The Ear: December 2022
Table of Contents
The Ear
The little boy put his hands over his ears while his mother was speaking to him. Why? Because he did not want to hear what she was saying to him. The Lord said, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15). Why? Because it was a matter concerning the will. Were they willing to hear and receive? Or did they just want to talk without allowing their wills and consciences to accept what God wanted them to hear and believe? In general, the Word of God uses the ear, when used in connection with moral rather than physical matters, as a message to us about the will and being willing to listen, with heart and conscience, to what He is saying to us. The Lord Jesus had perfect ears. “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; Mine ears hast Thou opened [digged]. ... I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart” (Psa. 40:6-8). God’s will was the only will by which He lived; He never acted as a man by His own will. Some of what we read in the following articles will be a hearing test. May we not be like those in Acts 7 who “cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears.”
A Still Small Voice
These words are found in 1 Kings 19:12 and concern the prophet Elijah, who had fled from the land of Israel to Mount Horeb, where the law of God had originally been given to Moses. Just prior to fleeing, Elijah had, with the power of God, won a great victory over Satan and idolatry at Mount Carmel. The prophets of Baal had been thoroughly defeated and finally killed, after the people beheld the fire of God descend and consume not only Elijah’s sacrifice, but also the wood, the stones, the dust and the water in the trench around the altar. But then Jezebel had threatened Elijah’s life, and instead of trusting the Lord, he fled from her.
It is instructive to notice that Elijah fled to Mount Horeb, for Elijah had been a pillar of the law that had been given there. We know that the law of Moses was introduced with a great display of God’s power, as recorded in Exodus 19. We read about “thunders and lightnings ... and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud” (vs. 16). We also read that “the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly” (vs. 17). If man was to have a relationship with God based on obedience, he needed to feel the majesty and glory of God and what God’s holiness demanded. We know that despite Israel’s promise that “all that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Ex. 19:8), no child of Adam could keep God’s law. It was only on the basis of a blood sacrifice that God could go on with guilty man.
Communion With God
Further to all this, the law did not give man any communion with God. No, it made God’s holy requirements clear, but did not draw men any closer to Him. Elijah’s exemplary faithfulness in seeking to bring Israel back to the law was not effective, although the display of God’s power did result in the slaying of all the prophets of Baal. However, we must remember that power, even if it is from God and for God, tends to focus us on ourselves and bring in pride and self-exaltation. Sadly, this was the case with Elijah, great servant of the Lord though he was.
We find Elijah fleeing from Jezebel, who had threatened to take his life by the next day, and it is recorded that “he arose, and went for his life” (1 Kings 19:3). But it is rather a strange paradox that in the next verse he “requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life” (vs. 4). Here was a godly man, yet reduced to extreme discouragement. He was running for his life, yet wanting to die. What was the problem?
Manifestation of Power
We learn from Elijah’s history that the greatest lessons of life are not learned by a display of power, but in quietness and humility, in the Lord’s presence. Power may at times be necessary, as an adjunct to communion with the Lord, but it cannot be a substitute for it. When the servant gets occupied with himself and the results are not what he expects, discouragement can easily set in. But the Lord knew how to reach into the heart of His esteemed servant and to teach him the needed lesson.
First of all, the Lord spoke to him, asking him what he was doing there at Mount Horeb. Elijah’s answer betrays his occupation with himself, for he accuses the people of God and portrays himself as the only faithful one left in Israel. It is then that God gives various displays of His power — a wind, an earthquake, and a fire. Elijah was certainly familiar with all these, and it is significant that he was able to stand upon the mount while all this went on. It was an exhibition comparable to that which had occurred hundreds of years before, when the law was given. However, God was not in any of these mighty forces. Doubtless His power was there, but not God Himself. Finally Elijah hears a “still small voice,” and he instantly recognizes the Lord. In reverence he wraps his face in his mantle and goes to the entering in of the cave. Again the question comes, What doest thou here, Elijah? Again Elijah gives the same answer as before, accusing the people of Israel and exalting himself as the only faithful one left in Israel. What was the result?
The End of the Ministration of Law
God could not use him anymore and told him, among other instructions, to anoint Elisha as prophet to take his place. There is great instruction for all of us in this. God’s power is great, and the occasional demonstration of it is necessary to remind us of who God is and what He can do. We do need to be reminded that we are creatures and that all power is in God’s hands. However, as we have noted earlier in this article, power can occupy us with ourselves, even if it is God’s power. It is in the still small voice that God is really known and His mind revealed. For this same reason the Lord Jesus could remind His disciples not to rejoice because the demons were subject unto them through His name, but rather to rejoice because their names were written in heaven (Luke 10:20). In the case of Elijah, God’s heart toward His people had not changed, even though they needed to come under His discipline. Even at the end of their history, He could still say to them, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3). While God might well bring discipline upon His people, He does not appreciate our accusing them before Him.
In closing, we may note that Elijah seems to have been broken by the Lord’s comments to him and His telling him to anoint Elisha to be prophet in his stead. But again God’s grace is displayed, for once Elijah had learned to listen to the still small voice, God grants him a reprieve. It is true that he anointed Elisha, but then Elisha follows Elijah and serves him. Elijah does not immediately disappear from the scene; for approximately ten years he continues to function as a prophet, while Elisha learns from him.
