Daily Radio Bible - January 27th, 22

Week Three Reflections with Hunter

https://youtu.be/uUq-zxEcBPM

He is the God Who Sees

Exodus 17 - 20 and Acts 3

It begins with a look, and continues with a look.  Peter and John were heading to the temple to pray.  There, at the temple gates, sat a lame beggar. He was a regular.  He knew that people headed for prayer were good candidates for giving alms to the poor.  Seeing Peter and John, he looked at them. He had learned through the years, that the beginning of any transaction was a look.  If people refused to look at him, he knew they would not be giving him anything.  If they did look, whether out of curiosity or compassion, he knew he stood a chance of getting something.  Curiosity can lead to compassion, or sometimes guilt leads to curiosity and then compassion. He knew that it all begins with a look. So, with a finely crafted look of his own, one he had doubtless, perfected in an attempt to convert the curious to the compassionate, he looked up at them.

He was out looking for eye contact that day. As Peter and John were heading through the gates that day they saw someone looking for someone that would look. And perhaps Peter and John remembered what Jesus would do in these situations, with those who were looking.  He would see them.  So, Peter and John stopped and told him to “look at us” and Peter looked at him intently.  And at that moment the beggar may have thought, “Now I can use my doleful needy look to convert this man from curiosity to compassion. I’ve got one on the hook.  I’m about to get some money.”  But Peter’s compassion wasn’t being manipulated.  It was being stirred by something much deeper.  Peter was looking intently, beyond the man’s ploys.  He was looking at the look behind the look, to this man’s soul.  He could see the man’s need for a new life and a Savior who could make him walk upright again, whether his legs worked or not, whether he had silver or gold or not.  

This was the need Peter saw in this man’s eyes, a life that needed to stand upright before God. And the life this man needed was being offered free of charge, not only to him, but to the whole world.  It’s likely that Peter was responding to God’s leading as he said to the man,

“I don’t have any silver or gold for you.  But I’ll give you what I have.  In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” (Acts 3:6)

With these words, a transaction took place, not of money, but, of life. This was not a transaction of money to relieve the givers guilty conscience.  It was the life of Jesus being extended, not just for him but for the whole world, so that we might all walk upright before him.

It begins with a look.  God looks.  He sees beyond the exterior, to our deepest need.  He sees beyond our manipulation and schemes of self-salvation.  He sees us.  He looks intently at us, and sees what we were intended to be – men and women walking upright, worshiping him, and being set free.

Keep looking at him, who looks intently at you – who sees you.  There you will find life.

You are loved!