God Sees Everything

Jeremiah 16:17: "My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols."


It is amazing to think that a person might believe that his sin could go undetected by God. This certainly was the case with the people of Judah during the days of Jeremiah. These descendants of Abraham apparently believed that they were getting away with their evil ways; in fact, one can almost see their shrugged shoulders and puzzled looks at Jeremiah when they asked in 16:10, "Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?"

This wicked disposition of the covenant people was further evidenced by the Jewish religious leaders in Ezekiel 8. Specifically the seventy elders, whose positions of leadership had been appointed by the Lord nearly a millennium before (see Numbers 11:16-17), were practicing an impressive external worship display outside the Temple, but within the dark corners inside the Temple walls, these religious leaders had set up shrines to pagan deities with drawings of "crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel" (Ezekiel 8:10). These leaders smugly convinced themselves that the LORD did not see them, and thus they were able to perpetrate whatever their wicked hearts desired. (Ezek. 8:12). Sadly, these leaders could not have been further from the truth!


God told Jeremiah that the people's wicked ways were NOT going undetected; He was seeing all of the sins that they were committing against His Holiness, and He determined to repay them doubly for their wickedness. God would bring harsher judgment, for He previously had given to His covenant people the blessing of the Promised Land; and the Lord had chosen these people from all peoples of the earth with which to dwell. God's very glory was present in the Temple that had been constructed, and He had demonstrated His power, glory, and will with such regularity that the people should have known better. Instead, they chose to treat His love and exclusive devotion with contempt by filling the land and the Temple of worship with the vile, pagan idols that would deflect focused devotion from the One True Lord of Hosts.

This is a good word for us today. We ever must remember that the Lord sees all that we do, and will hold us account for our loyalties, wherever they might be directed. The following passages affirm this conclusion:

1. Hebrews 4:13: "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

2. 2 Chronicles 16:9: "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him."

If we find ourselves worshipping vain substitutes for the Lord, now is the time for us to repent (i.e. turn) from such wickedness and worship the Lord passionately and exclusively. Just as the people of Judah had been given so much by the Lord (and for this reason would be held in greater judgment for their rebellion), so too we must understand that the blessings that the Lord has given this nation will bring a fiercer day of reckoning if we do not repent and surrender ourselves to the Lord.

Let us remember the 2 Chronicles 16:9 passage above as well, namely that the Lord has promised to strengthen those "whose hearts are fully committed to Him." This is the way to go! Let's by faith give ourselves fully to the Lord and then watch in excited anticipation what He will do through us for the furtherance of His glory and His kingdom!