Charles W. Holt, PhD
email: cholt@gt.rr.com
GOD DON’T HAVE NO CATARACTS
Genesis 16:13; Psalm 33:18,19; (See also 1 Sam. 16:7)
Excuse me. I know the title has fried the syntax of all good rules of English. Fearing a total meltdown the syntax sensitive among us are ready to bail out. Please stand by. Is there a better way to introduce the serious subject of Divine Providence? Absolutely. You will admit, however, that the title does get one’s attention. It serves two useful purposes. First it captures attention. Most importantly, however, it makes a powerful statement in the most basic of terms. Simply put, it says, "God can see clearly!" In fact, ancient Greek authors would say: God is all eye. Scripture supports this.
Hagar, Sarah’s slave-girl, discovered this after she was banished from the "family" and wandered aimlessly in the wilderness. The Angel of the Lord found her there and spoke to her with great assurance about the future of her yet-to-be-born son. We read: "And she called the LORD who spoke to her, You Are El-roi, by which she meant, Have I not gone on seeing after He saw me. Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi . . . " (Gen. 16:13-14 Tanakh). El-roi means, "God of seeing" (Amplified Bible). Therefore, Beer-lahai-roi means, "A well to the Living One who sees me." Among the numerous references to this fact I choose to cite one that is found in the Psalms. "Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;" (Ps. 33:18 KJV). A simple promise. What a benefit! "To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine" (vs. 19). God’s seeing is not metaphorical, mystical or mythical. It defines certain benefits and blessings we "chance upon" on a daily basis. We understand this as providential happenings or experiences.
A definition is in order. Since I will be using the word providence in a spiritual sense let us understand it to refer to the care, guardianship, and control exercised by our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ and the agency of His Holy Spirit. Providence carries the idea of divine direction, a.k.a. divine providence. This will be a key to all that we say on this subject. God, being omniscient, i.e., all knowing, has our best interest at heart. His best interest for our best interest is manifest in the advance preparation He makes, through His foresight, for our care and keeping. We will learn, as we continue, how this is a clear and unmistakable principle in our daily life.
That, "God sees clearly," can be one of the most comforting thoughts to our faith and a soft pillow upon which to lay our weary thoughts when we feel discouraged. It was true for Hagar in the wilderness. It offers all of us the possibility, during times of trials, to open windows of hope and provides a reason for expecting a positive outcome regardless of the potential for a readily opposite outcome. I am saying this because of what we read in Scripture. Consider these encouraging words.
1. "The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry" (Ps. 34:14). [Note: I could say (but I won’t) that God don’t have no cataracts and neither does He have hearing aids.] Peter quotes from this Psalm in his letter that is found in 1 Peter 3:12.
2. "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings" (Pr. 5:21). [Note: I could say (but I won’t) that God don’t have no cataracts and neither does He have hearing aids, and He isn’t senile!]
3. "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Pr. 15:3). This is confirmed in the next verse below.
4. In a rather strange passage from the prophet Zechariah we read of a ". . . stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes" (3:9). In chapter 4:10 he takes up that theme again saying, "For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth." If we get nothing else from these two passages let us understand they are saying God sees perfectly (seven eyes) and sees everything in all of creation (the whole earth).
As I write this my memory dredged up the words of an old gospel song we used to sing when I was just a young teen and very young in my faith and walk with the Lord. It always had such dark overtones. Rather than inspiring faith it created a sense of dread and fear. I tried to find a songbook with the words but had no success. Here is all I can remember of the song from over 50-years ago.
THERE’S AN EYE WATCHING YOU
All along on the road
To the soul’s true abode
There’s an eye watching you.
Every step that you take
This great eye is awake
There’s an eye watching you.
(Chorus)
Watching you, watching you
Every day mind the course you pursue.
Watching you, watching you
There’s an all-seeing eye watching you.
