Have you ever explained the gospel as clearly as you could, and the other person simply did not see it? We think: if only I had a better argument. This chain shows why that is not the problem. Seeing and hearing are a gift from God. Evidence does not make them, and neither does argument.

Deuteronomy 29:4

“Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.”

Deuteronomy 29:4

Moses says this to the people who had seen it all: the plagues in Egypt, the sea opening, the pillar of fire, the manna, the mountain, forty years with God among them. No people ever had more proof. And still the eyes to see were not there.

If the presence of the LORD Himself did not produce eyes to see, no argument of mine will. The lack was never in the evidence.

And notice the word: “given.” Not earned. Not argued into. Given.

Psalm 115:8

“eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not… They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.”

Psalm 115:5-8

The idols have eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear. And the people who trust them become like them. We become like what we trust.

So blindness is not fixed by more information. A man is not blind because nobody explained it to him. He is blind because he has been growing like the thing he looks to. I have done this too. But it also means blindness is not a fate handed out at random. It comes from what a man trusts, and when the trust turns, the eyes can change.

Isaiah 6:9-10

“Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.”

Isaiah 6:9-10

God sends Isaiah to a people who will not hear, and tells him so before he goes. God does not hold back the message because the ears are shut. He sends it anyway.

And look at the end: “lest they… convert, and be healed.” Healing is what is on offer. This falls on a people who were already refusing Him (Isaiah 1:2-4). It does not say God chose some people before they were born never to see. Jesus Himself said of Jerusalem: “how often would I have gathered thy children together… and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37). He was willing. They were not.

Matthew 13:13-16

“Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”

Matthew 13:13

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.”

Matthew 13:16

Jesus had every argument at hand. Instead He told stories, and He quoted Isaiah. “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 13:9). And He called the seeing a gift: “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God” (Mark 4:11).

In the parable of the sower, the seed is the same on every kind of ground. The sower does not sort the seed or fix the soil. The whole difference is the ground. He is not trying to convince. He is finding open ears.

John 12:39-40

“Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”

John 12:39-40

John’s gospel is full of signs. And at the end of Jesus’ public work, John says the signs were not what decided it. Isaiah’s words explain why so many miracles did not persuade.

Acts 28:26-27

“Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive.”

Acts 28:26

These are Paul’s last recorded words in Acts. The book ends on Isaiah 6.

Romans 11:8

“(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.”

Romans 11:8

Paul uses Moses’ own words, “unto this day.” But Paul does not stop there. Salvation went to the Gentiles “for to provoke them to jealousy” (Romans 11:11). Faced with closed ears, Paul does not argue louder. He goes where there are ears, and lets the seeing stir up those who are blind.

Matthew 16:17

“Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

Matthew 16:17

Moses said it one way: the LORD has not given you eyes. Jesus says it the other way, when a man finally sees who He is: the Father showed you this.

“Flesh and blood” means everything human: reasoning, proof, a strong case. Peter had walked with Jesus for three years. Yet Jesus says the evidence was not what did it. The Father did.

So this closes both wrong roads. Proof cannot make a man see. But God can, and He did, for this man.

What this means

The ability to see is God’s gift. But a gift is not forced on anyone. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him” (Revelation 3:20). God knocks. He does not break the door down. Love that is forced is not love. The yes must be ours.

So there are three parts, and they belong to three different hands. The seeing is God’s to give. The yes is ours to give. And the word is the witness’s to speak, whether anyone hears or not. “If thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul” (Ezekiel 33:9). I answer for the warning, not for the turning. Where no one will hear, Jesus said, “shake off the dust of your feet” (Matthew 10:14), and go on to the next town and speak again.

This is a relief. If it were my job to convince, every closed ear would be my failure. It is not. “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6). And if I see, I have nothing to boast of: “what hast thou that thou didst not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

We are not here to convince. We are here to speak the truth plainly and to find open ears.

Connected chains

• The One Work Is to Believe
• The Will of the Father Is to Believe
• The Root Is Love