THE EYE OF GOD- AYIN
March 26, 2010
by Alexandra Bekiaris – Perth, WA, Australia
In this encounter, I was getting so lost that i was feeling almost frightened with what I was experiencing. Suddenly, even though I was unconscious, I was in a state of semi conscious, and could hear my mind thinking ” I’m scared, where am I?”
I noticed before I got scared enough, and I realized, that I was in what seemed an eye. The eye contained so much color that it was almost like a whirlwind of color, and my spirit was getting vacuumed through this vortex of a pupil of an eye. I realized I was not in a normal eye; I was in the “THE EYE OF GOD”.
At first, I did not understand what this really meant. I soon found out that this year is the year of “The Eye” in the Hebrew calender.
So what does that mean?
Here is the definition of the word eye or Ayin in Hebrew.
The word (ayin 5869 in the strong’s concordance) means eye in all regular senses, but also as means of expression (knowledge, character, etc). The word ayin also means spring or fountain. The eye is one of four bodily “fountains,” the other three being mouth, skin and urethra (and only the mouth is not supposed to produce water outwardly). Transpiration releases the body of excessive heat; urine evaluates toxins, and the eye produces water commonly when grief or pain is processed. All have to do with cleansing or purification.
Here are some figurative Uses Of The Eye In The Scriptures
“One Thing I Do Know, That Although I Was Blind Now I Can See (John. 9:25).
The Physical Eye
“Every eye will see him” (Revelation 1:7).
The first instance of the eye in Scripture is simply as a physical organ, the organ of sight. When Job laments his condition to his friends, he says, “My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow” (Job 17:7). The eye here reflects the oppression that the body feels.
Likewise, Jeremiah laments the fact that Judah will not listen to the warning from God and heed the judgment to come. “I will weep bitterly,” Jeremiah says, “and my eyes will overflow with tears because you, the LORD’s flock, will be carried into exile” (Jeremiah 13:17).
In Job’s case, the dim eye reflects the physical suffering, and in Jeremiah’s situation, the tears signal the spiritual sorrow the prophet has over stiff-necked Judah’s rejection of God’s grace. When the psalmist considers the evil and arrogance of those who will not bow to God, he speaks literally of their eyes bulging with fat (Psalms 73:7.151 and the writer of Proverbs writes, a mischievous person “winks” with his eyes, causing harm to others (Proverbs 10:10).
Conversely, those who call out to the Lord for help remain awake at night, with their eyes open (Psalms 77:4). Finally, when Christ returns, “every eye will see him” (Revelation 1:7). Even in his despair, Job knew that he would see his Redeemer at the end of time, “whom my own eyes will behold, and not another” (Job 19:27).
The certainty of Christ’s return is attested to by everyone’s seeing him with the eyes of their resurrected bodies. These, and many other such references in Scripture, begin with the eye as the organ of physical sight, but they often are extended to express the moral or spiritual attitudes of those they describe.
The Eye As An Indicator Of Character
“Why do you seek the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own?” (Matthew 7:3)
Often in Scripture, eyes indicate people’s character. Included in these uses are personality traits people possess, as well as their moral condition. As we might expect, the book of Proverbs comments frequently on the character of godly and ungodly people alike.
It is the charitable eye of the generous man that indicates his liberality (Proverbs 22:9) On the other hand, it is the miserly eye of the stingy man that describes his parsimony (Proverbs 23:6). For in Hebrew, the eye indicates the character of the man—in this case, either his generosity or his stinginess.
The humble man who is brought low is described in the book of Job as having downcast eyes (Job 22:29). In contrast, the arrogance of the proud man is portrayed in his “haughty eyes” (Proverbs 6:17). Like the tax collector in the Gospel (Luke 18:13), the humble man acknowledges his humility by looking down toward the ground, while the proud man lifts his eyes up in arrogance.
Indeed, the day will come when the proud will be brought low. Isaiah states that “the proud men will be brought low (literally, the eyes of the pride of man will be brought low), arrogant men will be humiliated” (Isaiah 2:11), and the psalmist asks that he not have “haughty” eyes (Psalms 131:1). Finally, the lustful women of Zion are said to “flirt…with their eyes” (Isaiah 3:16), while Job in contrast declares, “I made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look lustfully at a virgin?” (Job 31:1).
