After restoring their sight, Jesus gives some rather strange and solemn instruction to the formerly blind. “Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.”
Any reader of Matthew’s Gospel who comes across this text immediately wonders why Jesus would want this particular miracle to be kept from public expression. He gave no such warning to the woman who was healed of her bleeding. He made a spectacle out of healing the paralytic. He healed many to whom He gave no such instruction (4:23, 8:16). So why the sudden silencing? Shouldn’t those who have been blessed be free to thank God through testimony? Aren’t they actually even obligated to do so – to give Him glory?
Such questions are not answered in the moment. What is, and what we know, is that God’s will for these particular few (the formerly blind) was that they not tell anyone. They do so anyway.
On the one hand we can of course sympathize with the formerly blind. Everywhere they went people would ask, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” and they would have to respond with, “Yes, I used to be one of the beggars by the road out of Jericho.” The conversation would inevitably lead to the question, “How is it then that now you can see?” It would appear to us to be worse than dishonest if they did not give God glory for how Christ healed them. Yet the fact that Christ specifically told them, “See that no one knows about this” cannot be ignored.
They may have gone on from there and been confronted with the inevitable question about their sight. They may have been thrilled that God sent Christ to them, and even more thrilled that because of their encounter with Him they could now see. But in answering the inevitable question about their newfound sight, they were disobedient. Joyful perhaps, but disobedient all the same, and joy is no substitute for obedience.
The conclusion to the blind men’s story is not unique. Much of the Old Testament story of God’s people is a story of the disobedient. From humankind’s earliest days, God’s people are blessed and then given instruction – and then promptly disobey that instruction! It was so with Adam/Eve, with Noah’s descendants, with all Israel through the period of the Judges, with Saul, with Solomon and virtually every King the prophets were sent to. Sadly, this trend continues to today. Every pastor, preacher and faithful Kingdom worker can know from experience that blessing and instruction do not guarantee the obedience of those who were blessed and instructed. They only guarantee that someone was blessed, and that someone was instructed.
We must not consider the sacrifice of praise a substitute for obeying the Voice of God! As Samuel had once warned, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
There is a time to testify. There is also a time to hold back – and if God tells us to hold back, hold back we must.
When obedience to God contradicts what I think will give me pleasure, let me ask myself if I love Him.
Elizabeth Elliot
APPLICATION: Intentionality
If Samuel’s warning has any meaning at all, is is that obedience to God’s specific direction comes before all else. What is God telling to you do? What is He warning you not to do?