Today’s readings.. (1 Chronicles 2), (Ezekiel 15), (Luke 11)

In today’s chapter (11) Luke records some of the sayings of Jesus which require careful thought and comparison with other scriptures to unravel our Lord’s underlying meaning. In v. 33 he comments on the correct use of lamps, needed when there is darkness – and then speaks of darkness as being both literal and spiritual.
Jesus next says, “Your eye is the lamp of your body” [v.34] and that is true, how difficult life is for the blind – but Jesus’ then makes it clear he is not talking of physical blindness: “when your eye is healthy your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.”   What kind of “eye” is this? What is the “light”?
This reminds us of the exclamation of Job at the climax of his life. He had agonized with many words about the ways of God in allowing all the troubles that had befallen him. His 3 friends were sure of the reason, in their ‘mechanical’ perception that troubles only come as a punishment for sin! But Job, although he could not understand why events had happened to him, knew better. His final words to the LORD, after the Almighty speaks to him are, “”I know that you can do all things, that no purpose of yours can be thwarted … I have uttered what I did not understand …I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent …” [40 v.2,3,5,6]
Job now “saw” with the “eye” of his mind the ways of God!  This is what Jesus is talking about; so many of the minds of his hearers were “full of darkness.”  Note his next words; “therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.  If then your whole body be full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright …” [v.35,36]  How wonderful.   But so often human beings only look at the physical and not the spiritual; in v.27 a “woman in the crowd said to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that bore you …” But Jesus responds, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”  Today we can say, ‘Blessed are those who read the word of God – and after reading it, keep it – and then the “eye” of their thinking will be healthy.
A final thought – how meaningful are the words of Paul to the Ephesians, “I do not cease to give thanks for you … in my prayers … having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know …” [Ch. 1 v.16,18]  Read the context, it is very enlightening, let us all have the eyes of our hearts enlightened.