Jeremiah 17:10, commentary and pictures

The Lord alone looks into the inner life and tests its hidden motives in order to give every person what his conduct and its results deserve. He sees beneath outward appearance to every thought, feeling, intent and act of the will, weighing actions by the standard of His law and by the motive that prompted them. This searching follows the warning that the human heart is deceitful and desperately corrupt beyond our own knowing, so hope and righteousness are found only by trusting in the Lord rather than in human strength. He does not judge as people judge from appearance, tenderly regarding the contrite, while no excuse, profession of piety, or hidden wrong can conceal unfaithfulness from His exact reckoning. Therefore everyone is to live as under His all-seeing eye, keeping feelings and affections directed heavenward and asking Him to reveal any wicked way and lead in the lasting way.

Searching Heart and Reins

The Lord alone searches the heart and tries the reins, examining the deepest inner motives that people cannot reliably know for themselves in order to give to each person according to conduct and according to the fruit of doings. He knows and tests what is hidden within, and no one can hide motives from Him or escape His just judgment, which repays exactly what ways and their results deserve. This searching stands in the setting of the warning that the heart is deceitful, contrasting trust in God with trust in human strength and making flesh an arm, and it applies to those who resist warnings and reproofs, whose choices reveal the heart He searches and make them accountable for the fruit of their actions.

His searching looks beneath outward appearances and the surface of things to every thought and feeling, every imagination and plan, every word and deed, every intent of the heart and every act of the will, with nothing of darkness hidden from Him but read as an open book. He discerns how inner motives shape outward conduct and influence others, tracing both good and wrong actions in their influence, and every act, word, and motive is faithfully chronicled in the records by the great Heart-searcher who knows every person's works. He weighs persons and actions by the standard of His law, which is the standard of character, and deals with each according to ways and fruit of doings, rewarding each according to the motives that prompted the action. He fully understands every thought, feeling, and motive, including secret action and motive, so He knows the free-hearted workers who willingly bear burdens and look out for others and will bless them.

It is Christ who searches hearts and tries the reins of the children of men, with all things naked and open before His eyes and no creature hidden from His sight. The Holy Spirit, as Christ's representative and faithful witness, is the great searcher of hearts acquainted with everyone's character. God reads the heart and weighs His people by proving them over time, patiently bearing with them instead of rejecting them at once, giving time for excitement and feeling to wear off so they will not be deceived about themselves. This proving develops character from principle and faith rather than from feeling and fear, and reveals whether they will obey the counsel of the True Witness. Because He searches hearts and tries the inner life, when His children pray for things not according to His will and not best for them, He reads the heart behind the words and translates the mistaken prayer into the very things needed and that should have been asked. Jesus takes the faulty prayer and offers it to God in this corrected form, so that one unclean in himself receives the only cleanness found in Christ.

Judgment According to Ways

The Lord gives to every person according to ways and according to the fruit of doings, searching the heart and trying the inward motives and then rendering conduct its due result. His weighing takes the law as the standard of character and traces how motives shape outward conduct, with exact judgment that does not overlook wrongdoing. That exact knowledge reaches even secret wrongdoing and daily transgression of the law, and His word of judgment is sure and steadfast, so no one should flatter self that He is not exact to punish. This scrutiny sees every detail of life, including a teacher's treatment of students for which accountability is required, and living under that all-seeing eye strengthens trust in God for help and resistance to temptation.

Every act is judged according to the motive that prompted it, whether others praise it or condemn it. Human praise does not prove genuine virtue, for deeds praised by people, including apparent acts of kindness, may be recorded as springing from selfishness or hypocrisy. God knows every action and the motive behind it, including what is secret, tracing both good and wrong actions with their influence upon others and rewarding each person according to the motives that prompted the action.

No excuse for withholding what God requires can hide unfaithfulness from Him who judges according to ways and the fruit of actions. Human beings cannot finally declare another person saved, because future choices and obedience determine the outcome and only the Lord judges truly. The appeal for healing and salvation in verse 14 rests on the Lord as the one who can heal and save. Human beings cannot read one another's hearts, but at the judgment each person's true character and allegiance will become plain and people will be judged according to their deeds.

Deceitful Heart and Trust

The searching follows the warning that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked beyond human knowing. The Lord alone can search and test that hidden heart, knowing what it conceals and repaying each person according to conduct and its fruit. He understands that deceitfulness and does not mislead people about it. Sinful people can find hope and righteousness only in God, and no one remains righteous any longer than faith in God is kept and vital connection with Him is maintained by which He ministers life to the soul, as a flower lives only by root, soil, air, dew, showers, and sunshine from God.

To trust in man and make flesh the arm, with the heart departing from the Lord, brings a curse and leads to barrenness like the heath in the desert, like a desert shrub. The person whose trust and hope is in the Lord is blessed like a tree planted by the waters that does not fail in heat or drought but keeps yielding fruit. He does not judge unrighteously, but tenderly regards those with subdued, contrite hearts. The warning belongs with the warning that ill-gotten riches ultimately bring shame and loss.

The Lord searches the heart because He desires to win His people away from every species of idolatry, including cherished pleasures, ornaments, pictures, and worldly habits that divert thoughts and affections from God and heavenly interests. The Lord who searches every heart and tests every motive leaves no one who desires to know the truth deceived about the issues at stake. Each person receives enough light to decide intelligently. His wrath does not fall until truth has reached mind and conscience and been rejected.

