EYES OPEN - Charles Spurgeon

“And God opened her eyes.”
Genesis 21:19

There was a well of water close to Hagar, all the while, though she could not see it. God did not cleave the earth and cause new waters to gush forth, nor was there any need for this. The well was already there, but for all practical purposes, it might as well not have been there, for she could not see it. The water was gone in her bottle, her child was dying of thirst, and she was ready to faint—yet the cool spring was bubbling up right beside her! It was necessary that she should see the well, just as necessary as it was that the well should be there. Therefore, in great compassion, the Lord led her to see it. As the text puts it, “God opened her eyes.”

This was a small matter compared to the creation of a new-form of rain, but our God does both little things and great things when there is need for them. The same God who divided the Red Sea and dried up the Jordan River is the one who opened the eyes of a poor woman. The same God who came with all His chariots of fire to Paran and all His holy ones to Sinai, making the mountain smoke in His presence, is the same God who opened Hagar’s eyes. The Infinite Lord is equally at home in doing little things. He counts the stars, but He also numbers the hairs on our heads. Remember that the same God who molded the orb we live on also fashions every tiny dewdrop. He who makes the lightning fly through the sky also wings every butterfly and guides every minnow in the brook. He prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, but He also prepared a little worm to destroy the gourd.

How condescending He is, attending to minor matters for His children. Not only does He kill the fatted calf for them, but He also puts shoes on their feet. Sometimes, very little things become absolutely necessary, as they act as the hinges of history, the pivots on which the future turns. How often the whole course of a person’s life has been affected by a moment’s thought! The word of a child has changed the destiny of an empire; the chance expression of a speaker—though men may call it chance—has ignited races with new passion, changing times and shaking kingdoms.

The Lord works gloriously through small and despised agents and events. By opening Hagar’s eyes, God secured the existence of the Ishmaelite race, which still remains to this day. From the small comes the great. There may be people among us who need but a small thing to enter eternal life—they need only that their eyes should be opened! May the Lord grant them that favor! O that He may now bid many a Hagar see His salvation! Why should the thirsty souls wait any longer? Everything is ready—they are on the borders of salvation—but they need that their eyes should be opened.

Our subject at this time is the opening of eyes, with a broad range, for it is a wide topic. We hope that both to those who see and to those who cannot see, there may come a gracious opening of the spiritual eye.

I. The Remarkable Results of Opening Our Eyes

If our eyes were further opened, the result to any one of us would be truly remarkable. We are currently limited in our sight—whether natural, mental, or spiritual. Yet, when the range of our sight is enlarged, very remarkable discoveries are made. God has been gracious in opening mankind’s natural eyes with the invention of optical instruments.

What a discovery it was when certain pieces of glass were arranged together, allowing men to peer into the stars! What a change came over the knowledge of our race through the invention of the telescope! How much devout and adoring thought and deep reverence have been born into the world because of God’s opening of men’s eyes in this way! When the telescope revealed that the nebulae were actually innumerable stars, what a hymn of praise must have burst from the astronomer’s heart!

Equally marvelous was the effect of the microscope. We could never have imagined what wonders of skill and taste would be revealed by the magnifying glass, nor the marvels of beauty found in things too small to measure. Who would have dreamed that the wing of a butterfly would display art and wisdom beyond human craftsmanship? The most delicate human work is rough and crude compared to the most common object in nature. The one is man’s production; the other is God’s handiwork!

Spending an evening with the microscope, if your heart is right, you will lift your eye away from the glass to Heaven and exclaim, “Great God, You are as wonderful in the little as You are in the great, and as much to be praised for the minute as for the magnificent!” While we praise God for creating the great and wide sea, the leviathan that plays there, we can also say, “Great are You, O Lord, for You made the drop of water and filled it with innumerable living things.

Our physical eyes, opened by these instruments, reveal strange marvels. From this fact, we can infer that if our mental and spiritual eyes were opened, they would uncover equally wonderful truths in other areas, increasing our reverence and love for God.

II. Our Eyes Must Be Opened in Some Areas

The things I have spoken of are desirable, but there are some things in which our eyes must be opened, as they are absolutely necessary. One such thing is Divine salvation. Hagar’s case is a striking example. She is thirsty, her child is dying, and yet she cannot see the well of water close by. It is right there, yet she cannot perceive it.

