In an important sense, whether we are sighted or blind, we each have many “eyes.” We will look through one kind of eyes in one situation and through another kind of eyes in another. For example, if we look through the eyes of offense, we will see only faults. If we look through the eyes of envy, we will see only unfairness. A particular man may seem to be unremarkable to most people—but to his wife, who sees him through the eyes of love, he is the most wonderful man in the world. Often, what we see depends on which eyes we look through. And we usually choose how we will look.
Because Abraham and the others named in Hebrews 11 were looking through the eyes of faith, they saw something that others could not see. This “faith chapter” tells us that these men and women “all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).
These individuals saw something that the rest of the world could not see, because they believed God. We in God’s Church are informed both by what we see in the physical world around us and by faith—seeing and trusting what God has revealed to us. What do we see?
This Holy Day season is a good time to look at the future of our world and the coming Kingdom of God through the eyes of faith.
Spiritual Blindness
God says that Satan successfully deceives the whole world, attempting to deceive even the true Church of God (Revelation 12:9; Matthew 24:24). How does Satan deceive so many? The “eyes” have it!
The world looks at God’s word through eyes blinded by disbelief. The Apostle Paul explained, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4).
Faith illuminates our world. Through faith, God makes it possible for an uneducated person to know things that the greatest professors do not know. King David wrote, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7).
The Apostle Paul often confronted intellectual authorities who were either offended by his message or thought it to be nonsense. He explained to the brethren in Corinth that “not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty… that no flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1:26–29).
Many secularists have the conceit that they are intellectually superior to people of faith, whom they see as intellectually deficient. But the opposite is true: Believing God makes you smarter. Through faith, we can see many things others cannot—such as divine law, which truly identifies what is right and what is wrong. We can see God’s plan for humanity and a comprehensive way of life that leads to fulfillment and happiness. We can even see God in action in our lives. But we cannot see these things if we do not believe what He reveals in His word.
Generally speaking, secularists believe that they can only be informed by the material world and what they can reason from it—a worldview often called materialism. God’s Church believes that God reveals things we cannot know otherwise. We have an additional source of information. We understand that we can be informed by faith.
Western society is increasingly moving its foundation from the bedrock of revelatory knowledge to the shifting sands of secular human reason. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Romans 1:28). Solomon wrote, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint” (Proverbs 29:18). That is certainly true of society today. However, Solomon continued, “but happy is he who keeps the law.” That is certainly true of God’s Church. God’s divine law arises from His own character, and God repeatedly says in Scripture that those who love Him love His law also (e.g., John 14:15, 21; 1 John 2:3–4; 5:3; Deuteronomy 11:13, 22; 19:9).
God Reveals
God shows us things that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard” (1 Corinthians 2:9)—things that we cannot know without His help. For instance, He tells us that His power works in us through faith. The Apostle Peter explained that we are those “who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5). The salvation that Peter speaks of is our salvation from death at the resurrection to immortality. We “put on immortality” in the future “at the last trumpet” (1 Corinthians 15:52–54). That eternal life is a gift from God (Romans 6:23).
God uses faith—specifically, the faith of Jesus Christ in us—to keep us living His way all our lives, which will lead to a great reward upon Christ’s return. But this is all nonsense to those who are blinded and cannot see. One can only know God’s way through the revealed knowledge in His word.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian brethren that “my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4–5). He wrote of the “hidden wisdom,” ordained “for our glory,” which the world’s rulers don’t understand (vv. 7–8). Paul continued, “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (vv. 13–14). God reveals to us His great purpose for mankind, which the carnal mind cannot understand apart from God’s revelation.
God also reveals the future to those with faith to believe. “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand’” (Isaiah 46:9–10). God reveals that He has a Holy City planned and that Jesus Christ will rule from Jerusalem. Abraham was able to see it through faith (Hebrews 11:10, 13).
God’s great plan for mankind—the good news of the Kingdom of God—is something else we can know only through His revelation to us. And one of the ways He reveals it is through His Holy Days. In order to complete His extraordinary plan, we must live in that faith. Paul told the brethren in Rome, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:16–17).
Our spiritual vision is precious. Jesus said, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it” (Luke 10:23–24). Do we deeply value what God shows us?
Can We See What Abraham Saw Afar Off?
In his letter to the Ephesian brethren, the Apostle Paul tells them that he prays “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ… may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in [among] the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:17–19).
Do we see “the hope of His calling”? God makes it visible through His Holy Days, when we look through the eyes of faith. Do we see “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints”? God has glory reserved for His children—a time when Christ “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:21). Do we see “the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe”? This includes the great hope of eternal life (Titus 1:1–2), as well as the increase of God’s government and peace, of which “there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:7).
God promises such things, and He has the power to do what He promises (Isaiah 46:10). This Festival season is a good time to think about our faith as something that changes how we see. The Bible often presents faith that way. Faith does not limit our vision. We don’t see less because of our faith—we see more. True faith is never blind faith, because faith increases and adds to our vision.
Believing God makes you smarter. God can make even the simple wise (Psalm 19:7). We need to keep the eyes of faith wide open and, particularly during this Feast of Tabernacles, catch the vision of what God wants us to see in the picture He presents in these Holy Days. This Feast, let’s catch the vision—by looking through the eyes of faith!