Eyes around and within

Sometimes as I read through the 10 chapters in the Grant Horner plan, certain themes or words stand out. Today, the word "eyes" showed up in 5 of the 10 chapters.

In Matthew 20, Jesus was again being followed by a large crowd of people as he often was. Two blind men called out to him, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" He turned to them and asked what they wanted him to do. They said, "let our eyes be opened" and he took pity upon them, restoring their sight (Matthew 20:29-34). After reading this first passage, I was reflecting that, as a believer, Christ has done this for me as well. He has given me eyes to see him.

In Revelation 4, there are 4 living creatures in the throne room of God. It says that they are "full of eyes in front and behind" (Rev 4:6) and "full of eyes around and within" (Rev 4:8).  As I was meditating on this passage, I was wondering to myself, what was God revealing to John when he showed him these many-eyed creatures surrounding the throne of heaven? I suspect that these creatures were given many eyes to behold the infinite majesty of God.  Later in verse 8, we discover that these creatures, night and day, cry out in praise to God, "holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was and is and is to come."  These created beings were presumably also created to see and what they saw drove them to cry out in praise of the Glorious One. 

In a final passage (Daniel 5), King Belshazzar was partying with his friends. He called for the vessels from the Jewish temple to be brought in so that he and his lovers might drink from them. In Daniel 5:4, it says, "They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone." Just then, however, a human hand appeared and wrote on the wall, terrifying the king. No one could read the message. They lacked the eyes to see.  Daniel was called in. He told the king that God punished the pride of his father Nebuchadnezzar, yet Belshazzar refused to live in remembrance of what happened to his dad. He was proud and idolatrous. Like his father, Belshezzar refused to honor the God who held his breath in his hands.  He refused to give glory to the one to whom all glory was due. He refused to open his eyes. 

Every day, we live in a world surrounded by blind people. We serve the gods and gold and silver, and celebrity, and fame, and sex. Pray that God would open the eyes of unbelievers and that he would open ours ever wider to behold his glory. 

Daily Reading: Matthew 20, Numbers 23, 1 Corinthians 7, Revelation 4, Song of Solomon 6, Psalm 145, Proverbs 26, 1 Chronicles 27, Daniel 5, Acts 5