See Afar Off

When the Savior told Enoch that he was to go and preach to the people because of their wickedness, He mentioned that one of the reasons His anger was against them was because “their eyes cannot see afar off” (Moses 6:27).  What is it that they cannot see “afar off”?  This phrase is found in a few other places in scriptures and I think they give us some clues about what is meant. 

Peter wrote that those who lacked the Christlike attributes of faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity are “blind, and cannot see afar off” (2 Peter 1:5-9).  This seems to imply that what they cannot see is spiritual; having cultivated no divine attributes they cannot see what needs to be “beheld with an eye of faith” (Ether 12:19).  Paul wrote of some of the great patriarchs such as Noah and Abraham, saying how they “all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).  Again there is a notion of faith that was needed to see afar off; Abraham, for example, received promises that his posterity would be “as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable” and yet he certainly saw little indication of the fulfillment of that prophecy in his mortal life (Hebrews 11:12).  Elihu the friend of Job said, “Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold. Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off” (Job 36:24-25).  Here he seems to be suggesting that man can behold from far off the work of God, which of course is not discerned with natural eyes.  In a parable given in our dispensation the Lord used the phrase to describe the watchmen on the tower: “And behold, the watchman upon the tower would have seen the enemy while he was yet afar off; and then ye could have made ready and kept the enemy from breaking down the hedge thereof, and saved my vineyard from the hands of the destroyer” (D&C 101:54).  Here what could not be seen by the slothful servants was their enemy which was afar off, but if they had built the tower as commanded they would have seen the enemy coming well in advance.  If we do not uphold and listen to the voice of the prophets who are the watchmen for us, we will not be able to see “afar off” to understand how to prepare against the wickedness coming in the future.  So this phrase that the Lord used to describe the wickedness of the people in the days of Enoch seems to imply a lack of faith, an inability to perceive the works of God, and a rejection of the prophets who indeed allow us to see “afar off.”  In order to not fall under the same condemnation then we must seek to cultivate the divine attributes given by Peter, and in particular to develop faith in the Lord and the words of His modern day prophets.