Indeed, Christ teaches that adultery rests in the lustful look even before the act is committed (Matthew 5:27). In the Scriptures it is often in the eyes that the character is expressed.
A significant part of a person’s character is his moral condition,157 and in Scripture the eye often expresses the moral attitudes of a man. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ uses the eye—whether it is full of light or darkness—as the symbol of the moral quality of a man’s heart (Matthew 5:23-24).
In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis compares even our feeble attempts at virtue to light and our “indulgence” in sin to “fog.” Also, in Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, Marlow travels up the Congo River to find himself and, when he does, he sees that his heart is evil—a “heart of darkness” within, a heart that no civilized customs can finally sugarcoat or conceal. In our moral lives, we either serve God (light) or Satan (darkness).
When Christ speaks of hypocrisy and lack of forgiveness, he references the eye again in a classic hyperbole from the gospels, “Why do see the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own?”(Matthew 7.3) Peter speaks of false teachers who infiltrate the church as having “eyes full of adultery” (2 Peter 2:14).
The eyes truly are the “windows to the soul” in Scripture, exhibiting the condition of people’s moral character, and Christ often fingers his hearer’s moral condition with the image of the eye.
A final way the Scriptures use eyes is to indicate whether a person is inclined toward God or away from him. When God confirms Joshua as Moses’ successor he tells Joshua, “This very day I will begin to honor you before (literally, in the eyes of) all Israel so they will know I am with you just as I was with Moses” (Joshuah3:7). In effect, God aligns the spiritual attitudes of the Israelites with his own approbation of Joshua and his anointing of him for his role as leader of God’s people into the Promised Land. Jeremiah uses the eye to confront God’s people when they refuse to respond to the Lord’s gracious invitations; Jeremiah indicts them as people “who have eyes but do not discern” (Jeremiah 5:21).
They choose not to respond to God. In the gospels, Christ meets the spiritual needs of people, sometimes accompanying the spiritual healing by restoring sight to the blind as he does with the two blind men in Matthew’s Gospel. We should not be surprised at the association of restored physical sight with spiritual healing, for that is exactly what Christ promised to do early in his ministry in Nazareth (Luke 4:18).
At times the Scriptures speak of God’s hardening the hearts of people and causing them not to respond favorably toward his grace as their being blinded by God. Immediately after Isaiah sees the Lord “seated on a high, elevated throne” (Isaiah. 6:1), God tells him, “Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind” (Isaiah 6:10).
Through His prophet Isaiah God dulls the people’s understanding so that they do not respond to him in faith. “For Isaiah to declare faithfully what he knew to be so would not result in an admission of guilt and a turning to God. Rather, it would bring about a more adamant refusal to recognize need.” Later, God speaks to Isaiah of his people choosing of their own free will not to respond.
“They do not comprehend or understand,” God declares, “for their eyes are blind and cannot see; their minds do not discern” (Isaiah 44:18). The blind eye in these cases refers to the spiritually-dead person who will not respond to God in faith and gratitude.
On the other hand, God often prompts his people to respond to him in faith. In the dramatic story of Balaam and his donkey, “the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way with his sword drawn in his hand…” (Numbers 22:31).
Likewise, the Lord opens Elisha’s servant’s eyes so that he might see the “chariots of fire” all around him, protecting them from the enemy (2 Kings 6:17). God’s grace is likened to his opening the eyes of his people so they might see what he is doing for them.
The eyes in Scripture represent variously the character of a person, his moral condition, or his disposition toward or away from God. The writer of Proverbs reminds us, “The ear that hears and the eye that sees—the LORD has made them both” (Proverbs 20:12). We are responsible for how we use our eyes—that is, how we live our lives before the Lord.
The Eyes In Reference To God
“Look, the LORD takes notice of (literally, the eye of the LORD [is] toward) his loyal followers, those who wait for him to demonstrate his faithfulness” (Psalms 33:18).
God’s omniscience extends beyond seeing mere physical presence; however, God’s sight includes knowledge of the inner thoughts and motives of all people. He knows the nations; for instance, and foresees their plans He does not allow the “stubborn rebels” to “exalt themselves” against him (Psalms 66:7). God superintends international affairs in his sovereignty, “watching” the nations throughout history. Likewise, he turns the king’s heart in the way he wishes, thereby effecting his sovereign will in international affairs (Proverbs 21:1). God’s eyes on the nations lead him to judge them and even affect and control their decisions.
