What Do You See?
Our Lord doesn't just want us to see and notice. He wants us to not see and believe.
Things aren’t always as they appear. David Copperfield knows it, and makes millions creating exciting illusions. It was a lesson that both Samuel the prophet and David the king learned, and a truth that solidified their faith and let God work through them mightily.
What did Samuel see? Israel had lost a highly successful king in Saul, who had been rejected by the Lord for his self-pride and disobedience. Samuel imagined the downfall of Israel close at hand. He anticipated chaos and confusion due to the absence of a commander-in-chief. He saw only misery in the Lord’s rejection of Saul, and mourned, and mourned. At first it caused him to quit working for the Lord, then it caused him to question the Lord.
What do you see? You see an imperfect marriage partner. You see an insecure job. You see crime and cancer and catastrophe. Do you ever see a marriage without hope? A future without the income you need? A world where wickedness wins? Like Samuel, we’ve only seen the circumstances, and we’ve anticipated an outcome based on limited information.
Worse yet, we’ve quit. We’ve given up and gone into mourning. Because of circumstances we can see, and consequences we can’t see but we imagine, we form a conclusion that it’s no use. The momentum of success has been broken and the problems are too great. Too great for whom? When we mourn, give up and throw a pity party for ourselves we’re doing more than doubting our abilities – we’re sinfully doubting God’s abilities, and sinfully denying God’s promises.
Maybe you’ve picked up a picture done in embroidery, admired its beauty of colored strings woven just right, and then looked at the other side to see a tangled, confused mess. We may see in our lives a tangled, confused mess. But the Lord sees a perfect picture as he weaves circumstances into the picture to turn out just right. God’s Word promises, “The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.” (Psalm 33:18,19) All the while Samuel mourned for Saul and Israel, the unseen hand of the Lord was guarding and guiding a young lad in Bethlehem to replace the fallen king. All the while the nation of Israel (what was left of them anyway) mourned in their bondage under the Roman Empire the eyes of the Lord saw the family of David remain intact for the true Savior to be born. All the while Joseph and Mary wondered when their Savior Son would triumph over his enemies, the Lord was instructing a prophet in the wilderness who would prepare the way for Him. It’s not usually what we see that saves us, but what we can’t see. Things aren’t always as they appear.
Abraham’s servant couldn’t see the Lord escorting Rebekah to the well to become Isaac’s wife, and we can’t see the Lord matching up our marriages today. The armies of Israel couldn’t see the legions of angels fighting against Israel’s enemies, and we can’t see them fighting for us. Naaman couldn’t see the healing hand of God cure his leprosy, and we can’t see his hand healing our illnesses. The apostles in the early Christian church couldn’t see the ascended Jesus hearing and answering their prayers, and we can’t see him hearing and answering ours. We can’t see the Spirit’s cleansing action in Baptism. We can’t see the righteous robe of Christ we wear. We can’t see the mansions of heaven waiting for us. But it’s not what we see that counts. “Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day,” Paul encourages us, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16,18)
Our Lord doesn’t just want us to see and notice. He wants us to not see and believe. When Samuel stopped trying to figure the consequences of what the Lord was asking of him, closed his eyes to the future, and opened his heart in faith to God’s instructions, everything went just fine. When we stop trying to see things how we interpret them and believe God’s instructions and promises … everything will be just fine.
PRAYER: O Lord, help me to believe more than see, and to trust more than understand. Amen.