Faith Sees More

My wife and I had a grandchild born last night. We are so thankful for this new life. At the same time, we have recently been compelled to think about death. We have lost some dear people this year and one just recently. When you go through life, you are compelled to think about the highs and lows, birth, life and death, and what it all means. As Louis L’Amour said about the American West, which is also true about life itself, “It is both savage and sweet; both two-fisted and big-hearted.”

In Genesis 48, we find Jacob at the end of his life contemplating his death and life and the promises of God, trying to make sense of it all. As to death, Jacob was about to die. Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” Regarding life, the psalmist says in Psalm 139, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” As to promises, the promises that God had given Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob, and through him to his posterity and to us, God sent the Messiah. How do you see all these things, the ups and downs, birth, life and death? How do you view all that? What did Jacob see?

Genesis 48:10 tells us that the “eyes of Israel were dim for age.” He was old. In verse 11 he says to Joseph,”“I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath showed me also thy seed.” He saw Joseph and his sons, but Jacob saw much more than that. Hebrews 11:21 gives us God’s commentary in a nutshell of Jacob’s life. Verse 21 says, “By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.” So, this is the crowning example of Jacob living by faith. Faith sees more.We sometimes think that faith is blind. Nothing could be further from the truth. Emotion is blind, but knowing the truth because you have faith in a God who knows everything is not blind.

First, faith sees more because it acknowledges God both in the past and in the future. In verse 15, Jacob blessed Joseph and said, “God, before who my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads.” He looked back to God as his shepherd. God had guided and provided. Jacob could look back and say, “That was God.”

If you look back at life and all you see is life on your own, that is a view of despair. You should not imagine things or make something up, but faith acknowledges God. You can look back and say, “That was God.” You don’t understand everything, but you acknowledge there is a God.

In verses 20-21 Jacob can see the future because he is living by faith. In verse 21, Israel, that is Jacob, said unto Joseph, “Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.” How did he know that? Jacob never lived to see that through his eyes, but he knew it and saw it because God had made a promise. Jacob wasn’t relying on his feelings, but on a fact, what God had said. He had faith in that fact. So, faith sees more; it acknowledges God in the past and the future.

Ultimately, faith gives significance to life. There are things I don’t understand, but there is a difference between acknowledging you don’t understand everything that happens in life and realizing that the highs and lows are not detached from significance because they are not detached from God. When I saw babies and expectant mothers and fathers in the hospital recently, I wondered, “How many of these children will grow up in a home where they know both parents, where they have any attachment to what has gone on before, their grandparents and beyond, and any recognition that there is significance to their life, that God has given them their life.” Even pleasures in life lose their significance if we detach them from God.

I was on a university campus a few days ago. It looked like Oxford and was beautiful and timeless. It had marble busts and statues, old paintings, a grand cathedral built of large stones, a flying buttress ceiling, marble floors, a grand hall, massive, stained glass that showed the university’s history. It was amazing.

Apparently, in the back of this magnificent cathedral there was a brochure that said something like “How to Be Involved in a Faith Community” that gave a hodgepodge of religions, most of which were not Christianity. It had a picture of a service in that grand cathedral which consisted of five coeds in shorts and hoodies with guitars singing to a rag tag collection of people. I thought, “This is what is going on here now?” It was almost like they were dancing on the tomb of the truth. This massive building, built with the fortunes of people who had something in which to believe and held to some conviction, was now hosts a bunch of college students. The school doesn’t believe the truth for which the buildings were built. The buildings will continue on, but the truth was lost long ago.

What do these students live for? A latte from the coffee shop? Questions that are never answered? Uncertainties heightened because they do not acknowledge God and the truth? Nothing is more blind than living by sight, slumming through life with no significance attached to it, the birth, death, life, and pain and pleasure. Faith sees more because it acknowledges God. That gives some significance to the life we live. May God help us not just to live a life of despair or seeking pleasure, but one where we know the truth because we see it by faith. Faith sees more.