As he knows the nations, God also knows individual people. God knows their innermost thoughts. “The eyes of the LORD guard knowledge,” the writer of Proverbs states (Proverbs 22:12), and He sees if there are any offensive or evil thoughts in us (Psalms 139:24).
In these illustrations, God’s eyes represent His righteous judgment of sinful people and nations. His eyes represent his pure justice in the affairs of men. The adulterer is foolish if he thinks God does not see him (Job 24:15), but the righteous enjoy God’s sight, for “Look, the LORD takes notice of (literally, the eye of the LORD [is] toward) his loyal followers, those who wait for him to demonstrate his faithfulness” (Psalms 33:18).
In fact, all living things—whether they know it or not—look to God for their needs to be satisfied: “Everything looks to you in anticipation, and you provide them with food on a regular basis,” the psalmist declares (Psalms 145:15). God’s providential care of all people is signified by His eye watching over them.
When it comes to discerning evil, it is God’s omniscient eyes that search it out. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place,” the writer of Proverbs states, “keeping watch on those who are evil and those who are good” (Proverbs 15:3). God distinguishes between right and wrong, and in His sovereign wisdom leads both evil and good people for his purposes.
From the beginning He knows the evil of His people. When He warns them not to turn to idols, He states, “After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind and do other evil things before the LORD your God (literally, in the eyes of the LORD), you will quickly perish from the land” (Deuteronomy 4:25). God searches out the evil of His people for their own good, that they may prosper in the Promised Land and enjoy His eternal blessings.
God speaks through the prophet Isaiah telling His people to “remove [their] sinful deeds from [His] sight” (Isaiah 1:16). It is His eyes that discern the evil and warn His people against it; He does not wish so much as to look on their sin. When God wishes to bless His people and forgive their sins, however, He promises that their past sins will be “hidden from [His] eyes” (Isaiah 65:16, MT)—in other words, forgotten entirely. Forgiveness is as if God cannot see the sins of His people; He removes His people’s sins from before His eyes and “sees” them no more.
God’s omniscience is associated with His eyes in the descriptions that Zechariah and John use to symbolize the glorious Lord, especially in His office as redeemer. When the Lord graciously cleanses Joshua to serve as high priest, he announces, “‘As for the stone I have set before Joshua – on the one stone there are seven eyes. I am about to engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord who rules over all, ‘to the effect that I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day’” (Zechariah 3:9). The stone with seven eyes symbolizes God’s future promise of forgiving grace in Jesus Christ.
At the end of history, in the Apocalypse, John writes of a vision in which he sees the reigning Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes (Revelation 5:6-7). The Lamb symbolizes the victorious Christ who died for His people’s sins and now reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords. It is the eyes of these images that, among other attributes of God, underscore His omniscience. He “sees” all of history, all time, every event, individual human hearts, and He brings them all to the glorious foreordained conclusion. Nothing is hidden from His sight (Job 24:1; 1 Corinthians 4:5).
God’s Eye As Expressing His Love
“The LORD pays attention to (literally, the eyes of the LORD are toward) the godly and hears their cry for help” (Psalms 34:15).
The image of God’s eye of unfailing love toward His people Israel is often focused in His blessings on King David. When David’s men trap the sleeping King Saul in the cave and David spares Saul’s life, he says to Saul, “In the same way that I valued your life this day, may the LORD value my life and deliver me from all danger” (1 Samuel 26:24). The fact that David extends mercy to Saul reflects God’s mercy to David and the people of Israel in bringing them out of Egypt and establishing them as His favored people. David plays the godly man, created in the moral image of God, as it were, and shows mercy to Saul.
Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord condemns Israel as being spiritually obtuse. “Listen, you deaf ones! Take notice, you blind ones! My servant is truly blind, my messenger is truly deaf” (Isaiah. 42:18-19). The blind eyes and deaf ears symbolize the people’s spiritual apathy indicating that they have intentionally turned away from God (cf. Romans. 1:18). In gracious response to their spiritual dullness; however, Yahweh (“the LORD”) promises to redeem Israel out of their sin, calling them “precious and special in [His] sight (literally, eyes)” (Isaiah. 43:4).
