OPEN EYES

OPEN EYES

“And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Ki. 6:17).

Now the king of Syria (Aram) was at war with Israel (2 Ki. 6:8). Each time he set an ambush for the Israelites, however, Elisha warned the king of Israel to avoid those places. The Syrian king assumed that a traitor was responsible. He was informed, however, that the information was coming from the prophet Elisha in Dothan. He was shocked to hear that Elisha knew the very words he spoke in his bedroom. (Dothan, as you recall, was where Joseph’s brothers threw him into a cistern and sold him into slavery — Gen. 37:17ff.) At any rate, the Syrian king sent a “strong force” by night and surrounded the city. When Elisha’s servant went out the next morning he was terrified by what he saw. He saw Syrian horses and chariots surrounding the city. Elisha, however, saw something else that caused him not to be afraid. That’s when he prayed that God would open the eyes of his servant. When his eyes were opened the servant saw “the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha”.

In 2016 over 62% of the world’s population owned mobile phones. These phones have the ability to translate radio waves into images. Thus you can “face time” on your cell phone and “see” someone thousands of miles away. At this very moment there are images all around you that are invisible to the human eye. Your cell phone, however, can “open your eyes”. God, of course, could do this centuries before man figured out how to make a cell phone.

Christian worship features far more than sermons and songs. Please consider the great cloud of witnesses that are normally invisible to human eyes. Judaism features things physical like Mt. Sinai, a burning fire, a storm, and a trumpet blast. Christianity teaches that believers come to spiritual reality like: “Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Heb. 12:22-24). All of these spiritual realities are all around us, but remain invisible until God opens our eyes.

Balaam, the wayward prophet who loved the wages of wickedness (2 Pet. 2:15), provides another example of “open eyes”. He got up early in the morning to go to the princes of Moab where he expected to receive his reward. (See Nu. 22:21-35). God was angry with Balaam and sent an angel to oppose him. Remarkably, Balaam’s donkey saw the angel and he didn’t. After the innocent animal was beaten three times God opened her mouth and she spoke with a human voice. Then God “opened Balaam’s eyes” and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword. What will it take to open our eyes?

John wrote that men loved darkness more than light because their deeds were evil (Jn. 3:19). Evil is often done in the darkness to keep from being “seen”. Speeding motorists usually slow down when they “see” a police officer. Peter was in the process of denying Christ when he looked up and saw that the Lord was looking straight at him (Lk. 22:61). Immediately he went out and wept bitterly. How different our lives would be if God would “open our eyes” so we could see that Jesus was watching every deed we do.

Someone said that the measure of our character is determined by what we would do if we knew that no one was watching. The problem is — someone is always watching! The things we do in darkness will be displayed in the light and the things we have whispered in closets will be proclaimed on the housetops.

The book of Hebrews teaches that angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14). Our enemies need to understand that sometimes these angels carry a sword!