Do You See What God Sees?
November 9, 2003
Exodus 32:11

Have you seen the billboard around town that asks the question, “Do you see a garden?” It catches your attention because it is a picture of anything but a garden. You see an empty, littered lot, dirt instead of grass, broken beer bottles and discarded debris instead of flowers. The billboard, sponsored by the Ad Council, challenges us to think of beautifying places around town that need some loving care. The billboard interests me because I see it as an illustration of the way Almighty God looks at us. The human race looks like a mess from one angle. Wars, famines, and godlessness are the fabric of life. But when God looks at it all he doesn’t see the empty, littered lot, so to speak, but he sees the makings of a race of God-fearing, loving, life-giving people. And he challenges us to have that same frame of mind.

If there is one thing I would change about the story line of Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress it is the attitude that I sometimes see displayed by Christian, the main character. I would like to see a little more sympathy and tenderness toward his fellow man, especially those who are also on the journey he is on but who may be less mature in their understanding of spiritual things. We’ve come in the story to a good example of what I mean.

Last time we saw how Christian encountered many daunting obstacles on his way to the Celestial City. He had to battle with Apollyon, and almost succumbed to the beast. After that he braved the Valley of the Shadow of Death where one wrong step could have cost him his life. Then there was Vanity Fair, which, if you remember, turned out to be a much more sinister place than the name suggests. All along he has had to face and overcome challenges. These various obstacles certainly presented a challenge to him. Before that his challenge was to rise above his own doubts and fears regarding the journey he is on. Before that the challenge was to simply find a way out after he learned that his city was to suffer severe judgment. Each time Christian has risen to the task. Now, I feel that his challenge is to learn to see others as God sees them, and here there is room for growth.

Now that Christian has passed beyond Vanity Fair he has a new traveling companion. He is a man named Hopeful. Christian and Hopeful come upon another pilgrim whose name is Ignorance. (You can probably guess that Ignorance won’t get voted Most Likely to Succeed.) The story goes like this as these three meet,

“And I slept, and dreamed again, and saw the same two Pilgrims going down the mountains along the highway towards the city. Now, a little below these mountains, on the left hand, lieth the country of Conceit; from which country there comes into the way in which the Pilgrims walked, a little crooked lane. Here, therefore, they met with a very brisk lad that came out of that country; and his name was Ignorance. So Christian asked him from what parts he came, and whither he was going.

“Ignorance: Sir, I was born in the country that lieth off there a little on the left hand, and I am going to the Celestial City... I know my Lord's will, and I have been a good liver; I pay every man his own; I pray, fast, pay tithes, and give alms, and have left my country for whither I am going.

“Christian: But thou camest not in at the wicket-gate that is at the head of this way; thou camest in hither through that same crooked lane, and therefore, I fear, however thou mayest think of thyself, when the reckoning day shall come, thou wilt have laid to thy charge that thou art a thief and a robber, instead of getting admittance into the city.”

In general, this seems to be the tone he has taken with most other fellow travelers, those who have weaker faith, at any rate, since Pliable, who turned back even before they reached the first gate. It seems that he is not willing or able to see such persons as who they could be, but only who they are at present, or as they seem to be at present. (Of course, their names give them away – Pliable, Ignorance, etc. Still, I think that it is possible, and necessary, to look beyond appearances and try to see others from a more godly vantage point.)

We’ve been looking at Moses’ example during this series and noticing some similarities between him and our pilgrim in The Pilgrim’s Progress. Both of them had tough decisions to make concerning leaving behind all that was familiar to them. Both of them struggled with a lack of self-confidence. Both of them faced a pile of obstacles along the path as they journeyed toward their destinations. And there is a similarity at this point in the story as well, but I would say that Moses proves more the saint in this department.

Did you know that Moses once saved the entire Israelite community single-handedly? It was after the infamous incident with the golden calf. The Lord told Moses that he had had enough of their disrespect and that he had decided to simply eliminate all of them. The Scripture is in Exodus 32,

“I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “O LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.”