It is often the same in our lives. We may have to learn a hard lesson, but once that lesson is learned, God delights to display His grace toward us. May we have our ears open and ready to hear that “still small voice”! In the difficult days in which we live, we can count on God’s grace in our life, although His discipline may be necessary at time. As the hymn says:
God’s grace will to the end,
Clearer and brighter shine;
Nor present things, nor things to come,
Can change His love divine.
Toplady
W. J. Prost
Faith Cometh by Hearing
In Romans 10:17, we read that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” While the words are simple and convey a relatively simple spiritual truth, yet there is a depth of meaning in the verse that is important for us to understand. In a previous verse we read, “How shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14), and this shows us the value of those who, knowing God’s Word, are willing to preach its truth to others. However, there is a right way and a wrong way (perhaps we should say, an imperfect way) to convey the truth from God’s Word.
When we preach from the Word of God, there is sometimes a place for what is often called “Christian apologetics,” which refers to the establishing to unbelievers the truth of Scripture as being rational and worthy of belief. It uses various arguments, some from within the text of Scripture, and sometimes external evidence from such entities as the fulfilment of prophecy, the historical records in this world, and other sources. Proverbs 26:5 says, “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.” Sometimes it is helpful to point out how foolish some of the arguments against the Word of God really are, and how those lines of reasoning are in themselves contradictory.
The Word of God
However, while such apologetics may grab someone’s attention, set them thinking, and ultimately be used of the Lord, yet in itself an intellectual persuasion does not bring a soul to Christ. Rather, it is the Word of God, applied by the Spirit of God, that imparts new life. For example, we read in James 1:18, “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth.” Our blessed Lord Himself could tell Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water [the Word of God] and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). God gives new life of His own will, using His Word and His Spirit. We might ask why using the Word of God is so important, and there are two reasons for this. First of all, it is God’s Word, having come directly from Him by inspiration to those who were led to write it. It has been forever “settled in heaven” (Psa. 119:89), and it “liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:23). It is most important that our faith should rest directly on God’s Word, and not on man’s mere report of it, no matter how accurate the report might be.
The Spirit of God
Second, when the Word of God is used, it can be directly applied to the conscience and the heart by the Spirit of God. Then God gets the glory for the work done in the conscience and heart, for they are brought directly into the presence of God. God tells us in His Word, “I will not give My glory unto another” (Isa. 48:11). When the 70 disciples came back from their mission of preaching (Luke 11:17-20), the Lord Jesus could share in their joy that “even the devils” were subject unto them, through His name. Yet He gently warned them not to rejoice in this, but rather because their names were written in heaven. They were not to rejoice so much in what they had done, even though it was done expressly by His command and with His power. Rather, they were to rejoice in what He had done for them — something in which they had no input.
As believers, the Lord delights to use us in His service and to preach His Word. But it is His Word and His power by which souls are saved. We are never to forget this, for the glory must all be His. A hymn expresses it well:
O mind divine, so must it be,
That glory all belongs to God:
O love divine, that did decree
We should be part, through Jesus’ blood.
O keep us, love divine, near Thee,
That we our nothingness may know,
And ever to Thy glory be
Walking in faith while here below.
J. N. Darby
W. J. Prost
Itching Ears — What Is Congenial to Itself
“The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).
Here we find not closed ears but “itching ears,” and those who “turn away their ears from the truth.” The ears are not deaf, or stopped, or closed; they are keenly alive and open to hear. They itch in order to catch some sound, but not the truth. No, they turn away from the truth as a sound known but unpleasant, familiar but distasteful, heard on all sides but discredited and avoided. The itching ear that courts what is congenial to itself turns from the truth. It seeks the sensational, the sentimental, the unreal, the wisdom of this world, but it loathes the truth.
This is solemn and serious! And what is the result? Is the itching ear satisfied? Does its itching lead to peace or contentment or a solid basis of divine repose? No, but contrariwise, it is “turned unto fables.” What a retribution! To turn from the truth is to be turned to fables. How descriptive of our day!
We read, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers.” That time has come; these are the men of this generation. Teachers are heaped up whose doctrine suits admirably the corrupted and debased tastes of the itching ears that listen. Sound doctrine such as atonement by blood, the eternality of punishment, and the deity of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ cannot be endured. God’s great foundation facts of doctrine are scientifically discarded, and foolish fables and mental aberrations are greedily swallowed instead.
The Chaff and the Wheat
“What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord” (Jer. 23:28), and the religious ear of the day is feeding on chaff. We rapidly approach the time when “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:11-12). It is, therefore, a serious thing to trifle with truth, or to think that God takes no cognizance of its treatment at our hands.
The men of this generation are fearfully responsible. They stand on slippery ground. A thousand sacred privileges, an open Bible, a clear and widespread gospel, the working of the Spirit on the earth, the patient grace of God — all these make their responsibility enormous. Thank God, grace and mercy linger; the door is not yet shut. The sweet invitation still holds good. “COME” falls upon the open ear as fully and richly as ever.
“Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God, before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness” (Jer. 13:15-16).
