What does the “Apple of his eye” refer to?

Automatic Transcript Generated:

Speaker 1

All right, so Blake is asking Apple of his eye quote is a common saying that appears in two different books in the Old Testament deuteronomy 32, Ten, and Zachariah, the instances where the saying apple of his eye appears. Who does the word his refer to?

Speaker 2

Great. Thank you. So let’s take a look at those verses. And this is, I think, one of the neatest terms in the Bible, this concept of apple is I. So I’m excited to dig into it a little bit. So let’s take a look first at Deuteronomy 38. And let’s start at verse ten. That was the verse cited. And it says, he found him in the desert and in the wasteland, howling wilderness. He encircled him, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his I. And as you see here in the NKJV version, that last his eye was in capital letters, or at least age was capitalized to let you know that is there was God. And that’s correct. If you look at that verse and you even go back to verse eight, it says, when the Most High divided their inheritance of the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam. This whole verse is talking about what God has done for his people. And so it goes from talking about He God to talk about them versus basically his people. God his people. God does this for his people. God does that for his people.

Speaker 2

So when it says he kept him as the apple of his eye, it’s referred to Jacob, which is symbolically representing God’s people. God has kept God’s people as the apple of his eye. And if you’re not sure what the apple of his eye means, it just is referring to the pupil or that little darkest black spot in your eye. That’s what it’s referring to. And just think about it. If there’s an object flying towards your eye, what’s your natural reaction? It should be like immediately you put your hand in front of you, you do everything to guard your eye because, you know, it’s so tender, it’s so sensitive, it’s so important. And that’s kind of what God’s trying to convey here is saying, like, you Jacob, you Israel, you’re like the apple of my eye. And my natural reaction is just immediately go and want to protect you. You’re that close and intimate importance to me. And if you look at ZacharyA 28, sort of the same thing, it says, for thus says the Lord, he sent me after glory to the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.

Speaker 2

So again, that his there is referring to the Lord of Oats. And if anybody touches one of God’s person people, he’s touching, God saying, that what they do to you. God in God saying they do to me. And that’s a very important concept of the Bible. I’ve heard so many amazing sermons on that. And we just can never keep this in mind enough. I think if you look at Second Samuel Twelve, verse 13, this is where David basically has just come to realize how horrible he was, how he had raped Bathsheba, caused her to have a son, and then when she was pregnant, killed her husband, basically. So guilty, rape and murder. And he’s trying to cover it up, and he’s all comfortable thinking he got away with it. And then Nathan the prophet comes and prophesized to him and says, hey, what you did was wrong. And it reaches David to his heart. And what are the words out of his mouth? He says, I have sinned against the Lord. He doesn’t say, oh, I sent against Bathsheba. I sin against the hittite that I killed. No. He says I sin against the Lord.

Speaker 2

David understood when we sinned, we really sin against God. And I understand this now because we have sort of two cats, like, hanging out by our place, and we love both of them, but they don’t love the fact that there are two of them. And so these two tall male cats that aren’t siblings will fight each other, and it breaks our heart. We love them both. We want both to be happy. We want both of them be by us. And so when they hurt each other, it’s like, oh, come on, guys, we love you. And same thing with parents, right? If you did something to one of their kids who’s really affected, yeah, the kid is too, but it hurts the parents and it changes the parents life too. And God says that’s how it is for him. And check this out. First corinthians six one nine to 20. God says, or do you not I should say there’s Paul saying it, but under inspiration. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price God paid for you.

Speaker 2

He, like, went to the store, paid everything he had to then buy you because he wants you. Therefore, glorify the Lord in your body and in your spirit, which are God. So God, even he’s not just your creator, but he paid for you so that you’re his. And so, again, when something happens to you, it’s happening to God. He feels it. And then we all know this verse. Like Matthew 25, jesus starts talking about where one set of people did things for the least of these fed people, gave them shirts off the back when visited them in prison. And Jesus says, you did these to me. People are like, when did we do that for you? Assuredly I say to you this is verse 45. Assuredly I say to you and as much as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. And same thing Jesus goes on and say, like whatever bad things you did to the least of these were done unto Him. So however we treat one another, whether it’s out of love or hate, out of selfishness or giving, god says we’re doing that to Him.

Speaker 2

He takes it all personally. He feels that he connected that. So I love these verses because it really does show just what a deep, close connection God has with us and gets more to the heart of what sin is and how bad it is and how much God just really wants us to love everyone. And when we do that, we’re also loving God and he is so happy. I don’t know, I just love this. What are you guys thought?

Speaker 1

I think it’s amazing. I feel the same way you do about how beautiful this verse is and how much it really conveys God’s love for people. We’ve heard the term someone is the apple of someone’s eye in culture for a long time. And to see that that comes from the word of God and not just the word of God, but the love of God, it’s core to who he is. We are the most beautiful thing to Him. We are the most desirable thing to God. He loves us that much, desires us that much, us to be well with everything he has, everything he is. And that, I think, is just a really beautiful concept.

Speaker 2

Amen.

Speaker 3

Amen. I’ve always liked those verses too, that we’re the apple of his eye. Because I remember being like, oh, I remember that saying. It’s kind of an older saying, but it just means something that’s so precious to you and precious to God. That’s beautiful. And yeah, it’s just beautiful because it gives us a glimpse of his heart that he really does love us. I think that we’re saying the world portrays God in a lot of ways like that God is mean and he’s vindictive and scary and he just wants to strike us or something. No, God is not that way. He loves us very much. He only sends forth judgments if it’s for the greater good of other people who are innocent and that sort of thing. I love those verses too. So I appreciate this question coming in.

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