Open the Eyes… of my Heart?

We often hear the phrase “guard your heart” as a warning of protection and a banner of awareness when allowing ourselves to be accessible to all that life offers. Proverbs 4:23 tells us “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” — to guard your heart is an essential urge in scripture, ​​but what about your eyes? One of the key insights the Bible teaches regarding life is that there is a tight link between what we see and what we desire. In other words, our heart is directly connected to our eyes. One of the best places to see this teaching is in the book of Proverbs. 

Proverbs, along with Ecclesiastes and Job, is considered to be one of the books of wisdom literature. The text in Proverbs gives principles on how to live wisely in the world as it points to everyday life and circumstances, but it also depicts wisdom’s counterpart as the way of folly. The text sets the reader up to consider, and choose, how they walk in life — in wisdom or in folly. As these two illustrations unfold throughout Proverbs, one of the ways the author shows this is through the imagery of eyes, vision and sight. Proverbs assumes the reader has a good grasp on the Law, that we see detailed in Genesis through Deuteronomy, so let’s explore the origins of this eye/heart/way combination.

The Bible begins with God, man and woman and a good world all living in harmony together. God had commissioned Adam and Eve to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and steward the creation as He would (Genesis 1:28). The kicker comes in Genesis 2-3 where we pick up on that first hint of danger. God gives a warning, “pay attention to my voice”, and then a mysterious figure shows up in Genesis 3 with a rival voice seeking to deceive and lead them astray. It all boiled down to what they did with the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God said don’t eat from it. This other voice enticed them to give it a taste. Genesis 3:6 says “when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” Eve sinned when her eyes were diverted from what God had spoken; she saw what was pleasing and desirable for gaining wisdom, but apart from the fear of the Lord — which Proverbs calls folly. Her decision was preceded by what she saw. 

In a podcast hosted by Michael Miller, he describes the eyes this way — he says the eyes are gates to your temple. If a gate to a city is broken, the city is vulnerable, weak and easily overtaken. So, just like a city is protected by its gates, the same can be said of us. If your eye is compromised, your heart is also given to immorality. We are responsible for how we use our eyes—that is, how we live our lives before the Lord. Our eyes can be a gauge of our relationship with the Lord.

Let’s look at a few instances in Proverbs 1-9, where we see these concepts teased out: 

• “For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you…” (Proverbs 2:10-11).  
• “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn from evil” (Proverbs 3:7). 
• “My son, do not lose sight of these – keep sound wisdom and discretion…” (Proverbs 3:21).  
• “My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart” (Proverbs 4:20-21). 
• “For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths” (Proverbs 5:21). 

These verses show us that, in many ways, the eyes represent the character of a person, his moral condition, or his disposition toward or away from God. The main point of Proverbs is that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10). Meaning, this is the starting point and the foundation that the rest of a wise life springs from. That’s not in a terrible and terrorizing way; fear in the Old Testament is often associated with loving God, obeying His commands and walking in His ways (Deuteronomy 10:12-16). It is more akin to a loving reverence, who is both the Creator and sustainer of life, and the rescuer and redeemer of His people. Thus, a wise life is a fitting response to Him!

The encouragement from Proverbs is to live. This includes guarding ourselves, especially our eyes because they are indicators of what we linger on and what we allow access to our heart. Our eyes, daily, play a huge role in our choice to walk in wisdom or in folly. If my sights are set on things above, on Jesus and His ways, on Scripture, on holiness, justice, righteousness —  it’s more likely that my steps will align with wisdom. But if my sights are set on myself, on idols, on worldly attributes or things — it wouldn’t be a surprise if my steps faltered into the ways of foolishness.

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” Deuteronomy 30:19-20