Visualization seems so effortless one would think, but when we travel to the realm of medical science, this seeming effortlessness belies the complication of the total visual process. The whole process and procedure that accompanies vision or visualization is so cumbersome that one would have a different perception when he/she comes to the understanding of how we see or visualize things, using the organ of the eye. It is this complexity that guides a general and broad continuum of human abilities.

The eye is referred to as the sense of sight. In our day-to-day and customary routines: when walking down the street, we step up and down the curves and curbs, we maneuver around the objects and people that we see and sometimes our paces are adjusted while visually observing or checking our positions. Some of us drive in our cars; we observe the rules of traffic driving at highway speeds knowing that there are other drivers who have equal access to the same roads. We go to the shops and scan for the many useful things we want to use for the house and for some, the food we eat. We teach our children to observe the road as they try to cross to the other side when going to school or when they are coming home from school. The eye captures all of these routines, no matter how simple they might seem. One factor responsible for these decisions is the environment in which we cohabit or dwell in; we see things and immediately we make decisions.

This is where the complexity comes in. Unknown to many, there is collaboration between the eye and the brain; they work together to form the beautiful picture painted above. Without the eye, there is a problem of sight. Without the brain, the eye would just be opened and there is nothing to help decode or decipher the meaning of the things seen or observed. Our vision plays a vital role in each of the activities described above through the collaboration of the eyes and the brain. From the deductions above, we are able to deduce that our visions and visualizations do not occur in the eye or the brain but emerges from the collaboration of both the eye and the brain. Our visions become the ubiquitous and ever-present aspect of our existence that encompasses all of our activities.

Spiritually speaking this is the contrary. The sacred scriptures make it clear that as Christians, we walk by faith and not by sight. This means that we do not depend on the things seen but on the things unseen. If it is seen then it is no more faith; if it is unseen then one can make postulations that it is faith. Coming in from another angle, God said ‘My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts’. The way God sees things is completely different from the way we as human beings see and observe things.

Eve in the Garden of Eden looked and saw the forbidden fruit as death at one time but after some time she saw the fruit differently, she saw it as one that gave knowledge; she decides to act on this and the inevitable happened. The Bible says that she viewed the fruit again as one that was good for food and one that would make one wise: ‘she took from the tree and did eat; she also gave some to her husband who was with her’. She was driven out of the garden with her husband. If I were to ask Eve a question, it would be what changed considering her eyes were not replaced; they were still the same pair of eyes from inception? She had a brain that gave different interpretation at different times, hence the reaction.

Sometimes we need to shut our eyes to some of the things we see because the things that we see do not give a good record of the Word of God; it confuses the things God is saying and showing to us. Without caution we make decisions based on the seen and the inevitable happens.

The story that readily comes to cognizance is that story of the blessing that Isaac was supposed to bestow on Jacob. Isaac was wrong in calling Esau and telling him the plan about his demise. He called Esau and told him to go and get an animal, kill the animal and make some food for him so that he can bless him and then die. Esau was his first-born and it is normal for father’s to bless the first born when they are about to die. The saving grace for Isaac was that his wife heard him talking to his son. Why was Isaac wrong then?

They inquired from God when Rebecca was found pregnant and He told them there were two nations in her womb and that one would be greater than the other: the younger would be the greater of the two and the older will serve the younger. The boys were born and the first came out and was named Esau and the second was named Jacob. In other words, Jacob would be greater than Esau. God would have to find a way of playing this out in accordance to his will and purpose. This would have been a difficult decision to make for Isaac to make and he would have thought of how Esau would feel if he blessed Jacob in his presence. The best he could do was to be natural and let things play out themselves as long as God is still in control.

Esau came home on this eventful day from his job and was very hungry. His brother had food and he told his brother to give him his food in exchange for his birthright. Jacob agreed and gave him the food and that was where everything started to play out. No one was there, no one saw them. Their parent were not aware of this but one thing was sure and that is, the act was in accordance to the plan of the Almighty God.

Now Isaac is about to die and he became partially blind in his eyes. He could not see properly again. Esau had gone to the field to hunt for the animal whilst Jacob was home with his mother, Rebecca. She called Jacob and told him what the father had told his brother. She also highlighted to him that she would cook the food and Jacob will present the food to his father so that he could get the blessing. Yes it was God’s will that Jacob gets the blessing. Isaac could only give the blessing just once. Even if he makes a mistake, the blessing couldn’t be retrieved.

Jacob had a concern: what if daddy finds out? He would curse me, and what will become of my life? It is amazing that his hesitations were founded, not on the evil of the act, but on the risk and consequences of deception. His mother assured of the contrary. His conscience having been soothed by his mother, preparations were hurriedly made for carrying out the ploy; consisting of a goat’s flesh, which she made into a savory meat that Isaac loved, spiced with salt, onions, ajinamoto, garlic, and lemon juice, which could easily be passed off on a blind old man.

Before Jacob went to his father, Rebecca took the fair robes of her oldest son, which was with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son: she also put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck because Esau was a hairy man, so that Jacob could at least look and feel like his brother. He took the food to his father and Isaac ate the food and was satisfied.

After eating the food, he told him to come near him so that he could feel his son. He made a statement, which he didn’t follow up. He said this is not the voice of Esau but as he felt the hairy part of his skin the idea was dismissed. Are you Esau he asked again? And Jacob answered yes I am and there goes the blessing.

If Isaac had been able able to see properly, these events would never have happened as they did. He would never have given the blessing to Jacob. He would have wittingly gone against the will of God. That would have distorted God’s plan and purpose; God had planned to make him go blind. Maybe if Peter had been blind in Matthew 14, he wouldn’t have started to sink. The devil too was so blinded as he plotted and charted to kill Jesus, for if he knew the plan of God, he would have left Jesus to live on undisturbed.

The things we see sometimes obliterate the faith in us and cause us to make decisions that lead us in the opposite direction of where we are supposed to be going. We see the things (the jets, jewelry, big houses and cars) we have possessed as faith in God and the reverse is the case. This is the reason why Paul admonished Timothy that he should not look at the things around him before he makes his judgments but to remain focused (to remain engrossed and dedicated) on the things he saw through the eye of scripture.

If your eye is single, your whole body would be full of light. The witness of the eye only confuses those 
who would walk by faith

Be Refreshed.



K Surakat

Walking by faith and not by sight. Nice one.

A slight deviation though, are you saying it was part of God's plan all along that Rebecca and Jacob would have to act in deceit to get Isaac's blessings?

ARareGem:

Sorry about the late response. Yes sister, I believe its all God's plan. Remember the word of God says in
Genesis 25
23 And the LORD said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.”

God spoke this 'word' before Jacob was born, if all that transpired didn't go that way God's word stands to be questioned. Isaac had to go blind for if he could see, he would bless the elder according to the Jewish custom. If it was by morals or works, Esau might have deserved the blessings but God had chosen Jacob before he was born and Deborah was used as a tool to carry out the will of God.

Romans 9
9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac 11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”