Reading: Rom. 12:1;
Ex. 21:5-6; Deut. 15:12-18; Lev. 8:22-24,30; 14:28; Isa.
1:4-5; Rev. 3:20-22.
You will have noticed
that, in all these passages, reference is made to the
ear. There is the bored ear of the servant, the
consecrated ear of the priest, the anointed ear of the
leper, the opened ear for instruction in Isa. 1, and the
attentive ear of Rev. 3. It is impressive to realise what
a large place the Lord gives to the ear, and how much
Scripture is occupied with hearing; and, as we put the
various Scriptures together, we come to find that the
matter of hearing, or of the ear, goes right to the root
of the spiritual life. It was by capturing the ear of Eve
that all sin was introduced into the human race. She
consented to listen, she lent her ear when the adversary,
Satan, said, "Hath God said...?". That was the
beginning of all spiritual evil among men, and since then
Satan has ever sought to propagate his kingdom by getting
the ear, by securing a consent to listen. It was in
exactly the same way that he went to the Lord Jesus in
the days of His fast in the wilderness, saying, "If
thou be the Son of God..." There is something in
that very much akin to "Hath God said...?",
because it was only a short time previously that God had
said, "This is my beloved Son". But the last
Adam refused to listen; He closed His ear. He would not
consent to entertain the suggestion or the insinuation,
and, by His persistent refusal to give ear to the
adversary, redemption was accomplished. All the mischief
of the first failure in that very respect was overcome.
When we come to the
book of the Revelation, we find that it is to the ear
that the appeal is made. It is the time of consummations.
The first chapters have to do with things that must be
listened to as from the Lord; the last chapters see the
result of that work of the Spirit-life in fulness; the
same principles as in Genesis. It is the question of life
in fulness, lost by lending an ear to Satan, gained by
listening to what the Spirit saith.
So we are right in
saying that there is a sense in which the whole spiritual
life and spiritual history hang upon spiritual hearing.
Between the two extremes of death and life, between
listening to Satan and having an ear only for the Lord,
there are many aspects of spiritual hearing, as we have
seen in the above passages. We will not touch upon them
now in detail, but be content for the moment to emphasize
the necessity of having an ear to hear what the Spirit
saith, and of using it - "He that hath an ear, let
him hear". We must be sure that we are not only
hearing outwardly, but that the thing is going deep
inside, that it is making a difference. You can say
things again and again to some people, and they know what
you say, and will retort, 'I have heard you say that
before'. But it makes no difference - they have not heard
with the inward ear. Life depends upon that kind of
hearing inside - using the ear that we have for what the
Spirit saith. So it is all summed up in "I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
to God, which is your spiritual service (worship,
R.V.M)" (Rom. 12:1).