204 - "The Eyes of the Lord Keep Watch" Proverbs 12-15

The eyes of the LORD 

are in every place

keeping watch

on the evil

and the

good.

Proverbs 15:3

Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living.  One cannot read the proverbs without feeling a Holy Searchlight revealing, as Crabb calls it, "the Shame of Exposure or the Appeal of Wisdom."  Romans 2:4 says it is the Kindness of our God that leads us to repent. I can't stop thinking about verses like one we read yesterday in Proverbs 12:16 about fools on a short fuse exploding in anger instead of being prudent and quietly shrugging off the insults.  Oh, that's how I want to live with a Quiet Heart.  Fight or Flight takes over in me.  God, please give me and my friends here a quiet heart (Psalm 131:2) in our mess.  The verses of Proverbs haunt and allure.In today's reading I was stirred in shame and appealed by several verses.

Somewhere, I've picked up the notion that I have to keep an eye out for myself, my kids, my world.  Make sure we are all being treated like we are supposed to be treated.  Entitlement---we deserve good, better, best.  

It is freeing to take a step back and recognize there are eyes in every place keeping watch.  The verse deals with not just over things but over people---evil and good.  We are "kept" people.  And every single person we deal with has been thought about in great detail and designed by God just the way they are.  Maybe not in all their redeemed state.  But always a marked person created by God.  And God will use the evil and good in our own lives. 

Behold.  The Omniscient and Omnipresent Jehovah watches over this day as though He is looking down from a tower---so, the verb intimates.  A Watchtower with a God Who knows all, sees all, and is very present still, moving into our lives.  Hallelujah!

 Proverbs is the Shame of Exposure or the Appeal of Wisdom.  Larry Crabb. I'm being haunted or hunted.  "With God's help, I shall become myself."  Soren Kierkegaard.

Proverbs 13:
   ² The good acquire a taste for helpful conversation; 

Proverbs 14
     ³ Frivolous talk provokes a derisive smile; 
       
Proverbs 15
   ³ God doesn't miss a thing— 

PHOTO:  This UT tower means something to me.  And the thought that God beholds our lives as though watching high from a tower is just beautiful to me.  Provision.  Care.  Presence.  Jehovah God keeping watch over all that falls.