[Note: I could say (but I won’t), "Boy, they sure don¡¦t write songs like that anymore!" A southern gospel quartet has a song I heard recently that bewails the fact that, in effect, "they don’t sing the old songs" any more. Too bad.]
Every step I took as a teenage believer I could almost "feel" God’s big eye watching me, and this made me very uncomfortable. He was "all eye." It explains a lot of guilt and condemnation I felt that was really unnecessary but was a part of my considerably misshapen and misdirected faith. I had much to learn. But I was growing. Today, knowing that "there’s an all-seeing eye watching" me provides the greatest of comfort and assurance. Nothing can be more positive than what we will see next. I know now that I am the most important person in God’s sight! Consider this:
1. "He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye" (Dt. 32:10). This applies in the first place to the nation of Israel, God¡¦s chosen people. It does, however, have broader applications. You have heard that expression, "the apple of his eye." This is God’s view of me (and you too) if you will accept it. Read on.
2. "For he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye" (Zech. 2:8). This too has a special application to the nation of Israel. Let’s not limit it, however, to the Jewish people only. Saul of Tarsus found this out when he journeyed to Damascus and was smitten down just outside the city gates. He heard a voice from heaven saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest" (Acts 9:4,5). Saul’s anger was being directed against the visible Church. To touch the Church is to touch Christ. To persecute the Church on earth is to persecute Christ in Heaven. During his earthly ministry Jesus had said, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (Jn. 15:19). Later, he said, "the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me" (Jn. 16:2,3). All manner of atrocities have been and continue to be committed against members of the Body of Christ worldwide. Sometimes it appears the persecutors are "getting away with murder." Not so! A Day of Judgment comes. He whose eyes scan the whole earth will set the record straight in His time and place. Anyone who touches the people of God touches "the apple of His eye."
3. "Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings" (Ps. 17:8), David prayed. We can make that our prayer also.
By now you have figured out that the phrase, "the apple of one’s eye" means something or someone is very precious or dear to another. You and I are the apple of God’s eye. We are special. We are precious and very dear to Him. Just how precious and special we are sometimes escapes us. We don’t feel special or precious. Some of us want to dwell more on the negative aspects of our nature or disposition--the conscious awareness of our weaknesses, frailties, faults and failures. We may get a lot of help from our friends(?) who are quick to point out our weaknesses which fuels our guilt and sense of worthlessness.
There is something better. Even those who are victims of emotional deprivation as a result of their dysfunctional family can find new hope. The possibility of change begins when we know--and believe--what our Heavenly Father thinks about us. Whatever other relationship one has with family or friends let us accept God’s estimation of us as "the apple of His eye!" I reiterate that we are special. We are precious to Him.
To those who may be struggling with a sense of unworthiness, perhaps with a feeling of worthlessness, I want to toss you a lifeline. I want to offer something that may save you from the miserable accusations you hear within your mind. They are tapes replaying in your head the unkind and demeaning remarks that have left you trapped in a self-imposed prison. The following material has proved highly effective when I have taught it in the Larry Gist State Jail. At the end of each class the inmates and I would repeat this in unison. It is a powerful statement of faith based solidly in the Bible’s theme of redemption and deliverance. From this point on you cannot truthfully say, "I am nobody. No one loves me. I’m not important." The reason is because of:
My Identity in Christ
Because of Christ’s redemption,
I am a new creation of infinite worth.
I am deeply loved,
I am completely forgiven,
I am fully pleasing,
I am totally accepted by God.
I am absolutely complete in Christ.
When my performance
Reflects my new identity in Christ,
That reflection is dynamically unique.
There has never been another person like me
In the history of mankind,
Nor will there ever be.
God has made me an original,
One of a kind, really somebody!
(McGee, Robert S., Search for Significance.
LifeWay Press. Nashville, TN. 1997)
This is worth writing down and placing it on the front of the refrigerator. Better still, read and reread it until you have committed it to memory. Let these positive affirmations flow over your feelings of rejection and weaknesses and begin to cut off the blood flow to those negative thoughts that have for so long dominated¡Xruled!¡Xin your thought life and actions.
