Proverbs 29:12 If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked. 13 The poor man and the oppressor meet together; the Lord gives light to the eyes of both. 14 If a king faithfully judges the poor, his throne will be established forever.
Verse 12 makes sense right? A wicked ruler does not want some righteous person looking over his shoulder and reporting his misdeeds.
Proverbs 29:13 The poor man and the oppressor meet together; the Lord gives light to the eyes of both.
This makes me think of how we all originate from God… He is the one who gives our eyes the ability to take in light and discern images and truths in the wondrous beautiful world around us. But even more so, it is God who opens our spiritual eyes to see Jesus the Messiah as beautiful… as good news… as the greatest treasure in the Universe.
Proverbs 29:14 If a king faithfully judges the poor, his throne will be established forever.
Ok, so first Solomon spoke about a wicked king and wicked officials and now in this verse he says there is also a faithful king…. so we have two kings. The faithful is one who judges the poor fairly and the wicked king and his officials could care less about justice but seeks his own glory. So these are the two contrasting kings in the passage but I think it’s the middle verse 13 that ties them together in a very insightful and doctrinal way.
So God gives light to the eyes of people... but why? He gives light to the eyes of people in all Nations and people groups of the world to so they can see the glory of God in his creation that they might find and delight in him.
Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
So the heavens for example are not Gods glory but they declare attributes of his character that point us in his direction. His beauty, his power, his blessings in rain, his power in monsoon rains… his holding back of rain… all these things give us glimpses of characteristics of his holiness which includes justice and mercy both. Not that we should watch creation to see if God is angry or pleased with us but rather we can glimpse his ways. For example: Is a hurricane necessarily his judgment for sin? Is a beautiful sunshiny day necessarily a reward for righteousness. I think not, but these do direct us to align ourselves with our Creator and realize that in our sin we should go to him for mercy. But the heavens do declare his glory right? We might think about his wisdom and knowledge as we look up at the stars or a million other things in his creation… We cannot help but know he is amazing and the filthy rags of broken glory in ourselves cannot be compared to his beauty. And the thing is… God has given mankind eyes to see his creation that we might feel our way towards him.
Acts 17:26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
Romans 1:19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
So then God gives us eyes to see the beauty of his creation which makes him look good which he is.
So what I think links the verses about the wicked king and the faithful king is that they are both given eyes to see Gods Creation so they have no excuse for not seeking him and knowing him. The wicked king sees his own glory but rejects the light of the glory of God in the Messiah. The faithful king sees how amazing God is and seeks to know him better and God opens his eyes to see more and more of his beauty.
