A Word in Season: The Eyes of the Lord (Proverbs 15:3)

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Doesn't God know, we might ask, does he not see, does he not understand?

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It may be that we feel that there's some particular injustice that is being done and that may be on a national or a local scale, it may be very personal.

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Perhaps we have sought to serve the Lord God and it's been perhaps misinterpreted or derided or just overlooked.

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Perhaps there's somebody who is committing a crime, not just against heaven but on earth.

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Somebody who is sinning in a way that we feel needs to be addressed and yet it seems to be undone.

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Perhaps even in the church of Jesus Christ there is some unrighteousness that is taking place and we're calling upon the head of the church and we're asking, don't you see what is taking place here?

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Will you not address these things? Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 3 reminds us that the eyes of the

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Lord are in every place keeping watch on the evil and the good. The realities of God's being and God's presence are a powerful spur to us both to real righteousness, genuine morality and contentment and peace in the midst of whatever may be taking place.

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The eyes of the Lord are in every place. There is nothing that God does not see.

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There is nothing that God does not know. There is nothing that God does not understand.

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His eye penetrates not just outwardly but inwardly. All things are naked and open before him.

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There is nothing that happens on the most intimate or on the grandest of scales that is in any way hidden from the eye of God.

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The representations and the declarations that we have of the Lord God in scriptures emphasize the fact that there is nothing that can be hidden from him and this sense of the eyes of the

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Lord being in every place, not just referring to then his knowledge of things, his omniscience, the fact that he knows all things, but also he is in every place.

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There is nothing that escapes his notice and nothing that is outside of his control and nothing that will not come under his judgment for all are accountable to him.

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And that's important to understand then with regard to the fact that God keeps watch on the evil and the good.

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And here again is our contentment and our peace and also our encouragement and our warning because the

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Lord keeps watch on the evil. He sees everything that takes place. He hears every word that is spoken.

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He understands every plot. He sees every injustice. He discerns when people seem to be getting away with things.

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He knows what is taking place and he does not condone it. He does not overlook it.

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He does not neglect it. He is going to deal with it. Those who go on in evil despite the eye of the

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Lord upon them are heaping up judgments for themselves. On the other hand,

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God also keeps watch on the good. When there is righteousness that is done, when there is service to God that is rendered, when there is calmness and patience and perseverance, when there are things which seem to go utterly unrewarded or unrecognized in the eyes of men, nevertheless the eyes of the

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Lord are in every place keeping watch not only on the evil but on the good.

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And it's therefore important that we recognize that we live under the eye of God.

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If we are his children, this is a joy to us. If we are his enemies, it is a terror to us.

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But it helps us to understand when we consider, to use Matthew Henry's language, that the secret sins and sorrows and struggles and services that God's people go through, that all of these are known to the

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Lord. That will help us on the one hand to fight against the sin that offends

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God and help us on the other to strive to serve him in the way that we should, and again, will help us to be content, not ourselves neglectful or careless either of the evil or the good, but to recognize that when

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God is watching, then all things are under his gaze, all things are under his rule, and ultimately the