God exercises sovereignty over both physical sight and spiritual vision, which is understanding. At times, He removes metaphorical sight as He works out His purpose. Exodus 4:11 underscores His authority, where He declares to Moses that He is responsible for who sees or is blind, extending His sovereignty into spiritual abilities. He governs humanity's capacity to perceive spiritually, as Solomon observes in Proverbs 25:2, that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter. Spiritual incomprehension is evident in God's warnings to the Israelites, where He promises madness, blindness, and confusion of heart for disobedience, hobbling their ability to understand and reason (Deuteronomy 28:15, 28). This mental blindness creates a dreadful situation, preventing rational discernment or recognition of solutions like repentance. The nations of Israel suffer under curses yet remain blind to the cause-and-effect relationship between national immorality and their problems, groping aimlessly for solutions that exclude God. His willingness to take away understanding and wisdom often makes many uncomfortable, as they struggle to accept that He would act in such a way. In the New Testament, Jesus declares in John 9:39 that part of His ministry is to make some blind while opening the eyes of others, affirming His prerogative to blind minds. He states that He has come for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind. This principle of blinding extends to Israel, where God has currently blinded them until He calls those He has determined to convert, intending to restore their understanding in the future.

Spiritual blindness is a profound curse that obstructs understanding and hinders the ability to recognize the root of problems, both on a national and individual level. As foretold in Deuteronomy 28:28-29, the Lord strikes with madness, blindness, and confusion of heart, leaving one to grope in darkness, unable to prosper. This curse manifests in the history of nations and individuals who fail to see that the absence of God is the true cause of their predicaments, focusing instead on superficial solutions and blame. Sin is intrinsically linked to this blindness, as highlighted in Proverbs 14:34, where sin brings reproach, including a darkened understanding. Psalm 111:10 and Psalm 19:8 further illustrate that obedience to God's commandments enlightens the eyes, while disobedience clouds judgment, leading to a cycle of further sin and deeper blindness. This cycle ensnares the mind, making each wrong choice easier than the last, as sin's nature is to entangle and obscure vision, even among the converted. Romans 1:18-28 depicts how humanity suppresses truth through unrighteousness, choosing to blind themselves. In response, God gives them over to their choices, allowing them to descend into a debased mind, further compounding their spiritual darkness. Similarly, in Amos 8:11, God imposes a famine of hearing His Word, analogous to blinding, as a consequence of rejecting His revelation. In II Thessalonians 2:10-12, God sends strong delusion to those who reject truth, amplifying their chosen blindness as a form of judgment. The hardening of Pharaoh's heart during the Exodus exemplifies this principle, where God intensified Pharaoh's self-chosen path of oppression and defiance, leading to his destruction. This hardening, a form of spiritual blindness, was a consequence of Pharaoh's initial free choices to curse God's people, demonstrating that while one may choose actions, the consequences are beyond control. In Matthew 6:21-24, Jesus Christ teaches that spiritual eyesight depends on what one treasures and serves. A focus on anything other than God, termed as mammon, results in a bad eye and darkness within. Losing sight of God leads to stumbling and sin, initiating a gradual regression of understanding and a descent into further wrongdoing. Among the converted, the letter to the Laodiceans reveals a blindness to their true spiritual condition, distracted by worldly comforts and unaware of their strained relationship with God. Jesus Christ urges a clear choice between serving God or mammon, emphasizing personal responsibility to anoint one's own eyes and restore focus on Him. Indicators of such blindness, as noted in I John 2:11 and II Peter 1:5-9, include hatred toward others and a lack of faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, or love, signaling a suppression of truth and a need to realign with God. Spiritual blindness, whether self-imposed or intensified by divine judgment, requires personal effort to overcome. God desires to help, but the choice to refocus and clear one's vision must come from within, acknowledging and addressing the areas where sight has been lost.

