The Eye That Looks Through

Beloved seeker, there is a seeing that is not merely seeing. There is a considering that is not mere thought. The word sekhal appears but once in all of Scripture, a single pearl cast upon the shore of the Aramaic passages—yet that one utterance carries the weight of heaven. Found in the book of Daniel, where the prophet stands before kings and visions, this verb means to be circumspect, to act with intelligence that flows from the fear of the Holy One. It is not the intelligence of the academy, but the wisdom of the soul that has learned to look through the veil of this world into the world that is coming. The sages teach that such considering is the beginning of all true knowledge, for it requires the whole man—not merely the mind, but the heart and the will aligned with the covenant.

The First Divine Gaze

When did the Holy One first perform this action? In the beginning, when the Spirit of Elohim hovered over the face of the waters, there was a considering—a divine sekhal—that shaped chaos into cosmos. The Aramaic root corresponds to the Hebrew sakhal, which carries the sense of being prudent, of looking upon something with such depth that understanding is born. God does not merely see; He sees into. His considering is creative, redemptive, and covenantal. When the text says He considered the earth and it trembled, or considered His people and delivered them, it is this same root at work. But when humans attempt this considering apart from the Source, they become like Adam hiding among the trees—their prudence becomes shame, their intelligence becomes excuse. The verb in its Aramaic form appears in the context of Daniel's visions, where the prophet is called to consider the meaning of what he sees—a holy invitation to look with the eyes of heaven.

The Covenant Hinge

Consider the moment when Israel stood at Sinai. The covenant hung upon a single question: would they consider the words of the Lord and obey? The rabbis of old observed that the entire Torah depends upon this act of sekhal—not blind obedience, but intelligent, circumspect devotion. When the prophet Jeremiah lamented that the people did not consider the ways of the Lord, he was not speaking of intellectual failure but of a heart that had grown thick and unseeing. To consider covenant is to weigh every action against the promise, to measure every step by the compass of the commandments. The Tabernacle itself was built according to a pattern that required such considering—every measurement, every curtain, every lampstand was a lesson in holy prudence. Without this considering, the covenant becomes a list; with it, the covenant becomes a living conversation between the soul and its Maker.

The Failure and the Promise

Yet the history of Israel reveals a painful truth: even the wise stumble in their considering. King David, the man after God's own heart, failed to consider the consequences of his gaze upon Bathsheba. Solomon, the wisest of all kings, failed to consider the seduction of foreign altars. The prophets cried out again and again: Consider your ways! The people built walls but not righteousness, offered sacrifices but not obedience. This failure of sekhal led to exile—the very context in which the Aramaic form of this word appears. Daniel, in Babylon, was given the gift of considering visions that others could not interpret. Here is the mystery: when human considering fails, the Holy One sends His messengers to teach us how to see. The exile became a school of wisdom, and the remnant learned to consider in a foreign land what they had forgotten in the land of promise.

The Messianic Gaze

Then came the One who considered as no man had ever considered. Yeshua of Nazareth looked upon the fig tree and saw not leaves but the heart of the nation. He looked upon the woman at the well and saw not a Samaritan sinner but a daughter of Abraham thirsting for living water. When He considered the multitudes, He did not see a problem to be managed but sheep without a shepherd. The apostolic tradition teaches that in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden—that His considering was perfect because His will was perfectly aligned with the Father's. On the night He was betrayed, He considered the cup and drank it. He considered the suffering and endured it. He considered you, beloved, and purchased your redemption. This is the sekhal of Messiah: a seeing so deep it becomes saving, a considering so complete it becomes atonement.

The Number of the Wise

The gematria of sekhal is 350, a number that in the wisdom of the ancient Hebrew letters reduces to 8 (3+5+0). Eight is the number of new beginnings, of the day beyond the seventh, of the resurrection that breaks into time. The same numerical value is shared with the word shekel—the weight of silver used in the sanctuary. Consider this: the price of redemption, the weight of holiness, and the act of wise considering are all bound together in the same number. Jewish tradition holds that the shekel of the sanctuary was not merely currency but a symbol of the soul's weight before God. To consider wisely is to weigh your life against the sanctuary's standard, to measure your thoughts by the shekel of the Holy Place. The number whispers: the wise man counts the cost, and the cost is everything—but the new beginning is worth it.

Your Calling to Consider

And now, beloved, the word comes to you. You who have read these lines, you who have heard the echo of this single Aramaic verb—what will you consider today? Not with the cold calculation of the world, but with the circumspect love of the covenant. Look upon your life as Daniel looked upon the visions: with patience, with prayer, with the certainty that the Holy One is speaking. Look upon your neighbor as Yeshua looked upon the woman at the well: not as a problem, but as a soul for whom the Messiah considered the cross. The rabbis of old taught that every person has a yetzer, an inclination, but the one who considers the ways of the Lord transforms that inclination into a ladder. You are called to this holy considering. Let your eyes be opened. Let your heart be weighed. Let the single pearl of sekhal become the lens through which you see the world as God sees it—and in that seeing, find your life.