"Listen to me!" "Pay attention, please." Nearly all of us have received these clear commands many times from our parents or school teachers. There was always a reason. We may have been disinterested, lazy, sleepy or just occupied with our own thoughts and desires.
Often God Himself tries to attract our attention and what He has to say is always very important. We have an example of this in Luke 9:4444Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. (Luke 9:44) where our Lord Jesus says, "Let these sayings sink down into your ears.”
The Creator has made man with two avenues to his soul—the ear and the eye. Prov. 20:1212The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. (Proverbs 20:12) reads, "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.”
God wanted a creature with whom He could have communion. Sin interrupted that communion, but God still spoke to man. Into Eden He went to speak to Adam and Eve, our first parents, who were hiding because of sin.
Many centuries later God used writing as a means of reaching man.
The ear, then, surely is the most important avenue to the soul. Hearing's advantage over reading is that no special schooling is necessary in order to learn. When we do read, though, the written word has an abiding, unchangeable character that is not evident in the spoken word.
Certainly we should be very interested and pay close attention to what God says to us. Let us take heed. Let us read the Bible, God's Holy Word.
Job says, "Doth not the ear try words?" (Chapter 12:11.) In Psa. 50:77Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. (Psalm 50:7) it is written, "Hear, O My people, and I will speak." And in Psa. 94:99He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? (Psalm 94:9) we read, "He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?" Two verses farther down it tells us that He knows even our thoughts. It is futile to try to hide from God.
Proverbs tells us to "bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise." (Chapter 22:17.) Then in verse 20 it says, "Have not I written to thee excellent things?" We say, "Yes, indeed." And don't we want to know what God has for us?
Twice in Matt. 13 our Lord says, "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." In the Revelation, the last book, it is notable that the ear is singular and over and over again it says, "He that hath an ear, let him hear." It is as though finally God says that if you only have one ear, use that. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. 10:1717So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17).
Ed.