God often spiritually blinds humanity, either because the time is not right for individuals or groups to gain understanding, with their opportunity still ahead, or as a curse due to sin. He has given all humanity a measure of understanding about His existence, yet most turn away, choosing falsehoods that seem more reasonable. People blind themselves through their choices, and as a result, God gives them over to those decisions, allowing the consequences to unfold without approving their actions. At times, He amplifies the effects of sin, making the spiritual plight of those rebelling against Him worse. In judgment, God may cause a famine of hearing His Word, diminishing understanding as a devastating curse. This action reflects the prior choices of the people, who yearned for falsehoods and ignored His revelation, leading Him to withdraw their ability to comprehend. Similarly, in response to rejecting truth, God may send strong delusion, giving people more of what their hearts desire as a form of condemnation. This pattern is evident in the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, a form of spiritual blindness where Pharaoh's initial choice to oppress led to God cursing him with madness and confusion, ensuring his destructive path. Jesus Christ teaches that spiritual eyesight depends on focus, warning that treasuring anything other than God equates to serving mammon and walking in darkness. Blinding oneself can be as simple as letting God slip from view, causing understanding to regress through sin. This process of self-blinding may unfold slowly, offering many chances to choose differently, but a wrong focus can persist and lead to severe consequences. Among the converted, spiritual blindness is evident in the church of Laodicea, where members are unaware of their true condition due to distraction by mammon. Jesus Christ expects them to anoint their own eyes, indicating that this blindness is primarily self-inflicted, though He may give them over to it in chastening. Overcoming this condition requires discerning one's blindness and working to restore a singular focus on God, recognizing that lacking faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, or love signals shortsightedness or blindness. God desires to help overcome this blindness, seeking a close relationship, but individuals must choose to seek Him and submit to truth to keep their eyes open on the path to His Kingdom.

God's sovereignty extends over both physical and metaphorical sight, encompassing understanding and comprehension. He declares that He blinds, whether as a punishment for disobedience or as part of His purpose in guiding His creation toward everlasting light. He hides and reveals truth according to His will, opening or closing spiritual eyes as He deems appropriate, sometimes out of judgment or mercy. In their natural state, humans cannot handle His knowledge, so He adjusts their exposure to truth based on their capacity. He has concluded humanity in unbelief to show mercy on all, blinding the spiritual eyes of those He will work with in later ages, as part of His glory is to conceal matters. In contrast, Satan is not committed to truth but to lies and distortion, lacking the authority to open or close eyes. Instead, he twists available truth, encouraging human nature to deceive itself, though he does not blind as God does. Mankind remains without excuse regarding the truth of God's existence, yet many suppress this truth, closing their own eyes with Satan's aid, as seen when the serpent offered Eve an alternative narrative that led to her rejection of God's word. The context of spiritual blindness reveals two groups: those being saved and those perishing, with the latter unable to fully grasp the gospel due to veiled minds. God Himself blinded Israel due to their hardness of heart and rejection of Him, intensifying their self-inflicted blindness as a consequence of disobedience. When Jesus came, most could not recognize Him spiritually because God withheld this understanding, not out of vindictiveness, but due to their persistent rejection. He opens the eyes of those He calls to heal their minds, while others remain blinded until the appointed time, held responsible for less than the elect.

Jesus Christ healed many blind individuals during His earthly ministry, with one unique instance recorded in Mark 8:22-26, where He restores the sight of a man from Bethsaida. This healing stands out as it occurs in stages, unlike other instantaneous miracles, portraying a gradual restoration from a glimmer of light to perfect vision. Before addressing the man's physical blindness, Jesus separates him from the crowd, taking him out of town, and uses His spittle on the man's eyes, later commanding him to keep silent about the event. This miracle carries profound spiritual significance, as the man's physical blindness mirrors spiritual or moral blindness, representing an inability to discern spiritual and moral truths evident to those called by God. The staged healing reflects the maturation process of a believer's spiritual understanding, illustrating that spiritual enlightenment is continuous. Initially, spiritual blindness predominates, but through faith, obedience, and growth, Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, enhances the clarity of spiritual vision. After the first touch, the man's vision remains unclear, seeing men as trees walking, but with a second touch, his sight becomes completely clear, demonstrating that Jesus never leaves His work unfinished and performs it with excellence. Spiritually, this signifies that Christ should be the initial focus when God grants understanding. Following the miracle, Jesus instructs the man not to return to Bethsaida nor tell anyone there about the healing, reflecting a mild judgment on the town for rejecting His mighty works in unbelief. This restriction underscores that rejection of spiritual blessing results in the loss of spiritual privilege, serving as a warning to all who fail to honor such privileges.