Editorial July 31, 1995 Issue

Seeing and hearing

Barbara M. Vining

To be able to see perfectly. To be able to hear perfectly. Wouldn't we each like to claim perfect faculties for ourselves and know that we can never lose them?

The primary thing to consider is the role of God in our ability to see and hear, because God is our creator and sustainer. In the Bible, the book of Proverbs says, "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them" (20:12). The ability to see and hear is given to us by God, divine Spirit, not by matter. Seeing and hearing are actually spiritual, not material, faculties. Another verse in the same chapter of Proverbs tells how wise judgment can be exercised with the "eyes"—the spiritual discernment God gives to man: "A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes" (verse 8). The Interpreter's Bible explains: "He sifts the evil from the good with his eyes" (Vol. 4, p. 897).

To discern clearly the purity and permanent good of God's creation, and thus the nothingness of evil—that's true seeing. To understand distinctly that good is of God and maintained by Him, and that evil has no creator or sustainer—that's true hearing.

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