This is a graphic representation of the position of many a seeking sinner. The way of salvation is right before them, and it could not be clearer. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” “Look unto the Son of God and live”—what could be simpler? And yet, no one understands the doctrine of “believe and live” until God opens their eyes.

The well is there, but the thirsty soul cannot see it. Christ is there, but the sinner cannot see Him. There is the Fountain filled with blood, but he does not know how to wash in it. There stand the words, “Believe and live”—simple words that need no explanation! They are legible by their own light and so plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool, may comprehend them! Yet, until the Eternal Light flashes upon the darkened eyeballs of the sinner, he cannot and will not perceive the self-evident Truth of God!

Why this inability to see? I suppose Hagar’s eyes were somewhat darkened by her grief. She was a broken-hearted woman, and therefore, her eyes were not as clear as usual. Likewise, some souls have such grief for their sin, such sorrow for having offended God, and such fear of wrath to come, that they cannot perceive the Truth of God that would comfort them. What ails you, poor soul? What ails you? It is good that you grieve for your sin, but Christ has come to put it away! It is well that you mourn your lost estate, but Christ has come to save you, and there He is, right before you, if you can but see Him!

It was unbelief, too, that darkened Hagar’s eyes. God had appeared to her years before, you remember, when she was in very much the same plight, and He had given her a promise that He would make of her son a great nation. She might have reflected that this could never happen unless the boy’s life was preserved—and since he could not live without a drink of water, she should have felt confident that water would be forthcoming. She was unbelieving, but it is not ours to judge her for, alas, we are unbelieving, too!

Anxious soul, is that your case? Oh, if you could believe! Truly, you have good cause! It should not be hard to believe what God says, for He cannot lie! But, still, unbelief darkens many an eye. There are many who cannot see because of self-conceit. When great Self feasts his eyes upon his own good works or religious performances, of course, he cannot see the way of salvation by Christ alone! The Lord take these scales from your eyes, poor sinner, for Self is a great maker of darkness! Nothing more surely holds a soul in gloom than a conceit of its own powers.

How I wish I could so put the Gospel as to win men from self! I preach the plan of salvation as plainly as I can. I use very homely metaphors. I have sometimes even employed what the more refined call vulgar expressions—I would be more vulgar still if I could thereby help a soul to see Christ! I tell you Jesus is near to you and within your reach, and that salvation is close at your feet! You have but to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved! But I know that, after all is said and done, if you ever see Christ, it will be because the Holy Spirit opens your eyes. I cannot open them, nor can any other mortal man! Since the world began, it has not been known that any man has opened the eyes of one who was born blind. Oh, that the Lord would be pleased, now, to open the eyes of every sinner here to see salvation in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God!

III. The Desirability of Our Eyes Being Opened

I must leave that point and finish with one more. In our present case, it is very desirable that our eyes should be opened. To many, it is imperatively necessary at this very moment, for if not now recovered from their blindness, they will die in their sins! In this great throng, there are some to whom it is pre-eminently desirable that their eyes should be opened at once to see what the inevitable result of their present mode of life will be, for their blindness is the source of great peril to them.

That young gentleman who is spending his money on the racecourse and in loose society—I should think he might see with half an eye what will come of his conduct! The devil never runs express trains to Hell—there is no need for them—because you can go there fast enough by racehorses! The turf has furnished many an express method of ruining fortunes and souls! Get into that line of things—and all that it means, and all the society that goes with it—and your future needs no prophet. Many young men do not think until it is too late to think. I wish I could put a cool hand upon that hot brow, stop that young man, and make him stand still and consider. O that the Lord would open his eyes!

And that young woman who has begun to look (not much, as yet) on what is called gaiety. Ah, the Lord stop you, my sister, and open your eyes before you go one step farther—for one step farther may be your ruin! And that tradesman who has begun—no, he has not quite begun as yet—but he is thinking about a course of trade which will land him in something more shameful than bankruptcy. I pray the Lord to open his eyes so that he may see matters in the true light.

