WHAT DO YOU SEE?

Son of man ... what do you see?

When you look at the world all around us, what do you see? 

Do you see the circumstances? war, hatred, poverty, divorce?

Or do you see behind the scenes of the ten o'clock news, Our Father who is in Heaven, getting ready to perform His Word? 

We have a phrase in our culture...  "what you see, is what you get." 

it usually indicates that the speaker is not hiding anything. 

But lets just think about that phrase literally for a moment. Say this out loud, Start by emphasizing the first word of each phrase with me.

WHAT you see, is WHAT you get. the focus is on WHAT is seen

What YOU see, is what YOU get. the focus is on WHO sees WHO gets

What you SEE, is what you GET, the focus is on the process SEE = GET

God asked Jeremiah this question on his very first day as a young prophet of God.  "Son of man what do YOU see?"

Text: Jeremiah 1: 11

JEREMIAH  - The word of the Lord came to me…

GOD - Son of man what do you see?

JEREMIAH  - I see the branch of an almond tree.

GOD – "You have seen well, for I am watching over my Word to perform it." or "You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word."

Let’s talk almonds for a moment, what do they have to do with the Word of God?  Did you know the human eye is often compared to an almond? "Watching over my word."

God said in Scripture, we just read it, that when you see an almond branch, (prophetically) it is equal to the reality, He is watching over His word to see it fulfilled, He is ready to fulfill it now. 

So where else in Scripture do we see an almond branch connected to God’s word?

- Aaron’s rod that budded, what did it bud with? Almonds!

It says 'almond' three times in this passage, so we won't miss it. 

Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth almond buds, had produced almond blossoms and yielded ripe almonds.

Numbers 17:8

But Aaron's rod was working long before this to reveal that God was watching over His word, His rod more than any other thing brought about the signs leading up to the exodus of Israel out of Egypt. 

These five (5) supernatural signs from God that He was ready to perform his promise to Abraham to bring his descendants out of Egypt came by the same (almond) rod (Aaron’s rod):

1.       A sign to leaders of Israel, it became a snake (Ex. 4:29)

2.       A sign to Pharaoh, it became a snake (Ex. 7:8-10 )

3.       Water was turned to blood. (Ex. 7:19)

4.       Over streams, rivers, ponds, frogs came up. (Ex. 8:1)

5.       Strike the dust so that it became lice (Ex. 8:16)

 These four (4) signs came by the Word of the Lord spoken

1.       Swarms of Flies (Ex. 8:20)

2.       Livestock were stricken with disease (Ex. 9:6)

3.       Boils from ashes thrown in the air (no rod) (Ex. 9:8)

4.       Death of the Firstborn (Ex. 12:29)

These two (2) signs came by the rod of Moses.

1.       Hail (Ex. 9:12)

2.       Locusts (Ex. 10:12)

This one (1) sign came by Moses outstretched hand

1.       Darkness for three days (Exodus 10:22)

Tomorrow, we can talk about what does this mean for us today?