In Prison or blind?

Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
       because the LORD has anointed me
       to preach good news to the poor.
       He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
       to proclaim freedom for the captives
       and release from darkness for the prisoners, ^[a]

Footnotes:

Isaiah 61:1 Hebrew; Septuagint the blind

What caught my eye on this was the footnote. The passage is "release from darkness for the prisoners" but the footnote says it could also be translated as "release from darkness for the blind". Doesn't that make a difference? I'm thinking the spiritual blind and possibly some of the physically blind since Jesus did cause the blind to see.

But wait.... Isn't there a huge difference between people who are in prison and those who are blind? I think of prison as a block walled building, with few windows, lots of bars, rigid routine, extremely structured routine, and loss of all types of freedoms. Prisoners are those who have done something that is against the law and presumably deserve to be there. Isn't that a significantly different from the other possible translation of someone who is blind? Or is it?

If we are spiritually blind, we are in a prison of sorts for violating the law, only this law is God's law. I realize that Jesus made the law null and void. But why was there a law in the first place? I don't know for sure but I fully believe that part of the reason is that God knows that breaking those commandments, in whatever way and for whatever reason, will cause consequences that we will be in prison for - spiritual prison.

For example, when I have treated my parents less than honorably, I feel guilt. When I don't keep the Sabbath, I don't get re-energized. When I kill (by running over an animal in the road or killing someone's joy), I feel awful. I am in bondage.

I read a little about this in some resources I have. Even if we look at people who were in physical prisons during Biblical times, we find that many were in prison for disagreeing with the pharaoh or king. They were in prison because they were beaten in battle. Prisons were used to control the population, or individuals. They do not necessarily deserve to be there. And the conditions.....appalling! The government didn't provide meals, beyond bread and water. Many times the jails were deep pits or caves.

When Jesus came, He enabled all the captives, those in spiritual prisons and the blind to be released from the darkness. We are able to see because Jesus came. We are free from the chains because Jesus came.

Thank you....amen.

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