Trips to the E.R.
During the past summer, my family had the stress of two visits to the emergency room.
Both were within two months of each other, and both were because of eye injures
The first was when one of my daughters was hit by a homemade bow and arrow. The
result of which caused her pupil to become two-thirds full of blood and fluid. Her vision
also completely went in that eye. My wife rushed her to the emergency room while I stayed
at home conducting an investigation of the incident. I interrogated the perpetrator and two
eyewitnesses (no pun intended), and concluded that it was truly an accident. There was no
foul play or intent, only lack of wisdom and a once in a million ricochet by the blunt arrow.
After dropping off the other kids at my mother’s, I joined my wife a couple hours later at
the hospital. Prayer is a powerful thing. By the time I arrived, my little girl’s pupil was
showing only a slight sign of the injury and her vision was back, although still blurry. Within
just days, her eye completely healed and restored to full normal sight. Praise God!
The second instance was my youngest son. He found himself on the receiving end of a
foot to his right eye. The deliverer was a young teenage girl coming down a slide into the
pool where my son was wading. Besides a small amount of pain, he had no visible sign
that the collision occurred. Even after a full day, he only had the slightest of swelling and
even a smaller amount of discoloration. When he woke up on the second day, there was
no improvement but also no indication of it getting worse than what it already was. That
was until only an hour later.
My son came to me in a panic. His eye was now completely swollen shut and greater
than twice its normal size. He went for his shoes and I went for my keys. A CAT scan, one
antibiotic shot and over six hours later; we were on our way back home again. The
diagnosis; a fractured eye socket. Because of this, it caused the eye to become disfigured.
It took almost a week before his eye looked normal again. But the effects of the fracture
lasted much longer. He needed to be careful not to injure the eye any further or do anything
to irritate it. For that could have caused it to become worse than what it had been originally.
My children were fortunate to heal completely and retain their full sight. I can’t imagine
how changed their lives might have been if they lost the use of one of their eyes. However,
far more restrictive than the loss of physical sight, is the impairment of spiritual sight.
Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) Where there is no vision, the people perish… Could my daughter
and son still have functioned without the use of one of their eyes? Of course they could
have. It might not have been as good as having two eyes, but they would have been alright.
But without the use of vision – spiritual vision – people perish.
Clouded Vision
In Exodus 34:29-35 we see the scene of Mount Sinai and Moses coming down with the
two tablets in his hands. His face was radiant from just being in the presence of the LORD.
The Holiness of God is so great that it stayed upon Moses even after he took the walk
down the mountain side. The Hebrews were frightened by this and so to calm them,
Moses would place a veil over his face. This would dim the radiance of the LORD upon his
face.
How often do we purposely do the same thing? The Holiness of God is far too great for
us to look at directly so we cover it with veils. The veils of being too busy or of material
things. Then there are the veils we might not be able to recognize as easily; like those that
have to do with prejudice or doctrine. At times even the most well meaning people get
clouded vision. Isaiah 59:10 (NIV) Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way
like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we
are like the dead.
We end up not seeing what it is that God has intended for us. We miss His plan for our
lives. When other things get between us and God, we can not fully see what He has given
us. The ability to understand His word properly becomes squelched by misinterpreted
doctrinal veils. But the life of the true follower of the LORD can be found in Proverbs 4:18
(NIV) The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the
full light of day. They is no dimness in the vision, nothing to cloud over the sight. No
personal veils in the way of God’s glory. On the contrary, God’s righteousness reflects off of
us, growing ever brighter.
With my daughter, her dim and clouded vision would not allow her to see what she needed
to look at. Just like our spiritual blindness will not allow us to see what we need to see in
the truths of God. But there is healing and hope. My daughter can see just fine, she was
healed. For a good starting point to heal our spiritual blindness read Proverbs 4:23-27
(NIV) Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. 24 Put away perversity
from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze directly before you. 26 Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that
are firm. 27 Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
If we wish to remove the veils from in front of our faces we need to get rid of all perversity
and corruption. We must guard our hearts. And above all, look only at the Lord and His
path for us.
