On This Day: When What I See Is Not What I Heard

 

Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end. (Matthew 26:57-58)

 

   One of the biggest examples of me discovering how God’s people heard what he said but believed what they saw was in one of my early journeys through Exodus after I was learning to read God’s word like Father was speaking to me.

   First, I saw the clarity of how God spoke to Moses, how he responded so patiently to his arguing, and the way he kept interacting until it was settled that Moses clearly heard what he said and would go do as he was told.

   Then I saw how Israel responded to the good news with “And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped” (Exodus 4:31).

   So, what happened when Moses went to Pharaoh and demanded the release of God’s people, but Pharaoh defied God and increased the burden of their slavery? They found Moses and said, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us” (5:21).

   And what was Moses’ response after hearing all God said to him? “Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, ‘O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all’” (4:22-23).

   Sound familiar? We go have our time with God in his word and prayer. Something stands out that blesses and encourages us about the way God works. But all it takes is a few obstacles of contrary circumstances and suddenly we find ourselves believing what we see instead of trusting what we heard.

   I am as guilty of this as I have ever been. I have been weighed down by some heartbreaking circumstances (it’s always the “attachment pain” that gets me!) and completely forgetting that God’s word has a far different story for me to “hear” than my circumstances are lying to me about because of what I “see”.

   On Monday (2 days before writing this), God reminded me of something he spoke to me about in his word 26 years ago. Then he added something he spoke to me about 24 years ago. And then he wove “a cord of three strands” with what was standing out just then from listening to the Scriptures being read to me during my exercise time, the prophet Elijah raising a widow’s son from the dead (I Kings 17).

   In all three instances, there was a great disparity between what people heard and what they saw. And God’s point was to do the impossible according to his word, not the possibilities allowed by what people could see.

   I share this because what the disciples were facing on the night of Jesus’ arrest was horrendous, but it was made all the worse by them believing what their eyes were telling them instead of what they had heard Jesus say. And I am quite suspicious that I’m not the only one who needs to feel God using his words to take our little chins in his hands and turn our childish faces to “fix our eyes on Jesus” and remember what he says in his word.

   And the conclusion is that our faith MUST attach to what we “hear” from “the word of Christ”, the Scriptures, now collected into the Bible, the “living and active” word of God, for "the righteous shall live by faith".

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)