| Christian Life and Doctrine | November 1974 |
By the Eye of Faith
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” —Hebrews 11:1
HAPPY are they who can see by the eye of faith, for such vision enables those who possess it to look upon the things which to the natural eye are invisible. Our text says that faith. is the substance of things hoped for. Faith, because it enables us to see the invisible, truly does give substance to things which otherwise are not seen at all. The Apostle Paul wrote, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”—II Cor. 4:18
Those who are being led by the Lord should experience an increasing faith. We have an illustration of this in God’s dealings with faithful Abraham. God had promised him a son, but the promise was not immediately fulfilled. In fact, the delay was so great that Abraham concluded that it never would be fulfilled, so he arranged to take his trusted servant, Eliezer, into his household in place of the son which God had promised. At that time Abraham’s faith in the invisible was not great enough to sustain him. He wanted something that he could see. He wanted more than the promise of a son—he wanted a son with whom he could speak, a son whom he could touch and love. But God did not accept Eliezer as the promised seed. He made it plain to Abraham that he must be the father of that seed. Through this conversation Abraham’s faith in the promise was renewed. He knew that Sarah was barren and growing old, so at the suggestion of Sarah he consented to an arrangement in which her maid servant, Hagar, would be the mother of the seed; and Ishmael was born.
This would seem to fulfill the requirements of the Lord, but it did not. While again Abraham had something within his possession which he could see with the natural eye, and while he still believed God, he needed more than faith itself as a substance upon which he could gaze and be assured that God was blessing him.
Then the Lord appeared to Abraham again with further instructions. Now he learned that not only must he be the father of the seed, but Sarah must be the mother. More than ever, this was a test of faith that could see the invisible, because by now Sarah was nearly ninety years old. The apostle sums this up for us, and its significance so far as Abraham’s faith is concerned: “Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”—Rom. 4:18-25
Isaac, Abraham’s elect son, was finally born, and Abraham received his final test of faith when God asked him to offer this miracle child as a burnt offering. We read that “by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”—Heb. 11:17-19
But this time, as a result of the experiences through which God permitted him to pass, Abraham’s faith was really able to see the invisible. He could see, although there was no evidence to sustain what he saw, that God would raise Isaac from the dead if he was faithful in offering him as a burnt offering. All he could see at the moment was the visible Isaac, but beyond the offering of Isaac he could see the resurrected Isaac, who was not yet visible except through the eye of faith.
Other Illustrations
In the Old Testament we have a number of illustrations of faith that was not strong enough to see the invisible. We have the case of the twelve spies whom Moses was instructed to send into Canaan to spy out the land prior to their entry into it. Ten of the spies brought back an evil report.
They said, “We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!”—Num. 13:31–14:2
But two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, had more faith. They had faith in the power of the invisible God. They were not concerned with the giants and other obstructions which frightened the other spies. They believed that God could protect them in that land. “And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.”—Num. 14:7,8
Yes, these spies saw what the others failed to see. By the eye of faith they saw the invisible power of the great God of Israel fighting for them, and they realized that with God on their side they need not be concerned about the difficulties they would encounter when they entered Canaan.
Because the Israelites accepted the majority report of the spies, the Lord decreed that they should remain in the wilderness, and that only two mature males—Joshua and Caleb—who left Egypt with their brethren would be permitted ultimately to enter into the promised land. This was a high price to pay for lack of faith!
But the faith of the Israelites as a whole did not grow stronger. They frequently complained to Moses, and through Moses to the Lord. This was because they were not enjoying the material blessings which their natural senses could appreciate. They complained about the manna from heaven which the Lord provided, and cried out for the flesh pots of Egypt. In response to this the Lord sent them quail so abundantly that they were made ill from overeating the flesh.
When they cried out for water, which they did not immediately have, the Lord provided water from a rock. They could not be satisfied unless they could see and enjoy the visible things in life. Their faith was not of the kind to see the invisible power of God and realize that he was abundantly able to care for them in his own due time and way.
Building the Tabernacle
When in the outworking of the divine plan the time came to build the tabernacle in the wilderness, the Lord instructed Moses to send out word to the people giving them an opportunity to donate the necessary material, which consisted of gold, silver, copper and jewels, and various types of cloth, etc. The people were enthusiastic about this. Here was something at last which they could see as a token of the Lord’s presence with them, so they sent their valuable possessions to Moses in great abundance.
Wise men who were appointed to do the construction work left their work to speak to Moses. They said to him, “The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.”—Exod. 36:5-7
Surely there must have been great enthusiasm among the people—genuine enthusiasm. After all, some time had elapsed without having any visible evidence of this nature of the Lord’s presence with them, and what was being constructed was something which did not require the ability to see the invisible. They could see with their natural eyes what was being done, and they were enthusiastic about it. It is possible that this was one of the few times in all the history of God’s dealings with his people that they needed to be told that their donations were more than were required—much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded to make.
The New Testament
Coming over to the New Testament, we find that Jesus introduced the concept of the true worship of God, which is based not on seeing the things which are visible, but on seeing things which are invisible. He said, for example, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” (Matt. 6:19,20) In this admonition Jesus called for a laying aside of the things which can be seen by the natural eye in order that by so doing one may lay up treasures in heaven—treasures which cannot be seen—the invisible things of God.
The Samaritan woman furnishes us with a good illustration of this principle. When Jesus visited her at Jacob’s well, discerning in him the qualities of a prophet, she asked him whether or not God should be worshiped at Jerusalem or at “this mountain” (Gerizim). Jesus’ reply was simple and to the point. He said, “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” (John 4:21) Then he explained that the true worship of God is the worshiping of him in spirit and in truth. “For the Father seeketh such to worship him.” Verse 24 reads: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
So far as the Samaritan woman was concerned this was a completely new concept of worshiping God. It meant that they did not need to depend upon allegiance to one mountain or another, and that the true worshiping of God is the worship of One who is invisible. God is a spirit—a spirit being, that is—who cannot be seen by the natural eye, and one can contact him in a building, on a mountain, on the open plains, or wherever he may be, simply by lifting his heart to him in prayer. Such as these see nothing, feel nothing, but their faith reveals to them the true God of all creation.
Other Visible Helps
Other visible aids to faith in our worshiping of God are human organizations, human headships, trust in earthly leaders, and various other props to faith which are the visible things employed by those who do not see the invisible things too clearly. But we do not mean by this that these things are in themselves wrong. If a group of the Lord’s people are to accomplish a work for the Lord, they need a certain amount of organization. This is fine, so long as we do not look upon the organization as an inspired messenger from heaven which is designed infallibly to lead us in the right way. To look upon an organization from this standpoint is to depend upon visible things rather than upon faith’s ability to see the things which are invisible.
In our association with the Lord’s people we need the help of those who are capable of instructing us in the right way and of leading us in the paths of righteousness. It is the Lord’s arrangement. But it is essential, by the eye of faith, to look beyond these to the infallible Word of God itself in order to be truly in contact with him and to receive his blessed instructions as to the difference between truth and error.
How beautiful are the words of Paul: “For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”—II Cor. 4:15-18