From the heart of the
pastor:
The second of the three
worldly invaders God describes for you is the lust
of your eyes. Your vision is the primary means you
deploy in accessing the world. Have you ever been
to the market with someone and was asked, “Did you
see anything that caught your eye?”
All of Scripture warns
you of the dangers accompanying vision. When you
allow your sight to be your final arbiter, you
discover yourself in the prison of Samson who told
his parents, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the
daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her
for me as a wife… for she looks good to me” (Judg.
14:2f.). How good did any Philistine woman look to
Samson after he had his eyes gouged out?
When the Hebrews entered
the Promised Land, they did battle initially at
Jericho. God commanded them to resist every
temptation to take any of the spoils of the victory
over Jericho. Nonetheless, Achan disobeyed God, and
when confronted with his sin he confessed that he
“saw…coveted…and took” (Josh. 7:21). The result of
his eyes being his determiner was that he (along
with his family!) were stoned and burned.
External decoys are
everywhere. Disallow determining moral choices on
impulse. Refusing to bridle your eyes is costly.
Psalm 101 alerts you to
the commitment you should maintain in order to live
a godly life. In verse 3, David covenants with God
saying, “I will set no worthless thing before my
eyes.” Engage your mind in the things of God today
so that you will not regret today.
You remember well the
costliness of King Saul’s wandering eye and partial
obedience to God’s word (I Sam. 15). Due to Saul’s
lustful glances at Agag’s possessions, God commanded
Samuel to anoint the king who would follow Saul.
God knew exactly who He wanted as the next Hebrew
king, for he would be a man after God’s own heart.
Do you remember the
instructions God gave to Samuel? “Do not look at
his appearance at the height of his stature, because
I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees,
for man looks at the outward appearance, but the
Lord looks at the heart” (I Sam. 16:7).
Man’s criteria for
discerning is faulted. Man allows size and style to
supplant substance. The character of Christ is
God’s interpretive principle.
Jesus has warned you
about the lust of your eyes saying, “Remember Lot’s
wife” (Lk. 17:32). You must learn from your own
sinfulness as well as from the consequences that
have come upon others due to their sinfulness.
Think back over the past
weeks. Have you made any moral purchases founded
upon the eye-gate that is wide and broad? (Mt.
7:13f.). Perhaps you should return your eye-gate
purchases.