Divine and Human Judgment

God searches the heart and judges righteously, not as man judges from outward appearance, knowing the true character and potential of those whom others regard as unpromising. Man judges from appearance, but God looks beneath outward roughness and judges the heart itself. Teachers therefore must not despise even the dullest, the youngest, and the most blundering scholars, but sacredly observe kindness, tenderness, and respect toward them, because what God will do with them is not known and is hidden from human sight.

He sees inward worth where men see only dullness, youth, and blundering, discerning in rough, uninteresting, unhewn youth and stones precious metal that will endure storm, tempest, and the fiery ordeal of heat. He values people not for abilities or eloquence but as they seek Him and His help, while His Spirit arouses their benumbed faculties to vigorous and persevering action as by an electric battery, stirring them and forming precious character through trials. He has in the past accepted and chosen just such specimens to do a great work for Him.

Outward displays of piety cannot hide selfishness, dishonesty, double-mindedness, or lukewarm divided loyalty from Him who reads the deceptive heart and knows the purposes of every heart, judging each person according to deeds. The Lord who tries the reins requires truth in the inmost parts, so mere profession is nothing and He looks for fruit according to ways and doings. Those who walk in crooked paths and turn away from given light are deceived, and unless they earnestly search to know God's will they can never enter heaven, for God cannot bless those who grasp every advantage for self or who exalt self and speak vainly of accomplishments, since Christ sanctified Himself for the sanctification of others through the truth. As the heart-searching God who fully understands every thought and every feeling and every motive, He knows who the free-hearted workers are who willingly bear burdens and look out for others, and He will bless them.

Accountability in Sacred Work

Jeremiah 17:5-10 warns teachers who have received great spiritual light that they are in peril if they fail to act on it, and must examine themselves rather than harshly condemn students for minor inadvertent rule-breaking. The Lord searches the heart and tests inward motives in order to judge each person according to conduct and its results, and He sees the conduct of teachers and their treatment of students. Those who have received such light are accountable for how they have responded to it and may come under His rebuke.

God proves and sifts His people, especially those who have received light and knowledge and serve in sacred work, searching hearts and testing inner motives. He accepts nothing less than complete devotion to the work and consecration to Himself, and outwardly doing only enough to earn wages is not sufficient. Faithfulness in duty means working as in God's presence and under His scrutiny, serving wherever help is most needed and faithfully using God-given abilities in obedience to His requirements. His eye as the great Searcher sees the work of every person.

The same searching applies to those who resist God's warnings and reproofs, for their choices reveal the heart God searches and make them accountable for the fruit of their actions. With verses 5-9 on the curse of trusting man and the blessing of trusting the Lord, the passage is to be read before the people who need it, especially leaders not walking in the light and trusting men whose hearts are not right. The one who trusts in man and turns from the Lord is cursed and barren like a desert shrub, while the one who trusts in the Lord is blessed and fruitful like a tree planted by water that endures heat and drought, and the human heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked beyond human knowing. He does not judge unrighteously but tenderly regards those with subdued, contrite hearts, yet God cannot prosper His people while wrong principles rule action. Those who have His messages brought before them and make no response, remain unaffected, or are too proud to admit a wrong course and brace themselves to resist every appeal, reveal the determined self-chosen spirit of Nadab and Abihu, and the Lord gives them up to their own perverted imaginations.

Those who reject and mock God's messengers are not hidden from God's judgment, for the Lord alone searches and tests the deceitful and desperately wicked heart, knows what hearts conceal including secret wrongdoing, and gives each person what is due according to ways and the fruit of actions. This includes those who after light circulate false reports of the worst character, including lies about dress reform such as wearing the long trailing dress at Battle Creek. The Lord who searches the heart also reveals mistakes in the planning and handling of His work, especially when people resist light because their plans are thwarted, and He does not leave work that is being carried forward unsymmetrically imperfect. As Heart Searcher He sees the heart as it truly is when a minister preaches saving truth yet leaves his own defects uncorrected, and when souls who accept truth through him copy those defects in their own conduct. In that case He counts His professed ambassador as perpetuating sin, because the word has not been received into the minister's own heart to do its cleansing work there. His all-seeing eye observes persistent choices, including a rebellious course pursued despite repeated warning and counsel, and knows the principles and motives guiding each mind.

Living Under God's Scrutiny

Moses lived with the awareness that he was under God's all-seeing eye, which searches the heart and tests inner motives and sees every detail of life in order to give each person what conduct deserves, and that awareness strengthened him to trust God for help and to resist temptation. Every soul must live as though standing before Him who searches the inner life. Feelings, impulses, and affections are to be directed heavenward rather than toward sensual indulgence, with attention kept on God. The life is to be lived honestly inwardly, without self-admiration or claims about personal accomplishments.

The true Christian keeps eyes fixed on Him who searches the heart and tries the reins and requires truth in the inward parts. He does not allow evil surmisings to take root in the heart. He shows genuine modesty without talk of his own qualifications and accomplishments, without self-admiration and self-inflation. He prays constantly for God to search him, to know his heart and thoughts, to reveal any wicked way in him, and to lead him in the way everlasting.