The following story is true. Only the name has been changed–to protect the guilty!
Harold is an avid reader. Whether the Bible, a newspaper or book, you could always find him in his favorite chair in the living room reading. In the early years of their marriage, his wife would often make the mistake of talking to him while his eyes, like a laser-guided missile, were aimed at the printed page. She would inform him of things like the day’s activities, or the children’s needs, or a neighbor who had passed away. As he repeatedly responded with “Uh-huhs,” “Ohs,” and “Reallys?” she would wrongfully assume that he could listen and read at the same time! However, if she were to ask him later for clarification about the earlier conversation, he wouldn’t have a clue as to what she was talking about.
But didn’t he hear what his wife said? Yes, physically he heard the words. However, because he was not “tuned in,” not truly “listening,” he did not get the message. It simply did not register. This leads us to the conclusion that it is possible to have good hearing, but be hard of listening –in Bible terms, to hear words, but not heed them.
INATTENTIVE BUT APATHETIC
As mentioned, these people hear the words, but are not really paying attention to what is being said. In Job 33:14, we read, “Indeed God speaks once, or twice, yet no one notices it” (nasv). That is, no one perceives what God is saying because no one is paying attention to Him or His wisdom (see Prov. 5:1; 7:24). Generally, this occurs because people don’t care. Often, they have heard the message so many times that they have grown apathetic to the truth.
When we meet with the Lord’s people on the Lord’s Day to hear the Lord’s Word, are we consciously attentive to what God has to say? Or do we insist that the message from God be over in 30 minutes or less? May we, with Jeremiah, say, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jer. 15:16). Be a focused and attentive listener.
The story is told that President Franklin D. Roosevelt got tired of smiling that big smile and saying the usual things at all those fancy White House receptions. So, one evening he decided to find out whether anybody was really paying attention. As each person came up to him with extended hand, he flashed that big toothy grin and said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” Keeping right in step, people would automatically respond with comments such as “How lovely!” or “That’s wonderful, Mr. President; keep up the good work!” Though people heard the president say he had murdered his grandmother, nobody was listening! Finally the president made the shocking statement to a foreign diplomat. The man responded softly, “Well, sir, I’m sure she had it coming.”
We may chuckle at the story, but it causes us to face a sobering question when it comes to our relationship with God. Are we listening? Are we really listening? And if so, are we obeying and doing what He tells us?
ATTENTIVE BUT DISOBEDIENT
We all love to hear a good message from a dynamic preacher. But this type of listener has his/her favorite speakers, and when one of them is in town they will rush to hear him–with absolutely no intention of obeying what the speaker says as he proclaims God’s message.
Ezekiel 33 provides us with an example of this situation. As Ezekiel spoke to the exiles in Babylon, the people loved to listen to him. In fact, people everywhere were talking about that great preacher, Ezekiel. But, they had no intention of doing what he said. Why? The Lord says, “They hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness” (33:31). Though they paid lip service to Ezekiel, their hearts were full of greed. His message never penetrated their hearts. Yet one day, when his prophecy would come to pass, they would “know that a prophet” had been in their midst (v. 33).
Many who have preached the Word of God have heard their listeners say, “That was a fine message,” as they exit the building. How much better to hear something like, “God spoke to me today; I have some changing to do!”
STUBBORN AND REBELLIOUS
There are also some who, week after week, will attend a local church and hear the Word of God preached and expounded, but because of a stubborn and rebellious heart, they are closed to the truth. That is, they refuse to allow the Word into their hearts and minds to the point where it will do them some good. We often see these types of “listeners” in the Old Testament.
Zechariah described Israel’s rebellious listeners this way: “They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.” (Zech. 7:11-12. Also see Isa. 48:8; Jer. 6:10; 7:1-34; Ezek. 3:6-11; Ezek. 12:1-2).
These become the I-Love-My-Sin-More-Than-God Listeners of which Paul warned Timothy: “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; see also Jn. 3:19; 10:6; 9:41).
Proverbs 29:1 tells us, “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” The opposite of being stubborn and rebellious is to be compliant and submissive. How much better it is for one to have the attitude of Samuel who, when God spoke to him in the night, responded, “Speak, for Thy servant heareth.”
SATANICALLY CONTROLLED LISTENERS
Believe it or not, some who “listen” to God’s Word are controlled by Satan himself. Paul spoke in Ephesians 2:2 of “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh [lit., energizes] in the children of disobedience.”
In addressing the Jews in John 8, the Lord Jesus said, “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me not.” (vv. 43-45). Jesus went on to say, “he that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God” (v. 47).
When the characteristics of the devil (murder, lying, untruth, etc.) fill a person’s mind and heart, they are in a position where they cannot hear Christ’s Word (v. 43) in terms of understanding it and taking it to heart. Only the power of God can overcome the grip that Satan has on that person’s life and enable them to truly “hear.” They are warned that unless they repent quickly they will become Self-Hardened Listeners, eventually moving beyond all hope of recovery (see Jn. 12:40; Mk. 6:52; 2 Cor. 3:14).
THE DULL-OF-HEARING
Once again, it’s not that these people don’t hear the physical sounds of the words being spoken, but rather, that they “just don’t get it”! They are “dull” in their thinking, that is, in their spiritual and intellectual receptivity of God’s truth.
In Acts 28:27, the Apostle Paul (quoting Isaiah) spoke of the Jews who had rejected their Messiah, saying, “For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them”
However, it is not only the unbeliever who can be “dull” when it comes to hearing, receiving, and believing the Word of God. Jesus also rebuked His disciples for the same thing. In Luke 24:25, the Lord said to the two discouraged disciples who had been on the road to Emmaus, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” The phrase “slow of heart” metaphorically means “dull, inactive in mind, stupid, sluggish to apprehend or believe.” Also, in Hebrews 5:11, the writer is forced to digress in his discussion of the Melchizedekan priesthood and rebuke his readers for their immaturity. In so doing, he says that the truth he wants to share with them is “hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing” (Heb. 5:11).
As listeners, we must realize that our apprehension of divine truth is directly affected by our own spiritual condition. Often we, as disciples of the Lord Jesus, cannot bear the many things the Lord has to say to us (Jn. 16:12) because we too have become “dull of hearing.” As someone once said, “A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after awhile he knows something.” May we as Christians be “sharp in our hearing,” that is, mentally and spiritually ready, having minds that are fully yielded to God’s Spirit, anxious to receive His truth. Then we will be Obedient, Believing, and Blessed Listeners (Prov. 8:32-36; Mk. 4:20; Lk. 8:15; 1 Thess. 2:13).