J. W. Smith
That Good Part Which Shall Not Be Taken Away
Luke 10:38-42
In the closing part of this chapter, we see that the one great thing was to hear Christ’s word. This we learn from the approval given to Mary above Martha, who, in a certain sense, was doing a very good thing, for she received Him into her house and served Him. But there is something better than this, and “Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” In a certain sense, there ought to be laboring to serve Christ, but it is a much better thing to be listening to Himself. The Lord would have His words enter and have power in the heart.
The only thing that endures forever is the Word of the Lord. The wisdom of this world is against it, human reasoning is against it, but the Word of God is the only thing worth waiting upon diligently. If a Christian is reasoning about circumstances, instead of appealing to the Word — “Thus saith the Lord” — he is sure to be going down in his own soul. The principle insisted on in this closing narrative of the chapter is the same as that which the Lord taught when He said, “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven,” in contrast to demons being subject to them. We want the Word in our hearts and to be sitting at Christ’s feet.
Religiousness is amiable enough for this world, but that will not enter heaven. We must have Christ in our hearts, for the world is fading away, and only he that does the will of God abides forever.
Sitting at the Feet of Jesus
It was through sitting at the feet of Jesus that Mary so learned to anticipate His death and the value of His person as to cause her to take the ointment of spikenard and, in the full affection of her heart, to expend it in anointing His feet. Mary alone anointed His body for the burying, and we do not find her at the sepulcher, nor yet at the cross. She thought only of resurrection, because she knew that men’s souls were ruined and that He came to deliver them.
The thing pressed in these verses is not so much that Martha was cumbered in preparing a meal, but that Mary was hearing the Word, for the great thing the Lord delighted in was the hearing ear for His Word. “Of His own will begat He us by the word of truth.” God was now by His own Word bringing in truth to people’s souls. Of course, they might have their ears closed against it, but that is another thing. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Christ was the living Word, and He says, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” The truth sets everything in its right place, or it is not truth. It sets all in the full light of God. Truth sets man in his place, or it is not truth. It sets sin in its place, or it is not truth. It sets righteousness in its place, or it is not truth. It sets love in its place, or it is not truth. And it sets God in His place, or it is not truth. In one sense, truth never came until Christ came, for I do not tell the truth about God, unless I tell that He is love, and that never came out till Christ came. The law said nothing about it; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Everything was morally set right by Him. I do not say that men saw it. The law is put in contrast with what Christ came to declare. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
The Written Word
The written Word is now the instrument of revealing truth. The law was holy, just and good, because it was of God. The law convicted men of sin, but the law itself was not truth in this way. It told men what they ought to do, but while it told men that they ought to love God with all their heart, it told nothing in itself of what man was. But what man ought to be, it did tell. “This do and thou shalt live.” It did not tell man he was a lost sinner, and it could not do it; it did not tell man what was his condition; it told nothing of the truth in this way; it merely gave an abstract thought of what man ought to be. Neither did the law tell what God was; while the law in itself was true, it only stated that “the man that doeth these things shall live by them.” Of course, I need not say that man could not do them, and therefore the law was not the truth — this came by Jesus Christ. Christ comes in as the light and says, You are all dead in sin, but I can give you life — that is truth. He says, God is love, and God has manifested His love to a poor, sinful, lost world, or wherefore am I here! That is truth. Christ’s coming into the world showed how everything stood in the world and put everything in its true place, both as to man and God. His coming showed that Jew as well as Gentile were alike slaves to sin and Satan and that the truth was needed to make them free. Therefore Christ came, not only in grace and truth, but in love also, for He came to bring home to the heart and conscience of man his real state before God and to show the remedy. Christ was the living Word. He comes in testimony and tells what God was — not now specifically in redemption, but in testimony. Therefore of what value to Him was Martha’s cumbered service, in comparison of a soul, whom He had come to save, listening to His Word? It is just the same now with a Christian. When God’s Word comes, it has a title over man’s heart to make him believe it. “Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy word is truth.” His Word has its claim on the hearts of those who hear it, and when received, it is life. It makes its way by its own authority to the soul. There is no living power in a miracle to put life into a man’s soul, but there is living power in God’s Word. And there is never a soul saved but by the Word of God, for it is the Word that tells of the blood shed in redemption. A person may believe because of miracles. Many did in that day, but Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because it was merely a natural conviction on the mind, without any living power in the soul. It must be Christ in the heart, and it is by the Word that any soul can get into heaven. By the Word of God a soul is quickened, for we are begotten by the Word, and if the Word cannot do it, it will never be done. “Of His own will begat He us by the word of truth.” Suppose we could set to work and do a miracle; it would not quicken one soul.
Responsibility
But the Word of God also puts men under responsibility. “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge [you] in the last day.” So also it is the “Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.” Thus we have seen that the quickening power of the Word of God is put in contrast with miracles, so that a faith founded on miracles, as such, is less than nothing and vanity, having no life in it, for it is not in the power of any miracle to convert or quicken a soul.
