Eyes on the Land

Eyes on the Land September 11, 2015

The land of promise is not a land like Egypt, and when Moses describes the differences between them he focuses on hydraulics. Egypt draws its water from below, pumped with a foot pump from the Nile. Canaan, though, lives off heavenly rain, the waters above, water that comes from Yahweh (Deuteronomy 11:8-12). Water is the source of all blessing and life, and the source of water indicates the source of that life.

Moses’ description of the land is as sumptuous as Lear’s description of the realm he is dividing among his daughters. It’s a land of hills and valleys, that drinks water from the rain of heaven. Yahweh cares for the land; indeed, His eyes are “always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year” (v. 12).

That reference to the Lord’s eyes hints in a few directions. For starters, the Hebrew ‘ayin means not only “eye” but “spring of water” (e.g., Genesis 16:7; 24:29). In Deuteronomy 11, there is clearly a pun: Canaan is watered from heaven because Yahweh’s eyes are on the land; or, to put it otherwise, Yahweh is Israel’s heavenly spring, their ultimate source of the water of life.

Second. the image of Yahweh’s eyes watching over the land links with the set-up of the Holy Place of the tabernacle, where the lampstand or “watcher” is said to shed the light of its seven lamps over the twelve loaves of showbread on the table. As the “eyes” of the lampstand watch over the bread of Israel, so the Lord’ watches over His land and His people. His eyes are over the land to give water from heaven; His eyes are over the land to make it produce bread.

Third, the “eyes of Yahweh” are linked in Revelation to the seven Spirits of God. The Lamb has seven eyes which are the seven Spirits, which are linked with the seven lamps of the lampstand. The “water of heaven” that falls and makes the land flourish is the water of Yahweh’s Spirit who turns dead earth to life-giving food.

And then we must add, finally, that this entire series of reflections is about baptism, the heavenly water that comes from the springs of God, the heavenly water that is the Spirit, the heavenly water that falls on the earth of Adamic humanity and makes it flourish with bread and wine.


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