BIBLICAL BRIEFS 86
Yahweh, the God we serve, is invisible by definition (1Tim. 1:17), because He is eternal. Col. 1:16 further distinguishes between things which are “visible and invisible”, which can either be in the heavens, or on earth. But it is important for us to know that things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2Cor. 4:18). This means, for example, that everything from the first creation described in Gen. 1-2, as well as the paradise and the first people, was a reality only in the spiritual realm and not in the physical realm. The first human being created from the dust of the earth (Gen. 2: 7) was taken from eternal and physically invisible ground (Ps. 102:25). With the fall of man, that which was eternal became part of degeneration and death, and mortality made things physical and visible. For this reason, God, for example, had to cloth man with “garments of skin” (Gen. 3:21), i.e. that which was eternal body, soul and spirit now became a mortal physical body, soul, and spirit. Therefore we have to distinguish between a natural body and a spiritual body (1Cor. 15:46). The event in 2Kings 6:15-17 provides insight into the mystery of the invisible, eternal, spiritual realm and how it corresponds with the visual, temporary, physical realm. The king of Syria send a large army to kill Elisha. Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, was terrified because he could only see the physical, visible danger of reality. “Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’ So he answered, ‘Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” Clearly, two realities are being discussed – one is the natural realm, visible and known by the senses – this is the temporary realm. Gehazi, with his natural fleshly eyes, saw only this and feared the enemy. The other realm which Elisha saw was only visible to the spiritual eyes only. The interesting element is that Elisha prayed and asked for Gehazi’s spiritual eyes to be opened. What he saw in the reality of the spiritual realm is the presence of “horses and chariots of fire around Elisha”! In the spiritual realm, transcendent ‘things’ exist, in other words, things which are not known by physical senses, thus exceeding the boundaries of the sensory experience. These things, however, seem like it resembles the things in the sensory realm. Gehazi could recognize they were horses and chariots. But these things in the spiritual realm is of eternal and imperishable nature and ‘substance’, but invisible to our physical eyes. God, however, gives us enlightened eyes of the mind (Eph. 1:18) so that we can “discern what is best and may be pure” (Phil. 1:10), and can live like one “seeing Him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:27).
Dr Tom Gouws
