The Eye of Faith # 1

The Eye of Faith # 1

"I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear - but now my eye sees You!" (Job 42:5).

What did Job signify by this expression? Obviously his words are not to be understood literally. No, by employing a common figure of speech, he meant that the mists of unbelief (occasioned by self-righteousness) had now been dispelled, and faith perceived the being of God as a glorious and living reality.  Of Moses it is said that "he endured as seeing Him who is invisible" (Heb. 11:27); that is, his heart was sustained through faith's being occupied with the mighty God.

Faith is frequently represented in Scripture under the metaphor of bodily sight. Our Lord said of the great patriarch, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day - and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56), meaning that his faith looked forward to the day of Christ's humiliation and exaltation. Paul was commissioned unto the Gentiles to "open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God" (Acts 26:18); or, in other words, to be the Divine instrument of their conversion through preaching to them the Word of Faith. To some of his erring children he wrote, "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been plainly set forth, as crucified among you" (Galatians 3:1).

Now what we wish to point out in this article is, that when Scripture speaks of faith under the notion of bodily sight, its writers were doing something more than availing themselves of a pertinent and suitable figure of speech. The Author of Scriptures is the One who first formed the eye, that marvelous organ of vision and without a shadow of doubt He so fashioned it as to strikingly adumbrate in the visible that which now plays so prominent a part in the Christian's dealings with the invisible. Everything in the material world shadows forth some great reality in the spiritual realm, as we should perceive had we but sufficient wisdom to  discern the fact. A wide field is here opened for observation and meditation, but we shall now confine ourselves to a single example, namely, the eye of the body - as it symbolizes the faith of the heart.

1. The eye is a passive organ. The eye does not send out a light from itself, nor does it give anything unto the objects it beholds. What can the eye communicate to the sun, moon, and stars, when it gazes upon them! No, the eye merely receives the print or image of them into the mind, without adding anything to them.

Just so is it with faith - it gives nothing unto God, or to what it beholds in the Word of His grace. It simply receives or takes them into the heart as they are presented to the soul's view in the light of Divine revelation. What did the bitten Israelites communicate unto the brazen serpent when they looked unto it, and were healed? As little do we add unto Christ, when we "look" unto Him and are saved (Isaiah 45:22).

2. The eye is a directing organ. The man that has the light of day and his eyes open - can see his way, and is not so likely to stumble into ditches or fall into a precipice as a blind man, or one who walks at nighttime.

So it is with faith: "The way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble," but "the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:19, 18). Of Christians it is said that "we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7). By "looking off unto Jesus" (faith's viewing our Exemplar) we are enabled to run the race which is set before us.

3. The eye is a very quick organ, taking in things at a great distance. Within a fraction of a moment I can turn my gaze from things lying on the ground and focus it upon the mountains which are many miles away; nay, more, I can look away altogether from the things of earth and mount up among the stars, and in a moment view the entire expanse of the heavens! What a marvel is that!

Equally wonderful is the power of faith. It is indeed a quick-sighted grace, taking up things at a great distance, as the faith of the patriarchs did, who saw the things promised "afar off" (Heb. 11:13). So too, in a moment faith may look back to an eternity past - and view the everlasting springs of electing love, active on its behalf before the foundations of the earth were laid. And then, in the same breath, it can turn itself towards an eternity yet to come, and take a view of the hidden glories of the heavenly world!

4. The eye, though it be little, is a very capacious organ. The man who has his eyes open may see all that comes with the range of his vision. He may look around and see things behind, forward and view things ahead, downward upon the waters in a well or a stream at the bottom of a deep ravine, upwards and gaze upon celestial bodies in the distant heavens.

So is it with faith - it extends itself unto everything that lies within the vast compass of God's Word. It takes knowledge of things in the distant past, it also apprehends things that are yet to come; it looks into hell, and penetrates into Heaven. It is able to discern the vanity of the world all around us.

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 2)