The All-Seeing Throne Text: Proverbs 20:8
Introduction: The King's Gaze
We live in an age that despises authority. And because we despise authority, we have forgotten what true authority looks like. We have traded the gold of righteous judgment for the cheap tin of bureaucratic process, focus-group-tested policies, and the mushy platitudes of therapeutic managers. Our leaders do not sit on thrones of justice; they sit on focus group chairs, constantly checking the polls to see which way the wind is blowing. They do not disperse evil; they regulate it, license it, and sometimes subsidize it. They are not kings; they are glorified administrators.
Into this gelatinous mess of modern governance, the book of Proverbs drops a granite block of reality. It presents us with a standard for rule that is both terrifying and glorious. It is a standard that reveals the poverty of our own political imaginations and points us to the only true King who has ever met it. The Proverb before us today is a picture of what civil government is for, what a good ruler does, and the ultimate source of all true justice.
The world imagines that justice is a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales. There is a partial truth there; justice must be impartial, not favoring the rich or the poor. But biblical justice is not blind. Biblical justice has eyes wide open. It is a king, seated on a throne, whose very gaze is a force for order and a terror to evildoers. This is not a description of a tyrant, whose suspicious glare sees conspiracies in every shadow. This is a description of a righteous ruler, whose clear-sighted, discerning wisdom is itself a weapon against evil. Such a ruler is a gift to his people, a minister of God for good. And such a ruler is a faint echo, a dim type, of the one true King, Jesus Christ, whose eyes are like a flame of fire.
The Text
A king who sits on the throne of justice
Disperses all evil with his eyes.
(Proverbs 20:8 LSB)
The Throne of Justice (v. 8a)
The first clause sets the scene and establishes the function of the ruler.
"A king who sits on the throne of justice..." (Proverbs 20:8a)
Notice first that the king is seated. This is a posture of stability, authority, and settled judgment. He is not a frantic activist, chasing after every perceived emergency. He is not a revolutionary, seeking to tear down the foundations. He is established. His throne, his seat of authority, is identified as a "throne of justice." This is its purpose, its very reason for being. A throne is not for comfort, or for projecting power, or for accumulating wealth. A throne is for rendering just verdicts.
This is the biblical doctrine of the civil magistrate in a nutshell. God has ordained civil government to be, under Him, a ministry of justice (Romans 13:1-4). The ruler is God's deacon, armed with the sword to punish evildoers and to protect the righteous. His authority is delegated authority. He is not the source of justice; he is the steward of it. The throne belongs to God, and the king sits on it as a servant. When a king forgets this, when he thinks the throne is his own personal property and that justice is whatever he says it is, he ceases to be a king and becomes a tyrant. His throne ceases to be a throne of justice and becomes a seat of wickedness.
For the throne to be one of justice, it must be established on a transcendent standard. The king cannot simply make it up as he goes along. He is under the law of God. As Greg Bahnsen rightly argued, the civil magistrate cannot function without some ethical standard. If that standard is not the revealed law of God, it will be the arbitrary law of man. And when the law of man is the final standard, you do not have justice; you have brute force. This is why our own nation's laws were once grounded in the deep soil of Christian morality. A king who sits on a throne of justice is one who recognizes he is a king under a higher King.
The Dispersing Gaze (v. 8b)
The second clause describes the effect of this righteous rule.
"Disperses all evil with his eyes." (Proverbs 20:8b LSB)
This is a remarkable statement. The king doesn't just punish evil after it has run its course. He doesn't just react to it. His very presence, his discerning gaze, "disperses" it. The word is the same one used for winnowing grain, separating the wheat from the chaff. A just king, by his very nature, sifts his society. His clear-eyed, unwavering commitment to righteousness makes evil scatter. It cannot bear the light. Cockroaches scatter when you turn on the kitchen light, and evil men scurry for the shadows when a truly just ruler takes the throne.
How does this work? It works because a discerning king creates a climate of moral clarity. When a ruler is known to be wise, impartial, and swift to judge, evil is discouraged before it even begins. Potential criminals know their deeds will not be overlooked or excused. Corrupt officials know their schemes will be exposed. The lazy and parasitic know they will not be rewarded. The king's "eyes" represent his active, personal, and penetrating discernment. He is not fooled by flattery. He is not swayed by bribes. He sees things as they are. He looks at a case and, like Solomon with the two harlots, he cuts through the lies to get to the truth.
This is the opposite of our modern approach. We are told not to judge. We are told to be "nuanced" about evil, which usually means being compromised by it. We have created a society where evil does not scatter, but rather struts about in the open, demanding parades and a designated month. This is because our leaders do not sit on thrones of justice, and they do not disperse evil with their eyes. They are blind guides, and we all end up in the ditch.
Of course, no earthly king can do this perfectly. The phrase "all evil" points us beyond any human ruler. Solomon, for all his wisdom, certainly did not disperse all evil from Israel. His own heart was eventually turned away. This Proverb sets a standard that no fallen man can ultimately meet. It creates in us a longing for a better King, a perfect Judge.
Christ, The All-Seeing King
This Proverb, like so many others, finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true King who sits on the ultimate throne of justice. The Father has committed all judgment to the Son (John 5:22). His throne is forever and ever, and the scepter of His kingdom is a scepter of uprightness (Hebrews 1:8).
And what of His eyes? The book of Revelation tells us that His eyes are "like a flame of fire" (Rev. 1:14). Nothing is hidden from His gaze. He sees not as man sees; He looks upon the heart. He disperses all evil with His eyes perfectly and finally. Before His gaze, all hypocrisy is stripped away, all secret sins are brought into the light, and all rebellion is exposed for the treason it is. When He returns, He will not need a lengthy investigation or a judicial process. He will strike the nations and rule them with a rod of iron, and He will do so with perfect, instantaneous justice.
His gaze does two things. For those who are His enemies, who love their sin and will not repent, His gaze is a terror that disperses them to eternal judgment. They will call for the mountains to fall on them to hide them from the face of Him who sits on the throne (Rev. 6:16). But for those who are His people, who have been washed in His blood, His gaze is a purifying fire. He looks upon us and disperses the remaining evil within us. His gaze is the instrument of our sanctification. He sees our sin, and He convicts us of it. He sees our weakness, and He strengthens us. He sees our faith, however small, and He commends it.
Conclusion: Delegated Discernment
So what is the application for us? First, for those who are in authority, at any level, this is your job description. Whether you are a president, a governor, a mayor, a police officer, or a father in your own home, you sit on a delegated throne of justice. Your task is to cultivate clear-eyed discernment and to disperse evil within your jurisdiction. You must hate what God hates and love what God loves. You are not to be a terror to good conduct, but to bad. This requires wisdom, which is found by fearing the Lord.
Second, for the church, we are to pray for our rulers, that they would conform to this standard (1 Tim. 2:1-2). We are to call them to their duty, reminding them that they will give an account to the King of kings for how they stewarded their authority. We are not to be political quietists, nor are we to be revolutionary anarchists. We are to be faithful prophets, speaking God's truth to the thrones of men.
Finally, we must all live our lives in the awareness that we are under the gaze of the true King. We do not live in a godless, meaningless universe. We live in a kingdom, under a King whose eyes miss nothing. This should be a profound comfort to the righteous and a stark warning to the wicked. Let us therefore live, not as fools, but as wise, knowing that the King is on His throne, and His eyes are upon us. He is sifting, He is judging, and He is establishing His kingdom of justice, and of that kingdom there will be no end.