It is autumn in the UK, “the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” as John Keats the British nineteenth century poet said as he commenced his famous poem “Ode to Autumn.”
It is true, we have had some misty mornings here and although it has been light the mist has made things drab and obscured the view, but tarry a while patiently and the sun drives the clinging grayness away and clearness of vision comes. It is natural causes that make for these hanging clouds whilst in cities like Beijing some mornings are bleak with man made pollution that blankets everything, and there have been occasions when flying into Los Angeles that we have seen the whole conurbation cloaked in what resembles a sheet hiding the busy city beneath. So, whether because of natural causes or the outcome of man’s selfish activity there are times when the view is severely restricted and we walk somewhat unsighted.
I am old enough to recall the famous London smog that would descend and linger over the streets and the big red buses picking their way along the roads at a painfully slow pace, sometimes with the conductor walking a few yards ahead! The result of the polluting activities of commerce and coal fires were blatantly in view there! What a relief when a strong breeze came to blow all away and, how good when the sun begins to assert its strength to dissolve the autumn mists as well!
“We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon You,”
The clearing vision, we need it both in things natural and in things spiritual. “We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon You,” (2 Chronicles 20:12) captures in two phrases the secret of the clearing vision. These are among the words of King Jehoshaphat when he and his people faced enemies that seemed innumerable and more powerful than they. Are there leaders in the churches who are saying the same when confronted with all manner of polluting influences and confusions among their people? The first phrase “we know not what to do” is one of humble dependency upon God and the absence of confidence in our own resources and abilities.
Such words are not commonly heard today; frequently another program is enthusiastically presented instead, apparently it promises to be the key to effectiveness! Jehoshaphat stood in the house of the Lord and confessed before the congregation, “O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven and You rule over all the kingdoms of the heathen, and in Your hand is there not power and might so that none is able to withstand you” (2 Chronicles 20:5-6)? He displayed the healthy attitude of confidence in God and confession of an appropriate ignorance when he unashamedly voiced these things, and as the story unfolds, we see that the Lord God did lead His people through their life-threatening dilemma; God did not fail His own Name or His people. “Our eyes are upon You,” is in the plural, not the king alone, but the inward eyes of the people of Judah too.
Throughout the history of the Old Testament people of God frequently this would have been the emphatic testimony of those known as ‘the remnant.’
Throughout the history of the Old Testament people of God frequently this would have been the emphatic testimony of those known as ‘the remnant.’ The seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal that God speaks of to His disconsolate prophet Elijah (1 Kings 19:18) are one such example. God always had His ‘seven thousand’ whose eyes were upon God though surrounded by all manner of clouds that curtailed sight and perspective. At this point it is good to glance at a reference Bible and see the verses that marry up with the 2 Chronicles 20:12 scripture. In my version (ESV) I have the following, Psalm 25:15, “My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He will pluck my feet out of the net.” Psalm 123:1-2, “To You I lift up my eyes, O You Who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till He has mercy upon us.” Psalm 141:8, “But my eyes are toward You, O God, my Lord: in You I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless.”
Let us remind ourselves of this fact; looking unto Jesus is the secret of a clearing vision. We visit many places in a number of countries; churches varied in denominational affiliation and culture too. The joy of sharing with individuals, couples, families and churches is ours, but, sometimes that joy is mixed with a certain sorrow caused by meeting many who grope in a mist or in a heavy blanket of oppressiveness cloud who ought to be of radiant heart and mind. There is need of a clearing vision and many do not seem to understand the connection between having the eyes of the heart looking unto Jesus and the faith that conquers and banishes those clouds. Referring back to the Psalms we ought to note the apparent folly of what we are told in the first (Psalm 25:15).
When Hazel and I go for walks, especially in certain places, our eyes are often downwards, looking at where we tread, unfortunately not all countries have the rule “poop and scoop” for their dogs! Just think what David is telling us, we are to keep our eyes upon Him, not watching the path, but Him and the nets spread by the enemies of our soul will not trap our feet! Now, this is certainly nothing to do with looking upwards in some kind of pious escapism. The feet are thoroughly ‘on the ground’ and we know that there are nets and snares. We must walk here, on this earth, in the midst of the circumstances and society in which we are set. We are ” in the world” though not “of it,” aware of its lure and traps yet becoming sanctified as we are sent into the midst of it (John 17:11,14,17,18).
Yes, the world has a multitude of stumbling blocks to trap the unwary but we are not to live in a kind of dualistic piety separated into a monastic existence isolated and aloof from those around us. Instead we are to be engaged with the world though not caught in the subtle snares ever present on the pathway. I often get the sense that many believers walk in a mist about those snares, their movement forward drastically impaired as they yield to the values and standards of the ‘norms’ that are part of their particular world. There is need for quietness in our soul, for it is only in such quietness that many of our spiritual senses become activated. The outcome of dwelling in the private place of His presence with a waiting, watching heart will be clearer vision as the mists are dissipated so that we walk on unafraid and with steady pace.