This passage may confuse you. I’m saying that we need to think more like the Lord about the people around us, but here the tables seem to be turned. Moses is seemingly arguing God out of wiping out the people. Here he is begging for another chance for those stubborn Israelites. But I see this as a test for Moses rather than an actual threat. Here was a nation whom the Lord loved and called out of Egyptian bondage. He pledged on oath to be their God and declared that they were his people. He had already determined from the beginning of time to bring forth a Savior from the line of Judah.
How could he now actually wipe them out? I think this is a test to find out how Moses viewed the people, and he passed the test marvelously. He got it right. Moses saw them no longer as poor slaves but as God’s chosen people.

Back to Bunyan’s book, we do in fact see some good examples of this if we look to some characters besides Christian. Take Faithful, for example. Faithful, if you remember, was the fellow pilgrim of Christian’s who met his death at the hands of a lynch mob in Vanity Fair. We don’t find out until later that he had a very positive influence on some of those in the crowd, including a traveler I’ve already mentioned, Hopeful.

“Now I saw in my dream, that Christian went not forth alone, for there was one whose name was Hopeful (being made so by the beholding of Christian and Faithful in their words and behavior, in their sufferings at the fair) who joined himself unto him, and, entering into a brotherly covenant, told him that he would be his companion. Thus, one died to bear testimony to the truth, and another rises out of his ashes...”

Then Hopeful went on to share his testimony of how Faithful, specifically, was such a help in bringing him to the Lord,

“[Faithful] told me that unless I could obtain the righteousness of a man that never had sinned, neither mine own, nor all the righteousness of the world could save me... he told me it was the Lord Jesus... And thus, said he, you must be justified by him, even by trusting to what he hath done by himself, in the days of his flesh, and suffered when he did hang on the tree. I asked him further, how that man's righteousness could be of that efficacy to justify another before God? And he told me he was the mighty God, and did what he did, and died the death also, not for himself, but for me; to whom his doings, and the worthiness of them, should be imputed, if I believed on him.”

So, in other words, Faithful did not see all the residents of the town of Vanity as lost causes, though you get the idea that was Christian’s opinion of them all.

Another good example to share with you takes us all the way back to the beginning of the book. How is it that Christian found his way at first out of the doomed city? The way to go was pointed out to him by one named Evangelist. Listen once again to their first exchange,

“[Christian] looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because, as I perceived, he could not tell which way to go. I looked then, and saw a man named Evangelist coming to him, who asked, ‘Wherefore dost thou cry?’ He answered, ‘Sir, I perceive by the book in my hand, that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgment; and I find that I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do the second.’”

“Then said Evangelist, pointing with his finger over a very wide field, ‘Do you see yonder wicket-gate?’ The man said, ‘No.’ Then said the other, ‘Do you see yonder shining light?’ He said, ‘I think I do.’ Then said Evangelist, ‘Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto: so shalt thou see the gate at which, when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do.’”

In other words, rather than engaging Christian in complicated doctrinal debates, and rather than judging him or condemning him, he pointed out to him the way to go. He pointed to the cross, realizing that the rest of those matters could be resolved if first he found salvation at the cross.

This is especially of interest to me in the story because of the pilgrim’s name. His name is Christian, at least as we know him now. But Christian was not his given name at birth. Once, and only once, we are told what his original name was. It was Grace-less. Evangelist is to be applauded because he treated this desperate man not as Grace-less, but as Christian. He could see him as a pilgrim successfully finding his way to the Celestial City, although, when they first met, he hardly seemed to be a likely candidate.

Last week I was talking about overcoming obstacles that we come upon in life, and I said that victory over such obstacles is part of the proving process for us. I said that this is one of the reasons we are left here on earth for what seems like such a long time to us (though in fact it is just a vapor), and I said that there is another reason. What I have been talking about today is that other reason. Each one of us has the challenge to see others around us either as Evangelist and Faithful do, or as Christian does. Praise God for the Evangelists and Faithfuls of this world whose pilgrimage is not a solitary one. They look for others who need to be on the right path, and do what they can to help them along.

Would to God that we all would learn from their example. Would to God that we would learn to see the empty lot as a garden.