John 12:40

Plain English Version

He also wrote this in God’s book, “God stopped the people from understanding his message. It’s like he made their eyes blind, and like he made their minds dead. You know, if they understand God’s message properly, they will turn back to God, and he will help them. But they don’t want to do that.”

Cross References

Mark 4:12

You know, God got one of his men to write these words, and they are in God’s book. He wrote, ‘People will look with their eyes at what I do, but they will not try to understand what it means. They will hear my words with their ears, but they will not try to understand them properly. If they do understand me properly, then they will turn around and come back to God, and then God will not blame them for the bad things they did. But they don’t want to know about that.’ And those things are happening now.”

Mark 6:52

They still couldn’t understand about Jesus. They saw what he did with the bread and the fish the day before, but they couldn’t work it out. It was like their brains were no good.

Luke 4:18

“God’s spirit came into me. He picked me to tell good news to poor people. He sent me to tell prisoners, ‘You will go free.’ And he sent me to tell blind people, ‘You will see.’ And he sent me to people that are in big trouble, to take their trouble away.

John 12:39

And Isaiah told us why only a few people believed God’s message.

John 9:39

Then Jesus said, “I came to the world to judge people, and to split them into 2 mobs. One mob know that they don’t understand the true things about God. It’s like they are blind. But they let me help them understand those things, like I make them see. The other mob think they understand all about God. It’s like they think they can already see, so they don’t let me help them. But they don’t really understand, so it’s like they stay blind.”

Acts 15:3

So Paul and Barnabas did what the Christians at Antioch said. They left Antioch to go to Jerusalem, and on their way, they went through Fonisha country and Samaria country, and they talked to the Christians in those places and told them everything that God did in the other countries. They said, “A lot of people that are not Jews believe in Jesus now.” The Christians in Fonisha and Samaria were very happy to hear that news.

Acts 28:26

‘Go to the Jewish people and say, “You keep on hearing God’s words with your ears, but you don’t understand them properly. It’s like your ears are going deaf. You keep on looking with your eyes, and you see God doing things, but you don’t understand what you see. It’s like you closed your eyes. Your problem is that you don’t want to know God’s message. If you do understand God’s message properly, you will turn around and come back to him, and then God will not say you are guilty for the bad things you did. But you mob don’t want to come back to God.” ’ That’s what Isaiah wrote.”

Acts 3:19

So listen. You mob have to change the way you live, and you have to turn back to God, so that he will not blame you or do payback to you for the bad things you did.