Let’s do a T.D. Jakes style exercise. Pretend you are among the thousands in the Potter’s House Church and Bishop Jakes says, "Turn to the person next to you and say, "YOU ARE THE APPLE OF HIS EYE." (You are the apple of His eye.) "YOU ARE PRECIOUS TO GOD." (You are precious to God.) "YOU ARE SPECIAL!" (You are special!) "YOU ARE SPECIAL." (You ARE special!) If it was done right smiles, hand clapping, and shouts of praise to God accompanied it.
I know, and you should know, we are on solid Scripture ground when we talk this way.
Jesus said as much one day when He said, "Not one sparrow (What do they cost? Two for a penny?) can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don¡¦t worry! You are more valuable to Him than many sparrows" (Mt. 10:29-31 Living Bible). Here are two things, hair and sparrows falling, of which we take little or no concern. One could say their loss is infinitely trivial compared with the problems we must face daily. The point Jesus is making and the message He wants us to hear is that our Heavenly Father is in the trivialities as much as He is in the heartbreaking, mindbusting, and backbreaking burdens we are often called upon to deal with. Can we believe our God is as much in the minuscule and meager measures of life as He is in the mammoth or monster size problems?
Charles Spurgeon, affectionately known as the Prince of Preachers, would respond to that question with a resounding yes. He preached, "God’s wisdom and knowledge are so great, that he even knows the number of the hairs upon our head. His providence descends to the minute particles of dust in the summer gale; he numbers the gnats in the sunshine, and the fishes in the sea. While it certainly doth control the massive orbs that shine in heaven, it doth not blush to deal with the drop that trickleth from the eye." (Tony Capoccia, Bible Bulletin Board, The Internet.)
Mrs. C. D. Martin with the help of Charles H. Gabriel has blessed untold millions with their song, His Eye is On the Sparrow. In my estimation, no one has come close to singing it like Ethel Waters did during the early Billy Graham crusades. The words of the song are too hope-filled to ignore.
His Eyes is on The Sparrow
Why should I feel discouraged,
Why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely,
And long for heav¡¦n and home,
When Jesus is my portion?
My constant friend is He;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me;
His eyes is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
"Let not your heart be troubled,"
His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness,
I lose my doubts and fears;
Tho¡¦ by the path He leadeth,
But one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
Whenever I am tempted,
Whenever clouds arise,
When song gives place to sighing,
When hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him,
From care He sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He cares for me:
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches me.
(Chorus)
I sing because I¡¦m happy,
I sing because I¡¦m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
Someone may say, "well, okay I’ve got the eye thing down. God has an all-seeing eye, and His eye is on the sparrow and better yet we are the apple of His eye. He sees the minutest details of our daily comings and goings. How does this all fit with divine providence?"
Stay focused here. All the above makes rhyme and reason out of a whole lot of things that happens to us. All the above are the essential elements or conditions that gives divine providence its credibility, that says divine providence is not a cosmic accident or a run of good luck, or simply good fortune that comes our way. Divine providence is planned and purposeful. Remember our passage from Proverbs 5:21 where it is said, "He pondereth all his goings." "Pondereth" comes from a Hebrew word meaning "to weigh out or to make level or smooth." The afflicted Job remembered this and testified to it when he said, "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. . . . For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him" (Job 23:10,14). But wait! There is something that I consider is even more remarkable. This comes from Psalm 139. It is mind boggling to say the least.
O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. . . . [Note: this is the first six verses of this incredible Psalm of David. Let’s skip down to verse 15.]
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! (vs. 15-17).
These verses tell us that . . .
--God knows everything about us.
--He knows when we sit down.
--He knows when we stand up.
--He charts the path we are to take.
--He tells us where to stop and rest.
--He knows where we are at all times.
--He is both ahead of us and behind us at the same time.