I see a man before me who is about to commit moral suicide. O for a gleam of light, just now, and a touch of that finger which can open blind eyes! I cannot particularize and go into every case, but I have upon me a strong impression that I am speaking to some young man whose future depends upon his prudent pausing and careful consideration before he puts his foot down again. One step more and you fall! I beseech you, stand still and hear what God would speak to you! Turn, turn from your sins and seek your Savior now, and He will be found of you at once, and there shall be a life honorable and bright before you to His Glory!

But if you go one step farther in the way in which the tempter’s charms, like siren music, would entice you, you are lost forever! God help you, therefore, to stop, and may it be said of you, “God opened his eyes.”

Now, leaving all these themes of thought, I would remind you that we are about to gather at the Communion Table, and there we should sit with opened eyes. Those who love the Lord cannot endure to sit as blind men in His palace, but they long for all the sight which Grace can give them.

First, we would have opened eyes that we may see Jesus to be very near us. Do not think of Him, just now, as if He were far away in Heaven. He is there in His glorious Personality, but His spiritual Presence is here also. DId He not say, “Lo, I am with you always,” and, “If I go away I will come again”? He abides with us by His Spirit forever!

Come, let us sit while this sacramental feast is going on, and sing—
“Amidst us our Beloved stands,
And bids us view His pierced hands.
He points to His wounded feet and side,
Blest emblems of the Crucified.

If now with eyes defiled and dim,
We see the signs but see not Him,
Oh may His love the scales displace,
And bid us see Him face to face!

Our former transports we recount,
When with Him in the holy mount,
These cause our souls to thirst anew,
His marred but lovely face to view.”

We desire that you may have your eyes opened to see what you are in Christ. You complain that you are black in yourselves—but you are most fair in Him! You lament that you are so wandering, yes, but you are fixed in Him! You mourn that you are so weak—yet you are strong in Him! A good man went the other day to visit a poor child who was dying—a child whom the Lord had taught many things—and the dear little fellow, as he put out his wasted hand, said, “So strong in Christ.” He could hardly lift a finger and yet he knew that his weakness was clothed with power in Christ!

We are poor, puny things, but we can do all things through Christ! We are poor, foolish things, but we are wise in Christ. We are good-for-nothing things, but we are so precious in Christ, so dear to God in Christ, that we are numbered with His jewels and known as the Lord’s peculiar portion! We are sinful creatures in ourselves, and yet we are perfect in Christ Jesus and complete in Him. These are strong expressions, but as they are Scriptural, they are assuredly true. How blessed we are in our Covenant Head! The Lord open our eyes to see this.

Lastly, dear friends, may the Lord open your eyes to see what you will be in Him. Ah, what will you be in Christ? In a very little while, we shall be with Him. Many of our members have gone home to Jesus, and one very earnest Brother, very diligent in working for the Master—a young man of whom we expected much—has been swept away by the receding tide while bathing in the sea. He has gone to his rest, I doubt not. Older friends have also ascended to God just lately, rejoicing to enter into the joy of the Lord.

Between now and next month’s Communion, some of us will, probably, have departed to the Father. Let our eyes be opened to behold, by faith, the Glory soon to be revealed. It may almost make you laugh for joy to think of your head wearing a crown—that poor head of yours! These poor aching knees and weary feet—there will be no more toil for them! That poor, scantily furnished room, hard fare, narrow means, and weary labor will all be exchanged for mansions of rest, bread of bliss, and new wine of delight!

You know each pavement stone between here and your house, for you come so often to the Tabernacle—but you will be walking the streets of gold before long to the eternal Temple above! Instead of noisy streets, you will traverse paths of rest amid the songs of seraphs and the Psalms of the redeemed, and that, perhaps, within a month. Yes, in less time than it takes the moon to fill her horns, you shall be where the Lord God and the Lamb are the eternal Light!

Certain of us are nearer Heaven than we think. Let our hearts dance for joy at the bare thought of such speedy joy! Let us go on our way blessing and magnifying Him who has opened our eyes to see the Glory which He has prepared for those that love Him, which shall be ours before long.

God bless you for Christ’s sake.

—Charles Spurgeon