Distorted Vision
The distorted shape of my son’s eye also caused a lack of vision. The eye itself could
see but it was the eye lid that was forced closed that caused the inability of sight. There are
times when we have such situations in our life as well. Where we have the right idea but it
becomes distorted or blown out of place. And instead of being something that is
honorable, it actually becomes sinful.
David – the king of Israel – had the honorable idea of bringing back the ark from Kiriath
Jearim. It sounds like a very good idea at first, one that should be pleasing to the LORD.
But King David got something out of shape. His noble desire to bring back the ark became
somewhat distorted. He went about it all wrong.
He knew of what was written in Numbers 4:15 (NIV) "After Aaron and his sons have
finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp is ready
to move, the Kohathites are to come to do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy
things or they will die. The Kohathites are to carry those things that are in the Tent of
Meeting. The instructions to move the ark were simple and precise. Only the Kohathites
were to move it and it was to be carried by them. Plus above all, no one was to touch the
ark, or any of the other holy things, “or they will die”.
The good thought of getting the ark back was pushed out of shape and instead of
conducting the move in the manner that God had instructed, David decided to place the ark
on a cart pulled by oxen. The beasts stumbled and caused the ark to rock on the cart.
Another well meaning man named Uzzah did the natural thing of reaching out to steady the
ark. Uzzah was stuck down dead by the LORD. (The details of this occurrence can be
found in 1 Chronicles 13.)
What seems to be godly and correct to do may at times turn in to sinful actions that can
cause great harm. David certainly learned that lesson with the death of Uzzah.
20/20 Vision
There are many well meaning, good people that have the best of intentions. They believe
that they are doing what needs to be done. That they are even doing the will of God. We can
not take from them their desire or what is in their hearts. I have no doubt that they believe
they are doing what is right. And I do admire the zeal that they go about their work.
But far too often we transform something that should be good and right into something
that is sinful. For instance, when well meaning Christians take verses like Galatians 5:18
(KJV) But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Claiming that if someone is a
Christian then they are not to follow the ways of what they call the Old Testament. I have no
doubt that this argument will go on until Y’shua returns. And yet I can not see how there
can even be any debate with this subject. Especially after reading these verses: Matthew 5:
18 (NAS) “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or
stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.” And 1 Corinthians 9:20
(NIV) To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became
like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the
law.
And of course there is Matthew 28:19(NIV) Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”
What does this verse have to do with being under the law or not? Simple, everything.
How can we make disciples of all nations if we are too busy telling them that they must
throw out everything they have ever known? There was a catch phrase that was going
around for a while, “What would Jesus do?” Well we can easily know the answer to this
question since Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
(NIV)
If you want to know what Jesus would do then just look at what he did do. Would Jesus
tell the Jews that they need to stop following their “Old Testament” holidays and follow
him? When Jesus walked the earth he celebrated Sukkot (John 7 and 8). He also followed
the laws of Passover (the last part of any of the four Gospels).
To reject that Jesus celebrated “old” Jewish holidays would be to reject any and all of the
Gospels. In fact, such a claim would be in essence to deny all of the New Testament.
Since Jesus had followed the holidays, how can we say otherwise when our Jewish
cousins find it difficult to let go of these traditions? How can we tell the Jews not to
celebrate these holidays when the one we want to lead them to celebrated them?
Therefore, we can not allow such things to distort our vision like a blown out eye. To have
something that is right to be malformed and misleading like my son’s eye. Or to let other
devises of this world be as a veil just like an injured eye might be clouded over as in my
daughter’s case. We must have perfect sight. Our spiritual eyes must be 20/20 vision. For
where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
(Proverbs 29:18 (KJV))
For how else can we lead others to Y’shua? How can they see the LORD if we can not
see ourselves?
VoydPhil - Phil-ing #13
Eyes
By Mark E. Benjamin
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