We still use the idiom of something or someone of value spoken of as esteemed in our eyes today, but how much more significant is this idiom when it represents God’s special love for his people and His willingness to pay to redeem them (Isaiah. 43:4-9).
The imagery of the eyes is used in Isaiah’s oracle in reference to Israel’s Messiah, the servant of Israel who will “restore Jacob to Himself [God], so that Israel might be gathered to Him” (Isaiah 49:5). In his role as redeemer, the servant-Messiah is “honored in the LORD’s sight (literally, the eyes of the LORD)” (Isaiah 49:5). The Messiah’s favor in God’s sight assures Israel of their favor with God as well. They too are approved in God’s sight, His chosen people who are the apple of His eye. So favored are they that even the deaths of His saints are precious “in His sight, (literally, in the eyes of the LORD)” (Psalms 116: 15, MT). God watches our birth and death, graciously considering the latter as important in His sight. God’s eye of chesed compassionate, covenant love is ever open toward His people because it is ever on their servant-savior, Jesus Christ.
The Lord sets His eye on Israel by establishing them in the Promised Land, driving out the pagan nations before them and settling the Israelites in their place. He watches over King David, through whom He blesses Israel in the united kingdom of Israel and Judah, and through whom Messiah will eventually come. Messiah is spoken of as finding favor in God’s sight, and His favor extends to the people.
A final way God shows His love toward His people is in His sheltering them from physical and spiritual troubles. When King Solomon, David’s son, finishes building the temple for the worship of God, he brings the ark to Jerusalem and places it in the Holy Place (1 Kings 8:1-13). Once the ark is in its position, Solomon dedicates the temple. Part of his prayer of dedication invokes God’s blessing. Solomon uses the image of God’s eyes when he asks for God’s favor to rest upon Israel. “Night and day may you watch over this temple,”
Solomon prays (1 Kings 8:29), and again he asks God, “May you be attentive to (literally, may your eyes be open to) your servant’s your people Israel’s requests for help, and may you respond to all their prayers to you” (1 Kings 8:52). God in this case because His favor toward the nation of Israel—is represented in the image of His eyes being open to Solomon’s invocation. They are fixed on the ark in the temple and hence on all the people who worship there.
The psalmist expresses God’s compassion for His people in their times of trouble with the image of God looking down upon His people with mercy. No army will save Israel, David warns the people, “Look, the LORD takes notice of (literally, the eye of the LORD [is] toward) His loyal followers, those who wait for Him to demonstrate his faithfulness” (Psalms. 33:18). Think of the sharp contrast between the frantic military preparations of a nation (vv. 16-17) with the simple declaration that God’s eyes alone are enough to rescue His people from their trouble (v. 18). The antithesis underscores the power of God which is available to help His people in times of trouble. Again the psalmist writes, “The LORD pays attention to (literally, the eyes of the LORD are toward) the godly and hears their cry for help” (Psalms 34:15). In both of these psalms, David rests secure in God’s protection because He “watches” over his people with his eye, and that is enough to protect them against any enemy who might attack.
Eyes And Believers
“Protect Me As You Would The Pupil (literally, little one, [the] daughter of an eye) Of Your Eye” (Psalms. 17:8)!
Scripture uses our eyes as indicators of our relationship with the Lord—whether we are believers or not and- and if we are believers, whether or not we are living our lives for the Lord. Unbelievers have “undiscerning” eyes toward the Lord and are unable to “see” him (Jeremiah. 5:21) unless the Lord opens their eyes to see. Believers on the other hand have eyes that can “see” God—because He has opened their eyes by grace to understand their need of Jesus Christ as their savior. In his trial before Agrippa, for instance, Paul reports that the Lord sent him to the Gentiles in order to
open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me. (Acts 26:18).
Faith is likened to open eyes, and unbelief is likened to blind eyes. The gospel is likened to the light that shines in open eyes, and unbelief in the gospel is likened to the darkness produced by the power of Satan. Hence, eyes symbolize our spiritual condition before the Lord.
Considering, too, that strangely enough, one of the meanings of the eye is ” A fountain” I came to further study and understood too the significance on fasting as apart of this revelation. Fasting will cleanse us so the fountain of “Living Water” can pass through us. It is apart of our character building and coming into the Fathers will for our lives in a greater and closer way.
We are the “Apple Of His Eye”
Shalom.