Eyes and Ears to Judge

Eyes, Jim Jordan constantly points out, are organs of judgment. God “sees” the light and judges it good, and His eyes are open to judge the righteous and the wicked (Ps 11).

1 Kings 3, however, seems to make some play with this. Solomon is asking for discernment and wisdom to “judge,” but instead of asking for “eyes” to judge, he asks for a new heart, a heart that “hears” (the Heb is SHEMA in v 9). When Yahweh hears this request, He finds it “good in his eyes” (v 10). Yahweh judges by the eyes, but Solomon knows that he can judge only by discerning hearing.

This doesn’t undermine Jordan’s point about eyes, but seems to qualify it a bit. Yahweh judges with eyes, since all things are open to His sight. Not everything is open to our sight, and we can plumb hidden depths and pass righteous judgment only if we do NOT judge by what we see but judge by careful listening. (Isaiah 11:3 makes a further move, by saying that the Messiah will judge righteously, and this in contrast to judging by what he sees AND hears.)