There are three things constantly pressed in connection with the power of the Word of God. First, the word spoken will come against men another day. Second, though “perilous times” come, the Word of God “is able to make wise unto salvation, through faith that is in Christ Jesus.” Third, in a soul that is quickened by the Word of God, the moral effect is to make it dependent and obedient. “Sanctified to obedience.” Dependence is the characteristic of the new man. The old man would be independent, doing his own will; the new man counts upon God. The Lord’s perfectness as a man was His entire dependence on God. He was God, of course, but being found in fashion as a man, He was dependent, and therefore we find Him, at the beginning of this chapter, as in other parts of Luke’s gospel, “praying,” which is the expression of dependence. And so also in Saul of Tarsus, when his own independent will was broken, we have the same expression of dependence. “Behold he prayeth” (Acts 9:11). When the haughtiness of his will was subdued, his language was, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” From that moment God had His proper place in Paul’s soul. Thus do we get the force of the declaration, “One thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Girdle of Truth, Vol. 3
The Lord's Ears
There are three scriptures which refer to the ear and which unfold to our souls the heart of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Ear Opened to Hear
1. “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; Mine ears hast Thou opened [digged]: burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy law is within My heart” (Psa. 40:6-8).
The ear is that organ by which we receive instruction. It speaks of man’s place before God in obedient responsibility. When God formed man out of the dust of the ground, He formed (digged) an ear for him as the hearing member of his body. (A sculptor with his hammer and chisel does so in the marble.) Adam, though, turned a deaf ear to God’s instructions and became disobedient. A hearing ear, however, receives instruction and obeys. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
Those animal sacrifices of the Old Testament and various other offerings could never glorify God with respect to sin. There was One, though, who “was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him” (Prov. 8:30). “When He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:5-7). The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament from which the Lord quoted here, gives the real sense of the ears being opened, or digged, in Psalm 40 — that is, becoming a man before God, for whom obedience is the only right course.
This, then, is the incarnation of God’s Son, of whom we read in Philippians 2:6-8: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation [emptied Himself], and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” And so, referring to “the days of His flesh,” it is said that “though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:7-8). He was the perfectly dependent and obedient man. Never was there another like Him. The fulfillment of His Father’s will was everything to Him. He would rather die than fail to do it in any respect. “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).
The Ear Opened to Obey
2. “The Lord God hath opened Mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting” (Isa. 50:5-6).
Having observed the character of Christ’s coming into this world and with the cross in view, now we see the character of His walk through it. In this expression, His ear is opened moment by moment as He goes, that He might know the Father’s will as to His service. He says, “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 6:38).
Further He says, “The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned” (Isa. 50:4). He would, in all lowliness, serve the needs of all whom He met, but as led by the Father. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. Never did He take a step or speak a word without first receiving instruction from His Father. “I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak” (John 12:49-50). As He ministered to the needs of the weary, He did so in perfect dependence and obedience.
Not only do we see the Lord as the perfect servant here, but we also behold His perfect confidence in His God. “The Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed” (Isa. 50:7). Even with the shadow of the cross before His soul, we read, “When He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from [out of] death, and was heard in that He feared” (Heb. 5:7). And again we hear Him say, “He is at My right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore My heart is glad, and My glory rejoiceth: My flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show Me the path of life” (Psa. 16:8-11).
This is the continual dependence upon the Father’s guidance for every step — for every word. He was always the man of faith, the dependent and obedient One, and the perfect servant.
The Ear Devoted to Serve
3. “If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever” (Ex. 21:5-6).
Here we see a Hebrew servant whose time of service is finished, but who, because he loves his master, his wife, and his children, will not go out free. He states his purpose plainly and then his ear is bored through with an awl as a mark of perpetual servitude.
How beautifully this pictures the heart and way of our blessed Lord and Savior! We hear Him say to His Father, “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” (John 17:4). When His public ministry here was over, the Lord might have returned to the glory with all honor. He would not do so, however, without first completing that work of Calvary, which so infinitely glorified God His Father. And had He not completed that work, He would have to return without securing for Himself a heavenly bride and a family for God. No, His love for His Father and His love for His people kept Him here until all had been done. He would state His desires and go under the judgment of God for God’s glory and our blessing.
So His ears have been opened (a body prepared for Him) to do the Father’s will in everything, but especially with regard to Calvary’s work. Also, His ear has been opened to receive instruction with respect to ministering to the needs of those weary ones He would meet in His path down here. And, finally, His ear was bored through, committing Himself in devotedness to the service of His Father and to that of His own both now and forever.
Now the word to each of us is, “He that hath an ear, let him hear” (Rev. 3:13). And also we are told, “Take heed therefore how ye hear” (Luke 8:18). In our service, then, whether toward God or toward man, may we be attentive to our Lord’s word to us. May the Spirit of Christ give His character to our service as we wait upon Him in dependence and with devoted hearts. Only then will we experience power in our service and have the conscious sense of His approval resting upon it.
D. Graham (adapted)
The Voice and the Ear
The Lord’s sheep hear His voice, and they know His voice. How wonderfully simple this is, and not only does it establish us, but how it keeps the soul from all danger!
It is association with the Lord here on earth, though we hear the voice that comes from heaven. It is a blessed thing to know you cannot expect less. If you enter into this line of things, you will not confuse it with anything else; it excludes all human wisdom. You could not allow anything to intrude with the voice of God, and the ear that is accustomed to it is on the lookout for it. If our ear is open, we are sure to hear it. Everybody has got a path in this world, and though this is a pathless place, yet there is a path. The Lord Jesus did not require a path down here; He was Himself “the way.”
