Acts 13:11

Acts 13:11. Thou shalt be blind. Miracles of punishment are very rare in the New Testament. Peter and Paul each once at least worked a miracle of wrath in the name of their Master, Peter, in the case of Ananias and his guilty wife in the presence of a great Jewish assembly; Paul, before the Roman governor of Cyprus. In both these instances of a terrible severity, it was not simple unbelief which was punished, but a course of conduct which, in the one case, set the example of religious hypocrisy, and in the other gave its sanction to a self-indulgent, evil life. Elymas was punished for a deliberate using of talents and power to persuade men to be enemies of righteousness, and haters of the pure life loved by the Lord.

Not seeing the sun for a season. Even here the punishment might be only of temporary duration, the gracious purpose being to awaken repentance in him, as well to show the Roman that the doctrine of the Lord preached by Paul and Barnabas was with authority. Gloag's remarks here on the miracle-power of the apostles are good: ‘We are not, however, to suppose that the apostles possessed the power of working miracles at pleasure, but only when they felt a Divine impulse urging them to perform one. Paul struck Elymas with blindness because he felt inspired to perform that miracle; but he could not cure Epaphroditus of his sickness, or remove from himself the thorn in the flesh. The miraculous power with which he was invested was not under his own control, but under the control and direction of Him who bestowed that power.'