But, hold on! Can we really believe what we read in verse 16? In the Living Bible the verse says: "You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your Book!"
SHAZAAM ! Gomer Pyle would say with face alight as though he had just heard the most exciting news of the day. We can all say, SHAZAAM ! . . . uh . . . AMEN! and mean it. What does one do with this verse? Analyze it? Debate it? Make it a bone of contention? Well, yes, all this is possible but I suggest we joyfully wrap our faith around it and move on down the road in the blessed assurance that our Father is in the trivialities as He is in the tragedies. When faith embraces it, "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward [rear guard, Amplified]" (Isa. 58:8). Righteousness before you; glory behind you. What a combination!
All well and good but we are still dealing in generalities and things that are highly subjective. In other words, these are truths that touch our emotions. Or, as one sister testified about her blessings from the Lord, saying, "It¡¦s better felt than tel¡¦t!" These are things that can excite a crowd. It¡¦s the stuff that seminars are made of. It is fodder for the motivational speaker. This is not said to denigrate it or cheapen it. There is freedom in truth. Truth spoken effectively, skillfully, can inspire one to believe it¡¦s possible to reach higher heights, achieve great things. All good preaching has this element in it. Preachers preach to inspire, to challenge and to motivate. My hope is that what we have seen and heard thus far will inspire and motivate us. But we are not finished.
Divine providence puts flesh and sinews upon the dry bones of theory and breathes the breath of life into assumptions and conjecture. Each one of us, if given the opportunity, could tell of at least one time when we were either protected, directed or some unexpected provision has been made for us by divine providence. We just "happened" to be at such a place at such a time that, upon reflection, resulted in some benefit to us. There are too many Bible stories to illustrate my point. The story of Joseph is an absolute classic. However, there are two that are my favorite. I included them in my book ELIJAH the Tishbite and I will quote from the book.
Providential is the word used to explain these so-call "accidents, good fortune, or luck." Providence means, "the care, guardianship, and control exercised by a deity; divine direction." Serendipity meaning, "happening by chance or accident" (American Heritage Dictionary), is another word used to describe what happened to Elijah. Elija’s arrival in Zarephath has all the characteristic elements of a providential and serendipitous event . . .
. . . . One of my all-time favorite stories is about Saul, son of Kish, who was sent by his father to look for lost livestock. Accompanied by his servant, Saul "passed through the mountains of Ephraim and through the land of Slalisha, but they did not find them. Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and they were not there. Then he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they did not find them. When they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, "Come, let us return, lest my father cease caring about the donkeys and become worried about us" (1 Sam. 9:4,5). Saul spent days wandering over hill and dale until he found himself in Zuph which was a region very near to Jerusalem. What Saul didn’t know at the time was that every step he took crossing one mountain and going through another valley brought him closer and closer to the moment when he would be anointed Israel’s new King! "By chance" he had wandered into a city in the region where it was said a Prophet "just happened" to be visiting that day.
At the suggestion of his servant, Saul decided to go into the town to ask guidance from the prophet. They didn’t know who he was or where in the town he could be found. After inquiring and being assured that he was indeed there they proceeded. "So they went up to the city. And as they were coming into the city, there was Samuel, coming out toward them on his way up to the high place" (1 Sam. 9:14). Get the picture: these two men are entering into the city gate at the same time a stranger is approaching from the other direction. "Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate and said, "Please tell me, where is the seer’s (i.e., prophet’s) house? And Samuel answered Saul and said, I am the seer" (1 Sam. 9:18,19). Nothing could be more ordinary. Yet, nothing could be more remarkable because of the One who was coordinating no, choreographing, each unfolding scene in this drama.
