The Poor Man's Portions

The Eyes of Man are on the Lord

By Robert Hawker

Precious Jesus! when shall this blessed Scripture be accomplished? "The eyes of man." What man? Surely as the church's glorious head, and as her glorious representative, the eyes of our Lord Jesus himself were always from everlasting directed to Jehovah his Father. But secondarily, and subordinately, the eyes of your redeemed, blessed Jesus, the eyes of man, the eyes of every man, must ultimately be all toward you for salvation. You indeed have said, "Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other," Isa. 45:22. Pause, my soul! this evening, over this view of your Jesus, for it is a very blessed one, and see what benefit, under divine teaching, you can draw from it. It is said, that as one of the tribes, indeed, all the tribes of Israel, every eye shall be upon Jesus. And how suitable is it that it should be so! Is not God the Father unceasingly beholding his dear Son in his commitments as the Mediator and Surety of his church and people? Oh! Who shall be competent to describe with what complacency and delight he beholds him in his glorious person, as the God-man, the Glory-man; and in all his offices, characters, and relations? Something of this we may gather from what Jesus has himself said concerning the Father's love for his undertaking and accomplishing redemption by his blood. "Therefore (says our Jesus) My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again," John 10:17.

But the full understanding of the love of the Father on this one account cannot perhaps be brought within the capacity of the human mind. But if God the Father loves Jesus as Mediator and for his undertaking, and is unceasingly beholding him with rapture on this account, it may serve at least to teach you, my soul, how exceedingly it becomes you to look to Jesus for the same, and that your eyes, as the eyes of all the tribes of Israel, should be towards the Lord. Dearest Lord Jesus! Let my eyes, my heart, my whole soul be fixed on you, until every part of me flows out in desires after you. I would pursue you like the Old Testament saints, who saw your day "afar off, rejoiced, and were glad." I would behold you as New Testament believers, who are looking to you, and "are enlightened, and their faces are not ashamed." I desire to see you with the first dawn of the morning; indeed, before the morning light, and "until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away;" and until my beloved comes to me "as a roe, or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bether!" Yes! precious Lord Jesus! I would be sending the earnest longings of my soul through the windows of my eyes after you, and never give rest to my eyes, nor slumber to my eyelids, until that blessed hour arrives, when nothing will come between to prevent the full enjoyment of my soul in you; and when a body of sin and death shall no longer weary my soul in her enjoyment of you; but I shall then see Jesus as he is, and never again lose sight of his lovely person, but live in his presence, and Jesus in mine, forevermore.