Audio Transcript

We are reading the Navigators Bible Reading Plan together. And today in our reading, among other things, we read 2 Chronicles 13:1–16:14. It’s a big section with one line worth underlining and memorizing. It’s a line from the mouth of Hanani the seer, the father of the prophet Jehu. Hanani, speaking to king Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:9, gives us this promise: “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” It’s a key text for life, one of sixteen essential Bible verses to have memorized to meet life’s hardest battles, according to you, Pastor John. That’s a list you gave us back in APJ 1798, summarized in the APJ book on pages 44–46.

So, the point is that God is eager to work for his people. That’s the main point of that line. As we meditate on this text today, after we read it together, explain three things for us. (1) God’s eyes in this verse. How are they roving and roaming? What theology do you draw from this? (2) God’s support. What comfort do you take from the “strong support” being promised? And (3) explain the qualification of who is “blameless toward [God]” or “whole toward [God],” as the ESV footnote puts it. The KJV translates this as a heart that is “perfect toward him.” The NIV says that it’s a heart “fully committed to him.” The Holman version says a heart that is “completely his.” A listener to the podcast, Sarah in the Philippines, has heard you teach on this text in the past, drawing a distinction between blameless and sinless as not being the same thing. But she needs you to explain the difference.

Well, I love this verse. I really love it because it has a special place in my affections, because my awareness of it came into my life while I was discovering (back in 1968–1969) the preciousness and the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God.

The reason it had this effect on me in those days was that it put the sovereignty of God in the service of his eagerness, like you said — the eagerness of God to help me if I simply trust him. Not to help me if I work for him, but if I trust him, he’s going to work for me. He’s going to be strong on my behalf if I look away from myself and look to my heavenly Father — his broad shoulders, his huge biceps, his strong back, and those bright eyes just full of eagerness to show himself powerful on behalf of those who simply trust in him. So, that was just an amazing picture for me. I don’t know how I had missed it for 22 years or so, but it certainly made the embrace of the sovereignty of God a more precious thing.

The verse says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro [they roam about] throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong [I’ll explain that translation in a minute] on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). So, let’s take your three questions.

1. Roaming Eyes

What about those eyes of the Lord roaming in the earth? The phrase “in the eyes of the Lord” in Hebrew occurs 92 times in the Old Testament. It’s really quite amazing. And there are other phrases with “the eyes of the Lord” that don’t include the word in — “in the eyes of the Lord.” And it has several meanings. It can refer to God’s omniscience, like in Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” Or it can refer to his awareness and assessment of things, like 2 Chronicles 34:2: “[Josiah] did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” Or it can refer to God’s special approving and helping gaze, like Psalm 34:15: “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.”

Now, in 2 Chronicles 16:9 it’s referring to God’s intense attentiveness and eagerness to act in a certain way toward a certain kind of person. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him.” And it’s a striking contrast to what many people feel. Many people think that if God has eyes and they’re running through the world, they’re scrutinizing the world on the lookout for something to punish. That’s the way a lot of people feel. The eyes of the Lord are snooping. They’re not looking for ways to help; they’re looking for ways to punish.

“God is on the prowl to show himself powerful for us, not against us, when we trust in him.”

That’s the kind of image of religion that H.L. Mencken had when he said that famous thing, remember? “Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone somewhere may be happy.” That’s rubbish. That’s rubbish both for Puritanism and it’s rubbish for the Bible. And this verse says that God’s eyes are roaming around, not looking for someone to make unhappy, but the opposite — namely, what? Now that leads to your second question.

2. Eager to Serve

So, what is he wanting to do? “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him.” So, this peculiar form of the Hebrew word is reflexive: “show himself strong.” A reflexive verb in Hebrew — the hitpael here — means the action reflects back on the actor. It’s not wrong to translate it “gives strong support.” But the peculiar reflexive idea of God showing himself to be the kind of person who loves to give strong support would be missing if you only said it that way, I think.

And that’s part of what makes this verse so precious and powerful. God’s eyes are roaming around — stalking, so to speak, to put a different twist on it — stalking, like in Psalm 23:6: “Goodness and mercy shall follow me [stalk me, pursue me] all the days of my life.” And they’re doing it in order to be on behalf of someone. He wants to show himself strong on behalf of someone, not against someone.

So, when I came to see 55 years ago that this inclination of God to show himself strong was for me and not against me, what I saw was that it was flowing out of his total self-sufficiency, where he has no need of my services at all. Instead, he wants to serve my good. And Acts 17:25 became part of that season of discovery: “[God is not] served by human hands, as though he needed anything.” So did Isaiah 64:4 in those days: “No eye has seen a God [like] you, who acts for those who wait for him.” The same thing is in Psalm 147:10–11: “His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs [strong legs] of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure . . . in those who hope in his steadfast love.”

That whole cluster of texts came alive for me as I was discovering the sovereignty of God and how his total and complete lack of need for me made him eager to serve me when I depend on him. It was just a glorious discovery.

3. Those with Whole Hearts

Which leads now to the last question you ask about: Who gets to qualify for this? Who is blameless — or who is whole? “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong” — on behalf of whom? — “those [my translation] whose heart is whole toward him.” I think translating it “those whose heart is blameless” is hard for English readers to grasp because almost everybody thinks of the term “blameless” as perfection, and if that were the case, he wouldn’t help anybody. There aren’t any perfect people except one.

The phrase “whole heart” was used, for example (just to show its limits), to contrast Solomon with David. “When Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not [whole]” — or wholly true — “to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 11:4). Oh my goodness. David was anything but perfect, but on the whole — no pun intended — he repented as he should and stayed true to the Lord. And so, he could be contrasted with Saul, who turned away from the Lord. David stayed with the Lord and was said to have a whole heart for God.

I think there’s a good picture of it in James 1:8, when it talks about doubting and praying for wisdom. It says that when we pray for wisdom, we should not be “double-minded.” What does that mean? I take it to mean that part of us says, “God is good; God is reliable; God will help me,” and part of us is saying, “No, God is not good; he probably is not going to do any good at all when I pray.” A whole heart says, “I trust God to be wholly good to me. He’s going to give me all the strong help I need to do his will. My heart’s not split in half. I’m whole toward God. Half of me is not saying God is unreliable while half is saying he is reliable.”

I think that’s what a whole heart is, and that’s the point here in 2 Chronicles 16:9. Asa — this is the king who has been good and doesn’t end so well in his life — was helped in his victory over the Ethiopians and the Libyans, it says, “because you relied on the Lord” (2 Chronicles 16:8). Your heart was right toward God. You looked away from yourself, and you depended on me. I gave you the victory. I showed myself strong on your behalf.

So, conclusion: Let’s ask God to shape our whole mindset, our whole disposition, toward God. He is on the prowl to show himself powerful for us, not against us, when we trust in him.