The Lord would provide a King; the person chosen is miles away, totally unaware that he is chosen; donkeys have strayed; Saul is asked by his father to find the donkeys; look until they are found; days pass; miles are crossed; no luck in finding the donkeys; go back home; BUT FIRST, try one more thing; see the preacher that just happens to be town that day; who is he? where is he? What does he look like? Go into town; ask the first man you meet; it just so happens that it is the very person you need to see. Only God could orchestrate this series of ordinary events and make them serve His great purpose! (page 61,62). That’s divine providence.
If I had to choose between the events that involve Saul, donkeys, and kingship it would be a dead tie with the story of Ruth. Her story so clearly illustrates God¡¦s control and care in providing for his "little sparrows."
Two widows, Naomi and Ruth, arrived in Bethlehem penniless and destitute for food with no prospect for surviving the next few weeks. . . . Naomi knew that somewhere in the area¡Xshe didn’t know where¡Xthere were kin people. She thought she remembered that they might be rich, but she wasn’t certain. She had been gone a very long time and plenty could have changed during the years of her absence.
It just so happened that they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. As the custom was (since there was no welfare program or food stamps for the poor) the poor could go into the fields and glean after the harvesters picking up stalks of grain dropped by the reapers. The reapers were to let some of the grain fall to the ground deliberately for this purpose. Everything is set to proceed as is customary, nothing out of the ordinary. Ruth can take advantage of this opportunity to glean in the field, but which field? She doesn’t know the difference between field A and field B, or field Z for that matter.
Morning dawns. Today is the day to go into the fields. Still the question remains, which field will it be? Ruth steps outside the door of the house, takes one last glance back to Naomi standing in the doorway, waves goodbye and sets out to make a date with destiny. Naomi didn’t know it. Ruth didn’t know it. No one in Bethlehem knew it. She had no dream the night before; no angelic visitation; no Samuel-like voice in the night directing her to take certain steps in the morning. It would be a day like any other day, except today she would pick up grain in someone¡¦s barley field. Now for one of the most intriguing and interesting passages in the Bible. "And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech (Naomi’s deceased husband, my comment)" (Ruth 2:3 KJV). The use of the word "hap" is an old King James version expression that can best be translated: and by accident (by chance, by good fortune, by fate), she came to glean in the field of Boaz who is Naomi’s lost rich relative." The New King James Version says, "And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech." . . . Now that’s a date with destiny that only the eternal God could flawlessly choreograph. It all started with a young widow taking one sandaled step toward a barley field, bending her back to the common task of picking up enough grain to make a meal to set on a plain wooden table in an unadorned house in a nondescript village called Bethlehem (Page 63-65). Later, in the same chapter of the book I relate my own personal touch of divine providence. Let me lift out a small portion of that story. We had left south Texas for the 1700 mile drive to southern California. No one had invited us to come. I just knew it was the move to make. Arriving at the home of some friends we had known from Iowa we were warmly greeted and had a place to stay for a few nights. On the following morning after our arrival,". . . being Saturday, I said to my wife, Let’s go over to such and such a town and look around. Driving into the city, I decided to pass by the local Assembly of God church. By chance the pastor was just finishing with mowing the church lawn. I pulled into the parking lot. He greeted me warmly. I had met him and preached there on a Saturday night several weeks earlier but that was our only contact with each other. When I got out of the car, he took my hand and said, Brother Holt, this is really something! I was just thinking about you. I am going to resign my church tomorrow morning and I was wondering if you might be interested in being a candidate to become the pastor, but I didn’t know how to get in touch with you." (Page 66, 67) It was the beginning of fourteen wonderful years we would spend in southern California.
I know that some of you know that you have caught on to what I have been trying to say about divine providence--and are just dying to tell your own personal stories and I sincerely wish we had the time to hear them. I know they would be as good as any we’ve heard so far. Whether it’s yours, mine, Joseph son of Jacob, Saul son of Kish, Naomi and Ruth and many others, they all bear witness to one sublime truth: God sees you. You are special in His eyes.
Prayer: Lord increase our faith. Help us to boldly say, "The Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man will do unto me." Thank You for making me the apple of Your eye.