The outcome of dwelling in the private place of His presence with a waiting, watching heart will be clearer vision as the mists are dissipated so that we walk on unafraid and with steady pace.
Let me mention one of the mists and clouds clinging around the minds of some in the churches. The pressure towards church growth is all pervading in some quarters and has spawned a number of techniques and methodologies being touted as the key. Leaders are harassed to provide programs and schema to achieve the needed growth but there is a strange mist of neglect alongside this activity. I can sum it up in some of the words Jesus spoke to the apostle Peter and their progression. First there is the name change and the affirmation spoken to Peter and his brother Andrew, “follow Me and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Moving on almost three years there is a development when Jesus says, “I will build My church” and “I will give you the keys of the kingdom” (Matthew 16:18-19).
Please note the “I will’s” in these verses, “I will make you,” “I will build” and “I will give you.” And there is yet further progression as Jesus speaks to His apostle at the time of his second sending, this time from the wounded and resurrected Christ. Peter was now a broken man, one who had come through a time of the most terrible self-discovery. There is no mention of fishing but of feeding lambs and sheep now (John 21:15-19) and all in the context of love. Shepherds and sheep, this is the heart of the ministry. And what was Peter to feed the flock on save the love wherewith he was being loved by His Lord who was carefully and with tender care restoring his erring apostle?
There is a real confusing mist hanging around the churches about this, or so it seems to me. The emphasis on ‘mission’ and ‘doing evangelism’ clouds the simplicity of caring for, and loving our neighbor and those who are seeking lambs.
There is a real confusing mist hanging around the churches about this, or so it seems to me. The emphasis on ‘mission’ and ‘doing evangelism’ clouds the simplicity of caring for, and loving our neighbor and those who are seeking lambs. There is a neglect of this care, frequently the result of feverish activity in the unimportant. People busy doing ‘stuff’ and becoming so engaged in what is, so often, the merely inconsequential that there is no time to tarry, talk and be present in brotherly availability to the lonely and lost seeking one. We must ask ourselves, is God, in His heart, “the Great Shepherd of the sheep”? Does He shepherd the nations and when His Son came to this earth and the Word was made flesh did He describe Himself as the good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep?
We know the answer to these questions. He says that He was doing the “works of His Father” in the very conversation in which He was defining His Shepherd ministry (John 10:37). At the heart of what it means to be truly Christian and truly human is the shepherd heart that cares, loves and feeds those around about. Is this a crucial area in which mists of confusion cling around the minds of some in our churches? Life is so busy, but examine with care, how much of that busyness is the result of become overwrought in those things that are not essential?
Another area in which clouds obscure is in the question of what and where is the church? In bald terms the answer must be, if the church is the body of Christ then the church is that place where Christ is, no more and no less. And if the centrality of His Being is the shepherd heart then we must have our eyes upon Him so that the mists blurring the plain outline of our life and ministry and which produces an indistinct vagueness to our sense of vocation are blown away by the Holy Spirit. There must be a clearing of vision as to our calling as church but such a clearing is fatal to the self-love and self-preoccupation that clings like a fog around the soul.
To seek His face, have eyes upon the Lord and to say to Him “we know not what to do” will bring about great change. Some are doing too much and walk in clouds of mist that must be dissolved. Some may be grandparents too busy with shepherding grandchildren day after day in order to indulge their own children in their particular pursuit of the new things and better house that are perhaps only obtainable by having two incomes coming into the home. Is there a confusion as to the vocation of marriage so that “I do not want to have a child until I am a bit older so that I can pursue my career” and “we must have two incomes coming in” and another host of excuses are made in order to evade the un-revoked command made to Adam and Eve “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion” (Genesis 1:28). For sure, that is a controversial thing to mention but is there a misty-ness in the minds of many about such matters? It takes courage to become parents and bring up children, but for Christian families to do so is in itself bearing testimony to the world, that there is a future and a hope!
Are we trapped and stumbled by the ways of the western world, are our feet caught in nets and snares? Mists, polluting clouds and smog come down when the breeze does not blow. Often a contemptuous attitude is displayed by the world toward the church. The clear-eyed child of God will cry to Him, “We have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, the contempt of the proud” (Psalm 123:3&4), those voiced these brave sentiments whose vision was becoming clearer as they looked to the Lord to have mercy and take away their reproach. The picture is graphic, they did not know what to do, but they were standing in the presence of master and mistress as they sat at table and like faithful servants and maidservants they watched for the hand gesture, the movement of a finger and obediently responded and served.
As God’s people we live in days filled with challenge and possibility, but we must not permit confusions like clouds to obscure the holy vision. The church must be that place where the call of Christ is heard and followed. Real churches are filled with the disciples of Christ, those who refuse the misty lack of vision that is the inevitable result of settling for a tepid, halfhearted tolerant spirit that can only bring the contempt of the world. The sons of God who are also the disciples of Christ have this two pronged attitude in their hearts and confess it with their mouths, “We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee.”
Bold, consistent people, loving, firm and tender who have shepherd hearts will be the outcome.
