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God Is Eager to Work for You · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  We're reading the Navigator's Bible Reading Plan together, and today in our reading,
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  among other things, we read Second Chronicles thirteen, verse one to chapter sixteen,
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  verse fourteen. It's a big section, but it has one line that
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  really stands out, and it's worth of underlining and memorizing. It's a line
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  from the mouth of Hannaanai, the seer and the father of the prophet Jehu.
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  Hannaean I, speaking to King Asa in two Chronicles sixteen nine gives us
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  this promise for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole
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  earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.
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  It's a key text for life, one of sixteen essential Bible verses to have
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  memorized to meet life's hardest battles, according to you, Pastor John, as
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  a list you gave us back in apj seventeen ninety eight and summarized in the
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  Asquestro John Book on pages forty four to forty six. So the point is
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  God is eager to work for his people. That's the main point of that
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  line. As we meditate on this text today after we read it together,
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  explain three things for us. Number one God's eyes in this verse, how
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  are they roving and roaming? What theology do you draw from this number two?
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  God's support? What comfort do you take from the strong support quote unquote
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  being promised here? And explain the qualification of who is blameless toward God or
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  whole toward God? As the ESV footnote puts it. The King James version
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  translate this as a heart that is perfect toward him. The NIV says that
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  it's a heart fully committed to him. The Holman version says, this is
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  a heart that is completely his. A listener to the podcast Sarah and the
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  Philippines has heard you teach on this text in the past. Drawing a distinction
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  between blameless and sinless is not being the same thing. But she needs you
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  to explain this difference more fully. What would you say, Well, I
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  love this verse. I really love it because it has a special place in
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  my affections because it came into my life, my awareness of it came into
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  my life while I was discovering back in nineteen sixty eight sixty nine the preciousness
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  and the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God. The reason it had this
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  effect on me in those days was that it put the sovereignty of God in
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  the service of his eagerness. Like you said, the eagerness of God to
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  help me if I simply trust him, not to help me if I work
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  for him. But if I trust him, he could have worked for me.
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  He's going to be strong on my behalf if I look away from myself
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  and look to my heavenly Father. His broad shoulders, huge biceps, is
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  strong back, and those bright eyes just full of eagerness to show himself powerful
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  on behalf of those who simply trust in him. So that was just an
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  amazing picture for me. I don't know how I had missed it for twenty
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  two years or so, but it certainly made the embrace of the sovereignty of
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  God a more precious thing. So the verse says, the eyes of the
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  Lord run to and fro, they roam about throughout the whole earth, to
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  show himself strong. I'll explain that translation in a minute. On behalf of
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  those whose heart is whole toward him. So let's take your three questions.
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  Number one, what about those eyes of the Lord roaming in the earth.
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  The phrase in the eyes of the Lord in Hebrew occurs times in the Old
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  Testament. It's really quite amazing. And there are other phrases with the eyes
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  of the Lord that don't include the word in in the eyes of the Lord,
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  and it has several meanings. It can refer to God's omniscience, like
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  in Proverbs fifteen three, the eyes of the Lord are in every place,
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  keeping watch on the evil and the good. Or it can refer to his
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  awareness and assessment of things like Second Chronicles thirty four, verse two, Josiah
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  did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Or it can refer
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  to God's special approving and helping gaze like Psalm thirty four fifteen. The eyes
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  of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears are toward their cry.
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  Now in Second Chronicle sixteen nine, it's referring to God's intense attentiveness and
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  eagerness to act in a certain way toward a certain kind of person. The
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  eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself
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  strong on behalf of those whose heart is hold toward him. And it's a
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  striking contrast to what many people feel, because many people think of God as
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  if he's got eyes and they're running through the world. They're scrutinizing the world,
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  on the lookout for something to punish. That's the way a lot of
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  people feel like the eyes of the Lord are snooping. They're not looking for
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  ways to help, they're looking for ways to punish. That's the kind of
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  image of religion that h ol Menkan had when he said that famous thing.
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  Remember, Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, someone here may be happy.
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  That's rubbish. That's rubbish both for Puritanism and it's rubbish for the Bible.
