OPEN YOUR EYES, WHAT DO YOU SEE?

Many times, our humanity puts us in different sorts of mess. Our poor choices and our simply being humans put us in the cisterns and pits of life. Then in that dark, cold, scary, and dry cisterns of life, we realize our helplessness, we realize our humanity.

If we go to the Bible, we find a fine young man appointed for a huge mission of preserving the chosen nation of God. While absorbed by his visions and by the special favors of his father, the anger and jealousy of his brothers flared and they wanted to end up his life (Genesis 37). His favors and appointment placed him in the darkest hour of his life-at a cistern in Dothan.

Did you know that Dothan, where the cold, dark, and dry cistern was located, is a very significant geographical position in the history of God’s people? Let me introduce to you another character. That cistern in Dothan was the same place, many years after, where Elisha was at a point of no escape. He and his servant had no way out. They were surrounded by a great army that wanted to take their lives. They would soon be slaughtered. 2 Kings 2:15 “15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked. (What could be darker than that? So similar, years back with Joseph, waiting to be slaughtered in a dark, cold, and dry cistern of Dothan.) Then Elisha knowing that the Lord was with him told his servant, 16 “Don’t be afraid,” ... “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

Going back to Joseph, the dark, cold, and dry cistern at Dothan could be the moment of giving up and forgetting the visions the Lord had appointed in his life. But, Joseph was also surrounded by an unseen force greater and stronger than himself. Joseph was not alone, the Lord was with him. As the great army of the Lord was with Elisha in that same place called Dothan—the geographic salvific location of God to reveal Himself to His people.

Joseph was in the kind of darkness and the kind of fall that had straightened up the curves in his personality. The darkness made Him into a better man—the very man who will preserve God’s people.

Elisha was in the kind of darkness and the kind of fall that revealed the forces behind His ministry—God's unseen power.

Are you in Dothan? Are you in the dark, cold, and dry cistern of life? Friends, look, in your darkness, see, a great army of the Lord is fighting for you. Look in your darkness, see, God is working some curves. In that dark, cold, and dry cistern of life, God never said, “I will live you to suffer you deserve that.” This is never the God we know.

In your darkness God is putting up the broken pieces, He straightening up some curves for you to be ready for the bright tomorrow waiting ahead of you.

Yes, friends, God has prepared a bright, peaceful, and warm pasture for you. For this reason, He is there at your side in your darkest times. The darkest times will soon pass and you will be at the palace. You are just in the geographic salvific location of God to reveal Himself to you.