“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him” (II Chronicles 16:9).
Since God in His essence is Spirit (note John 4:24) and is omnipresent, one might wonder how He could have physical eyes. The fact is, however, that the Bible frequently refers to His eyes. In fact, this phrase, “The eyes of the Lord” occurs no less than 21 times in the Bible.
While this is hard to understand in one way, it is wonderfully clear when we remember that God is omnipotent and omniscient, as well as omnipresent. “He that formed the eye, shall He not see?” (Psalm 94:9). We may not be able to understand the actual seeing mechanism of spiritual eyes; nevertheless, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3).
The prophet Zechariah reminds us not to “despise the day of small things,” for they will be observed by “the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth” (Zechariah 4:10). The phrase is used first of all in connection with those terrible times when “the wickedness of man was great” and “the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:5, 11). Yet God could still see righteous Noah there. “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8), and he and his family were saved through the awful worldwide flood.
The last usage of the phrase is in Peter’s epistle, quoting Psalm 34:15: “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil” (I Peter 3:12). We do well to remember always that one of the great names of God is “Thou God seest me” (Genesis 16:13), and then conduct ourselves accordingly, aware that our God is indeed watching us with deep love and concern.
