Tozer: The Gaze of the Soul

I find myself quite often quoting in my head or to others the concepts from the "The Purstuit of God." The previous post brought back to my mind Tozer's concept equating faith with looking. Here's my oft quoted selection for you:

The Gaze of the Soul: "In a dramatic story in the Book of Numbers faith is seen in action. Israel became discouraged and spoke against God, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among them. `And they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.' Then Moses sought the Lord for them and He heard and gave them a remedy against the bite of the serpents. He commanded Moses to make a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole in sight of all the people, `and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.' Moses obeyed, `and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived' (Num.21:4-9)

In the New Testament this important bit of history is interpreted for us by no less an authority than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is explaining to His hearers how they may be saved. He tells them that it is by believing. Then to make it clear He refers to this incident in the Book of Numbers. `As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life' (John 3:14-15).

Our plain man in reading this would make an important discovery. He would notice that `look' and `believe' were synonymous terms. `Looking' on the Old Testament serpent is identical with `believing' on the New Testament Christ. That is, the looking and the believing are the same thing. And he would understand that while Israel looked with their external eyes, believing is done with the heart. I think he would conclude that faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God. "