The Eastern custom is that the sheep follow the shepherd. He goes before them (they are not herded with a dog, as they are in England); they hear his voice, they know it, and they follow him; a stranger they will not follow. Do you think they are going to follow a stranger? They do not raise the question, but they do not doubt the voice of the shepherd. They yield themselves to the voice they know. All that is not of Christ is of another god. “Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust” (Psa. 16:1), our Lord could say of Himself prophetically. We see here the Lord Himself was dependent, as man. He trusted in God.
The Shepherd Marks the Way
The shepherd marks the way, and you have nothing to do but to follow. It is the simplest thing possible; a little child can do it. Christ did not want the way tracked out for Him, but He became flesh, became a man, and that is the reason He had all the persecution thrown upon Him by man. Think of all the scorn He endured which would never have happened if He had not become a man. He was the perfect Man, a contrast to the ruin on the earth, and He suffered for the ruin. It is a wonderful thing that we are allowed to stand with this Man. God sets us along with this Man, so that we are associated with God, and hence this psalm can be also applied to us. To think that God and man are together on this earth. He puts us to stand together, against Satan here. The place the Lord takes is being preserved.
Do you love the saints because you see this or that in them that you like, or because they are God’s? Do not be afraid to be found with the saints, for it is in them He takes His delight. “In whom is all My delight” (Psa. 16:3). As for the saints, their life exists in resurrection, where in His presence, they have fullness of joy forevermore.
W. F. B. (adapted), Words of Faith, Vol. 3
Willing Ears
1 Samuel 3
This was the beginning of many revelations to Samuel. “Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of His words fall to the ground. ... And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh: for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord” (1 Sam. 3:19,21). Had the circumstances been normal, God would have spoken to the people in and through the high priest, according to His own appointment. But this being impossible, He spoke to and through the man with the willing ear. This is His way still. Our Lord said when giving utterance to His parables, “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 13:9). Seven times in the addresses to the churches in Asia (Rev. 2-3) we meet with the words, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” This is clearly an individual thing. The mass in Christendom is more than ever indifferent to the will of the Lord, and the leaders in too many cases feed their followers with lies, for the predicted apostasy is ripening fast. But the man who has the willing ear will not fail to make advance in the knowledge of God and His Word, to his own deep blessing and to the spiritual advantage of all who are privileged to listen to his testimony. Each one of us might well pray, “O give me Samuel’s ear — the open ear, O Lord.”
The young prophet did not fail to get the respect of the people. To every exercised heart it became apparent that although God in His righteousness was judging the priesthood, He was not abandoning His people. In the sovereignty of His love, He had established a new link between Himself and them in the person of Hannah’s firstborn. “All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord” (1 Sam. 3:20).
In his subsequent ministry of intercession, Samuel is remarkably reminiscent of Moses (Jer. 15:1), and as the forerunner of the rightful King he is equally suggestive of John the Baptist.
W. W. Fereday (adapted)
Faith Comes by Hearing
Nothing helps the Christian to endure the trials of his path as the habit of seeing God in everything. There is no circumstance, be it ever so trivial or ever so commonplace, which may not be regarded as a messenger from God. The Book of Jonah illustrates this truth in a very marked way. There we learn that there is nothing ordinary to the Christian; nothing is a course of random events; everything is extraordinary. The most commonplace things — the simplest circumstances — exhibit in the history of Jonah evidences of divine interference. To see this instructive feature, it is not necessary to enter upon a detailed exposition of the Book of Jonah. We need only to notice one expression, which occurs in it again and again, namely, “The Lord prepared.”
A Great Wind
In chapter 1 The Lord sends out a great wind into the sea, and this wind had in it a solemn voice for the prophet’s ear, had he been wakeful to hear it. The poor pagan sailors, no doubt, had often encountered a storm, yet it was special and extraordinary for one individual on board, though that one was asleep in the sides of the ship. In vain did the sailors seek to counteract the storm; nothing would avail until the Lord’s message had reached the ears of him to whom it was sent.
A Great Fish
Following Jonah a little further, we perceive another instance of God in everything. He is brought into new circumstances, yet he is not beyond the reach of the messengers of God. The Christian can never find himself in a position in which his Father’s voice cannot reach his ear or his Father’s hand meet his view, for His voice can be heard, His hand seen, in everything. Thus, when Jonah had been cast forth into the sea, “the Lord had prepared a great fish.” Here, too, we see that there is nothing ordinary to the child of God. A great fish was not uncommon — there are many such in the sea. Yet the Lord prepared one for Jonah, in order that it might be the messenger of God to his soul.
A Gourd
In chapter 4, we find the prophet sitting on the east side of the city of Nineveh, in sullenness and impatience, grieved because the city had not been overthrown and entreating the Lord to take away his life. He would seem to have forgotten the lesson learned during his three days’ sojourn in the deep, and therefore, he needed a fresh message from God. “The Lord God prepared a gourd.” This is very instructive. Surely there was nothing uncommon in the mere circumstance of a gourd, but Jonah’s gourd exhibited traces of the hand of God and forms a link — an important link — in the chain of circumstances through which the prophet was passing. The gourd now, like the great fish before, was the mesenger of God to his soul. “So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.” He had before longed to depart, but his longing was more the result of impatience and chagrin than of holy desire to depart and be at rest forever. It was the painfulness of the present rather than the happiness of the future that made him wish to be gone.
