“O, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified among you?” (Galatians 3:1)

Bewitched (Def): (Gr.): Baskaino from Phasko: Assert by fascination with a false representation

Through fascination sorcerers “cast an evil eye” on their victim from whose gaze this poor one is captivated and cannot turn away, and are, therefore, brought under the sorcerer’s power and control.

Knowing to whom he was writing and their past association with sorcerers and their occultic practices, the Apostle questions their turning from the truth of the Gospel so easily, and poignantly asked them, “Who has bewitched you”? Who captured you under their spell and brought you into bondage under their power? Who brought you under their hypnotic control?

Before His Eyes is the safe place, the secure place, the place of comfort, rest and peace; the place of salvation from fear, error and death. Keeping our gaze fixed on Jesus, the Crucified, gives us an immunity from the spell of “the evil eye” of deception. Keeping our gaze fixed on the One who is the Truth provides a safeguard from being bewitched by the Deceiver.

Living continuously before His eyes, the eyes of the Crucified, we are carried from the past event of the Crucifixion at Calvary into the present reality of Life in the Savior whom we have within us as the abiding Son of God, as the Apostle expressed it in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians:

“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the Life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (II Corinthians 4:10).

The writer to the Hebrews summed up well our thought when he wrote:

“Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Brethren, the Deceiver is continuously working to cast his evil eye on his victim to fascinate and capture him and bring him into bondage, whether by false teaching, false prophecy, deceptive and lying signs and wonders, and other machinations of evil, it is as the Apostle declared,

“Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices” (II Corinthians 2:11).

No, we are not ignorant of Satan’s devices and therefore we should the more earnestly keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and live before His eyes that are continuously fixed on us. Yes, eyes to eyes, face to face, living in the light, in the brightness of His glory, and in His power that rests upon us, as the Apostle knew only too well:

“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness’. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (II Corinthians 12:9).

Living before His eyes in obedience to the Truth set before us is the way of Peace in the Holy Spirit. Obedience to the Word of God, to the leading of the Holy Spirit, to the Commandments and Orders of the Lord with our assignments and appointments, going where we are sent and staying where we have been planted by the Lord. Living Before His Eyes is the way of Life.

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