Hij koesterde Israël als zijn oogappel¶

English version: Israel is the apple in Gods eye¶

(Someone asked Fred Blokhuis for an English translation, so he asked me :-) ) The text is Deuteronomy 32:10.

Deuteronomy 32 is a song. Which is weird as most of Deuteronomy consists of more or less dry law texts. Chapters 1-5 are the introduction to the book, 6-25 the law text and chapter 32 a song. 1-5 and 32 envelop the law text. The envelop tells the reader that the rules are intended to let you live a nice, good life.

A song is powerful. This is a love song. Partially a sad love song: on and off Israel stops loving God. But, if the relation turns sour, it is never God’s fault: He is always faithful and He is the driving force in the relation.

The song already points at future events. It explains that in the future, when things go wrong, it will be through Israel’s own fault. If in the future they complain about not noticing God’s existence, it will be because they themselves stopped praying and reading, for example.

God is a rock. And a protecting, powerful eagle.

“Apple of my eye”: God is like the eye socket in your skull, protecting the eye. But, important: there is an opening in the eye socket. Obvious, of course, as the eye’s purpose is to make contact with the outside world. Likewise God doesn’t completely separate Israel from the outside world.

God’s rules aren’t fences to hem you in, but they’re more like a well. If you want to keep your flock near you in a desert area, you could build fences to keep them in the same spot. But if you’ve got good tasty water in your well, you can just as well let your flock roam free, they’ll return to the well automatically when they’re thirsty.

“Apple of my eye”: in the original language it is more something like “little man in my eye”. Just look someone right in the eye: if they’re looking at you you can see your own reflection in the black of their eye. So if you look in God’s friendly eyes, you see yourself. Which means he looks intently at each and everyone of us.

Throughout the bible, you’ll see remarks about God’s eyes. David sometimes feels “himself banned from God’s eyes”. “He doesn’t let you out of his sight”, “My eye is always on you”. Etc.

If you touch Israel, you’re poking God in His eye: ouch! That hurts!

An eyball is vulnerable. So this is a tender image being used here, especially compared to the other images: the rock and the eagle. A rock is hard. And an eagle might be furry in a sense, but watch out for that beak and the powerful claws. Compared with those two, the eyeball example is much more vulnerable. Just imagine a tree’s twig threathening to hit you in the eye while cycling: you’ll automatically throw up a hand to protect your eye.

We nowadays might be inclined to think certain things are lost beyond repair: Israel; the church in Europe; etc. No. Not true. Israel and the church are the apple of God’s eye. Never forget that!