A Worm
This is often the case. We are frequently anxious to get away from present pressure, but if the pressure were removed, the longing would cease. If we longed for the coming of Jesus and the glory of His blessed presence, circumstances would make no difference; we should then long just as ardently to get away from pleasant circumstances as those of pressure and sorrow. Jonah, while he sat beneath the shadow of the gourd, did not think of departing, and the very fact of his being “exceeding glad of the gourd” proved how much he needed that special messenger from the Lord. It served to make manifest the true condition of his soul. Yet the gourd was but a link in the chain, for the Lord “prepared a worm,” and this worm, trifling as it was when viewed in the light of an instrument, was, nevertheless, as much the divine agent as was the “great wind” or the “great fish.” A worm, when used by God, can do wonders; it withered Jonah’s gourd and taught him, as it teaches us, a solemn lesson. True, it was only an insignificant agent, the efficacy of which depended upon its conjunction with others, but this only illustrates more strikingly the greatness of our Father’s mind. He can prepare a worm, and He can prepare a vehement east wind, and He can make them both, though so unlike, instruments of His great designs.
In the Great and the Small
In a word, the spiritual mind sees God in everything. The worm, the whale and the tempest are all instruments in His hand. The most insignificant, as well as the most splendid agents, further His ends. The east wind would not have proved effectual, though it had been ever so vehement, had not the worm first done its appointed work. How striking is all this! Great and small are terms in use only among men and cannot apply to Him “who humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven,” as well as “in the earth” (Psa. 113:6). Jehovah can tell the number of the stars, and while He does so He can take knowledge of a falling sparrow. Nothing is great or small with God.
The believer, therefore, must not look upon anything as a random event, for God is in everything. True, he may have to pass through the same circumstances — to meet the same trials — as other men, but he must not meet them in the same way, nor do they convey the same report to his ear. He should hear the voice of God and heed His message in the most trifling as well as in the most momentous occurrence of the day. The disobedience of a child or the loss of an estate, the failure of a servant or the death of a friend, should all be regarded as divine messengers to his soul.
God’s Unsearchable Designs
So also, when we look around us in the world, God is in everything. The overturning of thrones, the crashing of empires, the famine, the pestilence and every event that occurs among nations exhibit traces of the hand of God and utter a voice for the ear of man. The devil will seek to rob the Christian of the real sweetness of this thought; he will tempt him to think that, at least, the commonplace circumstances of everyday life exhibit nothing extraordinary, but are only such as happen to other men. But we must not yield to him in this. We must start every morning with this truth vividly impressed on our mind — God is in everything. The sun that rolls along the heavens in splendid brilliancy and the worm that crawls along the path have both alike been prepared of God, and, moreover, could both alike cooperate in the development of His unsearchable designs.
I would observe, in conclusion, that the only one who walked in the abiding remembrance of the above precious and important truth was our blessed Master. He saw the Father’s hand and heard the Father’s voice in everything. This appears preeminently in the season of the deepest sorrow. He came forth from the garden of Gethsemane with those memorable words, “The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” Thus, He recognized in the fullest manner that God is in everything.
C. H. Mackintosh (adapted)
Mary … Heard His Word
In Luke 10:38-42, there is a moral comparison between the two sisters who loved the Lord. She that chose the better portion was the one whose heart clung most to the Word as a link between the soul and God. As we all know, it is by the Word of truth that any are begotten of God, for it is the seed of incorruptible life, that Word which liveth and abideth forever. But it is much more than that. It is the means of growth, of cleansing the way, of enjoying God, and consequently of spiritual blessing day by day. This was made very apparent in the difference between Martha and Mary.
They were sisters in the flesh, both of them believers and loved of Jesus. Nevertheless, there was a difference, and the main cause and evidence of it between the two was the superior value that Mary had for the Word of Jesus. The Word of God has a formative power over her mind and affections, and she is proved to be the one who most prizes the Lord. The believer who most really and in the truest communion serves Him is the one who has the deepest value for His Word. We find this as a general principle elsewhere in scripture (“this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments”), and particularly in John 14 — “If a man love me, he will keep my words.” Here it comes out practically in the case of Martha and Mary. We read that “a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.” She fully owned him to be the Messiah. There was faith of God’s giving in Martha’s heart, but it saw no more in Him than simply the Messiah. Her faith did not go farther.
However, “she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard his word.” Mary is not characterized by a reception of the Lord such as Martha gave, by loving attentions and hospitality, though on Martha’s part, all this was founded, no doubt, upon a growing out of faith. Rather, “Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and heard his word.” Some might suppose this to be a far less proof of love, but to Jesus it was incomparably the more acceptable of the two. Martha did honor to Jesus as a believing, righteous Jew might; she owned herself as the subject, Himself as King, and was as happy as her faith would admit of in thus receiving the Lord into her house in the day of His humiliation.
Mary Heard His Word
Her sister, however, sat at His feet and heard His Word. In her case it was not so much what she did for the Lord. Rather, she had such a sense of His greatness and love that her one point was to sit at His feet (an attitude of far deeper humiliation than Martha ever took) with the consciousness of the divine fullness there was in Him for her. She heard His word; Martha “was cumbered about much serving.” How many there are who are fond of serving the Lord, but are much more full of their own doings for Him than of what He is to them as well as in Himself! This deceives many. They measure faith by their round of bustle and activity. But in truth this always has a great deal of self in it. When true humility animates, there may be much done, but there is little noise. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His Word.
“But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me” (vs. 40). Thus not only was there a large amount of self-importance in Martha, but, as usual, she felt herself constantly slighted and inconvenienced by others. The spirit of egotism measures by itself, and cannot appreciate a love which is deeper than its own, and which displays itself in ways and forms which have no beauty in its eyes. Therefore Mary, instead of being an object of complacency to Martha, troubled her. Why did Mary not help her? Martha’s thoughts circled round herself. Had she been thinking of Jesus, she would not have dictated to Him any more than to have complained of Mary. “Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.” What want of love and lowliness! She does not even leave it to the Lord to direct. Self is always critical as well as important, and as swift to impute to others as to arrogate to itself what is unbecoming. She forgets that she was but the servant of the Lord. Who was she to wish to control Him? Martha was full of zeal, but of her own ways (not to say her own will) in serving Christ.
Jesus Vindicated the Truehearted
Jesus, however, answers with the dignity that was proper to Him, and the love that always sees true to its mark, but which at the same time vindicates the true-hearted before those who misunderstand them. He loved them both indeed, and says in reply, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things.” He deals first of all with herself. She ought not to have been thus anxious and careworn. Martha did not know what Paul knew so well — “This one thing I do.” There was never a man with such multitudinous occupations as the apostle, there was never another with such a heart for the church. And yet he could happily employ his hands in making tents, because he would not be burdensome, though he had a right to be so as an apostle of Christ. What was it that made him undistracted and happy through all his toil and suffering? The reason was that one person, the only worthy object, filled and governed his heart. This made him thoroughly happy in the midst of the deepest afflictions. This “one thing” is precisely what is needful for the child of God, and the very thing that Martha practically had not. It was not that she did not believe in the Lord, but she had her own thoughts too. Nature was strong. Jewish feeling and tradition held their ground; all these things wrought actively in her mind. To such a person, receiving the Lord Jesus was not only a question of doing Him honor, but herself too. In such cases self always, more or less, mingles even with the desire to show present respect to Jesus.
“But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (vs. 42). There is nothing like it. That good part is prizing Christ and His Word; not thinking what Mary could do for Him, but what He could do for Mary. To receive all for her soul from the Lord, instead of receiving Him into her house, was before Mary ‘s soul. This was the one thing needful—it was Christ Himself. He is all, and Mary felt this. That “good part shall not be taken away from her” — it is eternal. Martha’s honors passed away; they were shortly about to end, for soon Jesus would not be known after the flesh. But Mary’s position of lowly faith in hearing His Word could be always. Even in heaven the essence of it will not be lost. Communion with Jesus, delight in Jesus, humility of heart before Jesus, will always be true; it is the part of real devotedness and of the deepest love. Great as faith and hope may be, love is that which abides forever, and love now is in proportion to the power of faith and hope. All these things were incomparably richer and stronger in Mary’s heart than in Martha’s, and this because Christ filled her heart — this one thing that is needful.
W. Kelly (adapted)
Listening
In order to listen to His voice we must be in possession of both liberty and rest. If you are not in repose, you cannot give Him an audience. I do not mean to deny for a moment that there is a previous exercise connected with the silencing of the natural cravings, the fading of other sounds which were ready to fill the ear of the soul. But this is the putting to death of what intrudes, in order that the disengaged ear may be turned without distraction to Him, instead of the things which a morbid heart that wastes a weary, restless life away by feeding on itself.
There is a repose in the person who listens well, that is very blessed to witness. There was something of it in Mary, when she sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard His word. Her very attitude was restful; she sat, and heard.
I do not deny the activity of life, either in its earnestness to obtain, or its readiness to surrender; but I contend it ought to be restful activity — an activity which is kept alive and sustained by an object outside itself.
“As ground, when parched with summer heat,
Gladly drinks in the welcome shower;
So would we, listening at His feet,
Receive His words, and feel His power.”
Abstraction and Absorption
I shall here note one or two results of listening in this spirit.
First, such a one is abstracted from all but the object of the soul. Other sounds which otherwise might influence, now fail to interest such a one. The ear is turned to catch every note of the voice of the Charmer; and, oh, what a voice that is! Even His enemies declared that “never man spake like this man.”
The bride (when the day of union had not as yet dawned and whose affection is restless) is spell-bound as she listens in the twilight, and announces with rapture “the voice of my beloved” . . . “my beloved spake” — her whole soul turns to hear what the bridegroom of her heart has to say.
Next to abstraction is absorption, entire occupation of soul; the ear, not only bent to hear, but taking in every expression of His voice; and that, too, not as one who is apart from me, but One to whom I am united.
‘Tis His voice that chains my heart;
‘Tis His hand that draws apart;
‘Tis the music that I hear.
Rivets, presses me more near;
Every other sound has gone;
Float I down the stream alone:
All the universe above,
Like a mirror for His love.”
W. T. Turpin, (adapted)
God's Ear
In prayer, it is not the lips it comes from, but the ear it goes to, that is the great thing.
G. V. Wigram
The Ear Marked With Blood
The ear is the gateway, and the mind the avenue, but the soul is the dwelling-place of divine truth.
J. G. Bellett
The Ear Marked With Blood
The tip of the right ear was marked with blood because it is by the ear that we receive communications; it is an avenue to our minds and hearts. Our judgments are formed according as we hear. “As I hear, I judge.” We receive instruction through the ear, and there is a remarkable connection between the mouth and the ear. As to ministry of the Word, the true servant hears first and then speaks. So it was with the perfect Servant. “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious” (Isa. 50:4-5). If evil men and seducers get our ear, there is scarcely any limit to the damage we may receive. Satan first got Eve’s ear, and then her heart transgressed against God. Oh, to have the constant sense in our souls that our ears are wholly for God, so that day by day and hour by hour, like a little child, we may be able to look up and say, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth” (1 Sam. 3:9).
Things New and Old, Vol. 24
Listening Daily
“The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” (Isa. 50:4).
Dear young folks, do you do that — do you awake each morning with an ear to hear what the Lord has to say? Do you read your Bible in the morning and ask God’s will for you for your day? Do you desire and willingly take instruction from God each day? Are you dependent, or do you just get out of bed in the morning and get ready for the day’s work without first getting on your knees in prayer and spending time reading the Scripture?
Oh dear young folks! Are you stronger than the blessed Son of God? When He was here as Man, He waited upon God morning by morning.
C.H. Brown
Samuel's Ear
Hushed was the evening hymn;
The temple courts were dark;
The lamp was burning dim
Before the sacred ark;
When suddenly a Voice divine
Rang through the silence of the shrine.
The old man, meek and mild,
The priest of Israel, slept;
His watch the temple-child,
The little Levite, kept;
And what from Eli’s sense was sealed,
The Lord to Hannah’s son revealed.
Oh give me Samuel’s ear:
The open ear, O Lord,
Alive and quick to hear
Each whisper of Thy Word!
Like him to answer at Thy call,
And to obey Thee first of all.
Oh give me Samuel’s heart:
A lowly heart, that waits
Where in Thy house Thou art,
Or watches at Thy gates!
By day and night, a heart that still
Moves at the breathing of Thy will.
Oh give me Samuel’s mind:
A sweet, unmurmuring faith,
Obedient and resigned
To Thee in life or death!
That I may read with childlike eyes
Truths that are hidden from the wise.
J. D. Burns
Ears That Will Not Listen
“Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables” (2 Tim. 4:2-4).
He is evidently looking to Christians. Timothy was to go on earnestly pressing, because soon they would not listen to him. Whether it were seasonable or not, he was to go on with it, because very soon there would be no season at all.
I do not think the Apostle here means the gospel. The previous chapter speaks of the departure. He is speaking of the evil days. It is not that we are not to be preaching everywhere we can to sinners, but the special thing he has in his mind is that the church would get into such a state that they would not listen to truth. When we preach the gospel now, we preach to people that call themselves Christians. You may meet infidels, it is true. It is of the last days he is speaking. In John’s time they were come in. It was the last time then, though morally developed since. Peter says, “The time is come that judgment will begin at the house of God,” and Jude says that these men “have crept in unawares,” and also that these are they that the Lord comes to judge.
J. N. Darby, Collected Writings, Expository 6
Sound Bites
Open your ears to God before you open your mouth to others.
In prayer, God hears more than words; He listens to our heart.
Jesus hears even the faintest cry for help.
His Ear Is Ever Open
We know that He always listens to everything that we ask in accordance with His will. Precious privilege! The Christian himself would not desire anything to be granted him that was contrary to the will of God. But for everything that is according to His will, His ear is ever open to us, ever attentive. He always hearkens. He is not like man, often occupied so that He cannot listen, or careless, so that He will not. God always hears us, and assuredly He does not fail in power; the attention He pays us is a proof of His goodwill. We receive, therefore, the things that we ask of Him. He grants our requests. What a sweet relationship! What a high privilege! And it is one also of which we may avail ourselves in charity for others.
Present Testimony, Vol. 12
God Has Spoken
Who Has Ears to Hear?
The Word of God must be received by faith, and the reasonings of man cannot be the foundation of faith; if they were, it would not be faith in God, nor faith in His Word. “He believed God.” “They shall be all taught of God; every man, therefore, that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father cometh unto Me.”
We have seen the Lord setting His seal to the Scriptures, but observe, in so doing, He has set His seal to the faith of all those who had previously believed in them. It was not because He had done so that those faithful ones believed. Their heart, their faith, had been previously tested. They had faith, because they had received the testimony of the Scriptures before they were thus sanctioned, at the time when they were presented to their faith, on the ground of their own authority.
When Jeremiah spoke, it does not follow that all received his testimony; there were some who had not ears to hear, but who listened to false prophets. When God is to be owned, it becomes a moral question. In all ages, believers have received the testimony of God, and unbelievers have not been able to discern God in the testimony; it is so now. God gives, in His Word, sufficient moral evidence to commend it to the conscience. When He has set up a new thing or when He has sustained faith at a distance from the sanctuary, He has added a sufficiency of extraordinary evidences. But with this comes the moral responsibility of him who hears, which God never sets aside, and also the grace which acts in giving and in establishing faith: The reception of the Word, and afterward the understanding this Word, is a thing presented to the responsibility of man. Grace alone can enable him to receive and to understand it.
Present Testimony, Vol. 3