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  And this verse says God's eyes are roaming around, not looking for someone
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  to make unhappy, but the opposite, namely what it leads to your second
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  question, So what is he wanting to do? The eyes of the Lord
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  run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of
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  those whose heart is hold toward him. So this peculiar form of the Hebrew
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  word is reflexive show himself strong a reflexive verb in Hebrew, the hit piel
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  here means the action reflects back on the Actoor is not wrong to translate it
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  gives strong support. But the peculiar reflexive idea of God showing himself to be
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  the kind of person who loves to give strong support would be missing if you
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  only said it that way, I think, and that's part of what makes
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  us first so precious and powerful. God's eyes are roaming around, stalking,
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  so to speak, to put a different twist on it, stalking like in
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  so I'm twenty three, the goodness and mercy shall follow me, stalk me,
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  pursue me all the days of my life. And they're doing it in
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  order to be on behalf of someone. He was to show himself strong,
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  on behalf of someone, not against someone. So when I came to see
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  fifty five years ago that this inclination of God to show himself strong was for
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  me and not against me, what I saw was that it was flowing out
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  of his total self sufficiency, where he has known need of my services at
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  all. Instead, he wants to serve my good and acts seventeen twenty five
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  became part of that season of discovery. God is not served by human hands,
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  as though he needed anything, so did Isaiah sixty four to four.
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  In those days, no I has ever seen a God like you who works
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  for those who wait for him. Same thing in one seven eleven. His
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  delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the
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  legs wrong legs of a man. But the Lord takes pleasure in those who
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  hope in his steadfast love. That whole cluster of texts came alive from me
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  as I was discovering the sovereignty of God, and how his total and complete
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  lack of need for me made him eager to serve me when I depend on
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  him. It was just a glorious discovery, which leads now to the to
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  the last question you ask about who gets to qualify for this, like who
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  is blameless or who is whole? The eyes of the Lord run to and
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  fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of whom those who's
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  my translation, those whose heart is whole toward him. I think translating it
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  those whose hearts are blameless is hard for English readers to grasp because almost everybody
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  thinks of the term blameless as perfection. And if that were the case,
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  he wouldn't help anybody. There aren't any perfect people except one. The phrase
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  whole heart was used, for example, just to show its limits to contrast
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  solid with David First Kings eleven four. When Solomon was old, his wives
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  turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not whole or
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  wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his
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  father. Oh my goodness, David was anything but perfect, but on the
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  whole, no pun intended. On the whole. He repented as he should
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  and stayed true to the Lord. And so he could be contrasted with Saul,
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  who turned away from the Lord, and David, who stayed with the
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  Lord and was said to have a whole heart for God. I think there's
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  a good picture of it in James, The Book of James, chapter one,
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  when it talks about doubting and praying for wisdom, it says, when
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  we pray for wisdom, we should not be double minded. What does that
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  mean? I take it to mean part of us says God is good,
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  God is reliable, God will help me, and part of us is saying,
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  no, God is not good. He probably is not going to do
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  any good at all when I pray, and the whole heart says, I
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  trust God to be wholly good to me. He's going to give me all
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  the strong help I need to do his will. My heart's not split in
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  half. I'm whole towards God, half of me not saying God is unreliable
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  and half saying he is reliable. I think that's what a whole heart is.
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  And that's the point here in second Chronicles nine Asa, this is talking
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  to me. This is the king who has been good and doesn't end so
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  well in his life. He was helped in his victory over the Ethiopians and
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  the Libyans. It says, because you relied upon the Lord, your heart
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  was right towards God. You looked away from yourself and you depended on me.
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  I gave you the victory. I showed myself strong on your behalf.
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  So conclusion, let's ask God to shape our whole mindset our whole disposition toward
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  God. He is on the prowl to show himself powerful for us, not
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  against us, when we trust in him. Yes, if I trust him,
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  he's going to work for me. He's going to be strong on my
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  behalf if I look away from myself and look to my heavenly Father. His
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  broad shoulders, his huge biceps, his strong back, and those bright eyes
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  just full of eagerness to show himself powerful on behalf of those who simply trust
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  in him a glorious discovery. Indeed, think Pastor John and no surprise,
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  this is one of sixteen essential Bible verses to have memorized to meet life's hardest
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  battles. That's a list that includes Second Chronicle sixteen nine our focus today.
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  Find that whole list in APJA seventeen ninety eight in the archive and summarized in
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  the APJ book if you have that book on pages forty four to forty six.
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  Thanks for joining us today. If you have a question to ask Pastor
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  John, email me. Ask Pastor John at Desiring Good dot org. And
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  if you're looking for APJA seventeen ninety eight you'll find it at askpastor John dot
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  com. Well, we all need friends, So what makes for a best
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  friend? Well, look at that next time. I'm Tony Ranky. See
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  you on Monday.