Tuesday, January 6, 2009

January 7

Jan 7 - Today from Proverbs 7 we look at verses 1 & 2
"My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye."

Some of the mystery of this Proverb was cleared up for me when years ago, somewhere in my studies I discovered what the "apple of your eye" is. It is the black center - the pupil. From this we can begin to see the practicality of the metaphor. To guard the pupil of the eye is first of all a reflex. You could touch it with effort, but your bodily reflexes do all they can to stop it. Your 'instincts', if you will, know how sensitive and valuable that tiny part of your body is. Of all of the hundreds of square inches on your body, only these two tiny dots allow light into the body. Without them, you would have no sense of light. There would be no sense of form or color of the world in which you live.
Jesus uses this metaphor in Matthew 6:22, 23; "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness." God's teachings (the scriptures), are the only objective source of spiritual truth that we have. We need to guard that truth, for by it we are able to walk as enlightened people. By it we will not stumble by deceitfulness. Jesus says a strange thing at the end of verse 23; "If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" That's the irony of the deceitfulness of all false religions and vain philosophies of man; people think it is light. We have no way to judge it until we encounter the true light - the revelation of the scriptures. In Ephesians 6, the apostle Paul refers to God’s Word as the sword of the Spirit – the weapon of our spiritual armor. In speaking of our weapons in 2 Corinthians 10, he says "They have divine power (to) demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God." The true light of revealed scriptures exposes and consumes the darkness of ‘false light’.
We are first to store up God’s commands within us. That means when God reveals truth, we must receive it. Then we must guard His commands, knowing that it is through them alone that we can function as He purposed. The ultimate Truth is Jesus Himself (John 14:6). He is the Light of the world (John 8:12). Those who do not receive Him and live in a relationship with Him will one day find out 'how great is that darkness' in which they chose to live. Embrace God's Word. Cherish God's Word. By doing this on a consistent basis, one will indeed develop and maintain a 'good eye'. Such an eye is truly worth protecting.

No comments: