Fearfully and wonderfully made: Psalm 139:14

Part 3

The hymn begins with the expression: ?Oh! Blessed are the eyes that see the living way, to grasp the glorious prize of everlasting day,? and another of our hymns has the line, ?God be in mine eyes and in my looking,? which is a plea that God will help us to control the things we look at, whether in books, newspapers, or on television, as there is so much these days which could have a defiling influence on our minds.

We get our first mention of eyes in Genesis 3:5 where the serpent says to Eve, ?Ye shall not surely die, for?in the day you eat of it (the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her and he did eat.?

Saying that they would ?not surely die? was the first great lie in history.

The psalmist says in Ps 94:9 ? ?He who formed the eye, shall He not see?? This statement is amplified and all embracing in 2 Chron 16:9 ? ?For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to Him ??. When Job was pleading with God he asked, ?Do you have eyes of flesh??? David also said (Ps 25:15), ?My eyes are ever towards the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.? And (Ps 34:15), ?The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry.?

Coming to the New Testament there is the case of the man born blind and in order to cure him Jesus made clay from saliva and dust and anointed his eyes with the clay and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam, and he came back, his sight restored.

Mark?s account of this incident suggests that the cure was gradual, because in reply to Jesus? question, ?Can you see anything?? he responded, ?I see men as trees walking.?

Let us keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus so that our vision may be on the Kingdom, which he is destined to establish in the very near future.
 

Bro. J Wilson (Windermere, England)