What does "let your eyes look straight ahead" mean in Proverbs 4:25?

There is another call quite as urgent. "Let thine eyes look right on, and thine eyelids look straight before thee." Christ ever was the object of faith, and He is now revealed as the way, no less than the truth and the life. But, morally speaking, the eye is of great moment, the state of our spiritual vision. As Christ gives us eyes who were born blind, so only He makes and keeps our vision clear. "The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when it is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness" (Luke 11:34-35). Let us not forget the searching word. Christ guides safely but by the single eye.

I have sometimes seen upon a mountain that there is but one path which is simple and right; and a comfort indeed it is to know it, though there are ever so many crooked ones going over the heath. That is just where we are now. If a person has the right path, he does not need to inquire about the fifty wrong ones. "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee." If I look on, I see Christ, and then all is easy, and with my eyes on Him, I go straight.

The wise man invariably sees what is immediately before him, and gives it his immediate and undivided attention. But the foolish person allows his thoughts to wander aimlessly in all directions, and, as a consequence, misses "the one thing needful." Hence we have in another place the following exhortation. "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee." Prov. 4:25.

As to all this we can adopt the words of the wise in Proverbs 4:24-25, and say: "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee" — at the truth of God as we have it in Scripture. Then, "Ponder the path of thy feet" — that it may be in accordance with that truth — "and let all thy ways be established."

The eyes and the feet next come under consideration. Remembering that the lust of the eye is one of the avenues to our souls (1 John 2), we shall perceive at once the force of the exhortation to let our eyes look right on, and our eyelids straight before us. Ah' how often have we been tempted through the unguarded eyes - eyes roving in every direction - while we were passing through "Vanity Fair." Some of the paths in the mountains are so narrow, and running by the side of such huge precipices, that inattention or unwatchfulness for a single moment might be the cause of destruction. So in our scripture, immediately after the precept concerning the eyes, it is said, "Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established." See to it, that is, that you are in God's way, and that you may be so, consider well, and be sure that you are in it, and having this certainty, let all your ways be established in and according to it. All this will become simple when once you have taken Christ's yoke upon you, and when, with the single eye fastened upon Him, you are learning from His blessed example.

Finally it is said, "Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil." God's path for the believer is a straight one, so that, having found it, there is nothing now to do except to seek grace to be kept going straight on - like, for example, the apostle Paul in Philippians 3. The "evil" lies on both sides of this narrow way, and approaches to its very boundaries. We are therefore safest when we are walking in the centre, as being fully in it, and as delighting in it. Many allurements will be spread out on either side, and many a by-path which will promise greater ease and comfort; but if the eye be kept "straight on" to the glorious goal, which will be reached when Christ comes to receive us, we shall be delivered from all these snares, and guarded by divine power from every artifice of the enemy.

For instance, if I am called to act for Christ in any given case, and, instead of looking at the matter simply in its bearing upon Him and His glory, I look at how it will affect me, I shall most assuredly get into darkness and perplexity, and reach a wrong conclusion. But if I simply look at Him, and consider Him, and see how the matter bears upon Him, I shall see the thing as clear as a sunbeam, and move with holy elasticity and firm purpose along that blessed path which is ever illuminated by the bright beams of God's approving countenance. A single eye never looks at consequences, but looks straight to Christ, and then all is simple and plain; the body is full of light, and the path marked by plain decision.

With this, "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee." If I were running in a race, I should not stop to see how I was getting on, or somebody else would soon out-distance me. There will be time enough to reckon up victories when I have reached the goal.

When the servant of Christ stands upon the elevated ground set forth in the above quotations, he will not "look this way and that way;" he will act on wisdom's heavenly counsel, "let thine eyes look straight on, and thine eyelids look straight before thee." Divine intelligence will ever lead us to look upward and onward. Whenever we look around to shun a mortal's frown or catch his smile, we may rest assured there is something wrong; we are off the proper ground of divine service. We lack the assurance of holding the divine commission, and of enjoying the divine presence, both of which are absolutely essential.

The path of Christ is narrow, but direct through this world to Himself in glory. The saints were ever called to walk with God before their eyes; and His will is now declared thus to honour the Son. Hence, "Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil." For evil lies on both sides.

256 Now the new man discerns the uprightness of this path. As the Lord says, "Wisdom is justified of all her children," though the world see not or hate it. "Plain" is that which is straight before us. "Let their eyes look right on"; compare chapter 4:25, where the word "right on" is the same as "plain" here (Prov. 8:9), and "straight" the same as "right" here. It is all simple to him that takes divine light for his guidance, in thankful submission to Him who gave it. The path of Christ is the perfect expression of it: He is the wisdom of God. In value surely nothing can be compared with it - to have God's way, and that a right one, through a world of evil. But, in a world like this, there is need of not being fools but wise. And wisdom sees everything in divine light, and detects at once its character. It is of the profoundest subtlety in this way, It has the discernment of God. A scene of satanic deceit is perplexing to the mind perhaps. What is it? The entrance of it is contrary to the fear of the Lord; the whole thing is judged, though I cannot account for the hundredth part of it. The soul, not guided by the fear of the Lord, plunges into a scene beyond its powers, and is the sport of Satan. The fear of the Lord and the Spirit of truth, for the simplest mind, has preserved from and judged it all. But it is really the subtlest judgment which the humanly wise are taken in. "I wisdom dwell with prudence" - the reflective judgment, which the fear of God calls for and produces as seeking always His will, giving a discernment which judges of the true character of everything. It is subtle, dwells with it, is found where this is. It is strange to put plain (v. 9), and prudence (v. 12), together; but it is just what divine wisdom does. In the "witty inventions" it is the cogitations of the heart which find out these witty inventions. When fully developed in us we read, "The spiritual man discerns all things, and he himself is discerned of no man." He judges all around him, and whatever he has to walk in; but his motives, principles, and aims the natural man discerns not; his path baffles the cleverness of him who has not the Spirit. (See Rabshakeh's interview with the servants of Hezekiah.) He is sure of his way, or motives, and principles: unknown to the unspiritual man, his way is a riddle to him. The result proves its wisdom to the world. His "witty inventions" (well-considered thoughts) are beyond the ken of the natural man. This leads to the great principle and spring of it - the beginning of wisdom, "the fear of the Lord" (v. 13) - the bringing of God in so that His thoughts, not our will, have authority over us. Where that is, we hate wrong, the exercise of will, and selfishness, contrary to the relationships in which we stand. All self-will, and setting up of self, the evil way and perverse words, wisdom hates. But if the heat and pretension of will is hated of wisdom, with it is counsel (v. 14) - the wisdom of a staid reflective mind, subject and looking to the Lord, and the resources of sound judgment in difficulty, discernment, and strength, Compare Ecclesiastes 9:13-18, where mere physical strength is contrasted, and the way wisdom affords security is spoken of