling 24886, 2 × 23 × 541. Israel = 541, and 2 × 23 is the chromosome number of each human (temple of God), but it also marks 23 years of building Zerubbabel’s temple and 46 years of renovating Herod’s temple. Remarkably, these figures tie to Genesis 1:2 sum 3542, 2 × 23 × 77, God’s Spirit over the tohu and bohu. God is restoring His creation temple and its images as new creations through atonements.

In John 9:1-12’s sign, Yeshua spoke 49 words (42 words in v. 3-5 and 7 words, sum 4414, in v. 7), totaling 29300, 10² × 293, or the sum of two squares three ways: 20² + 170², 86² + 148², and 118² + 124². Square geometry indicates holiness in Ezekiel’s temple made without hands, and its third dimension (height) is God’s Presence, His Spirit of holiness.

John 9:9, the blind man’s 7-letter reply, “I am he,” sum of 873, 12² + 27², 144 + 729, is Yeshua’s exact words to the Church of Thyatira, “I am He” who searches the minds and hearts, rooting out all traces of the “depths of Satan” that you may receive the star of the dawn (Rev. 2:23-24).