The Open Ear

Start with a question When was the last time someone told you something you did not want to hear, and you changed your mind because of it? If you can’t remember, that’s worth noticing.

“We will not hearken” The most repeated charge in the prophets isn’t that Israel lacked information. It is that they would not listen. “Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.” (Jeremiah 6:16–17) “In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.” (Isaiah 30:15) And ye would not. Three words carry the whole tragedy.

Zechariah describes what refusing looks like: “they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear” (Zechariah 7:11). Read the last phrase again: that they should not hear. The ear was closed on purpose, to avoid the message. When Stephen preached, the council “stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord” (Acts 7:57). First the ears. Then the action.

Why would anyone do this? The Bible gives two reasons, and both are uncomfortable.

1. The truth threatens something we love. “Men loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19). Paul says “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge” (Romans 1:28). Peter says “this they willingly are ignorant of” (2 Peter 3:5). The problem wasn’t ability. It was dislike.
2. Hearing would require change, and change costs. That’s why Hosea’s complaint is so severe: “thou hast rejected knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). The people weren’t just unlearned. They had rejected it.

And there’s a sobering sequence: “because they received not the love of the truth... for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:10–11). First a refusal. Then a delusion that confirms the refusal. What began as a decision becomes a condition.

Reproof If the ear is closed to truth in general, it closes tightest against reproof, which is truth aimed at me. “Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.” (Proverbs 12:1) “A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool.” (Proverbs 17:10)

Notice how people actually respond. Uzziah “was wroth.” The people of Jeremiah’s day put the prophet in the stocks. Amaziah the priest told Amos to leave. By contrast: “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil.” (Psalm 141:5) “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser.” (Proverbs 9:9)

The wise treat correction as a gift. They arrange their lives to receive it. Moses listened to his father-in-law (Exodus 18:24). Apollos, an “eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures,” let a tentmaker and his wife explain “the way of God more perfectly” (Acts 18:24–26). Peter was corrected publicly by Paul and later called him “our beloved brother Paul” (Galatians 2:11; 2 Peter 3:15).

The demand for smooth things When a people won’t hear what is true, it doesn’t go without teachers. It finds ones who say what it wants. “Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” (Isaiah 30:10) “The prophets prophesy falsely... and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” (Jeremiah 5:31) “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.” (2 Timothy 4:3)

The initiative is with the hearers. They heap to themselves teachers. The audience shapes the message. The clearest story is 1 Kings 22. King Ahab gathers about four hundred prophets, and with one voice they say, “Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it.” King Jehoshaphat isn’t satisfied: “Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides?” (22:7). Ahab replies: “I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me” (22:8). The messenger sent to fetch the honest prophet, Micaiah, gives him the pressure of the whole room: “let thy word... be like the word of one of them” (22:13). Micaiah’s answer is the model for every honest witness: “As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak” (22:14).

The crowd, and the credentials “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.” (Exodus 23:2) Crowds don’t think. At Ephesus, “some cried one thing, and some another... and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together” (Acts 19:32). Two hours of chanting, for a cause most could not have explained.

And a crowd doesn’t have to be a mob. It can be a council or a respected circle: “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (John 12:42–43) They believed. This wasn’t a failure of evidence. It was a failure of cost.

Others argued from credentials: “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?” (John 7:48). If the experts haven’t endorsed it, it can’t be worth considering. Nicodemus answered with a question that has never lost its edge: “Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?” (John 7:51).

“The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe” (Proverbs 29:25). But the Bible also shows what one person can do. Caleb “had another spirit with him” (Numbers 14:24). Elijah asked a silent nation, “How long halt ye between two opinions?” (1 Kings 18:21). Daniel “purposed in his heart” (Daniel 1:8). Peter and John told the council, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye” (Acts 4:19). They didn’t dodge the question. They handed it back and asked the council to think.

How the wise answer When you disagree with someone, the Bible shows a better way:

1. Listen first. “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly” (Proverbs 18:13).
2. Be slow. “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19).
3. Be gentle. “A soft answer turneth away wrath” (Proverbs 15:1). “A soft tongue breaketh the bone” (Proverbs 25:15). “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men” (2 Timothy 2:24).
4. Give a reason. “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). Reasoning isn’t forbidden: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD” (Isaiah 1:18).
5. Ask questions that draw out the person’s own understanding. “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out” (Proverbs 20:5). Nathan didn’t accuse David. He told him a story and let David’s own judgment speak. Jesus asked, “The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?” (Matthew 21:25).
6. Know when to stop. “Avoid foolish and unlearned questions, knowing that they do gender strifes” (2 Timothy 2:23). The difference is between questions that seek the truth and questions that seek to win.

And remember the example of Nehemiah, who was invited four times to a meeting that was clearly a trap. He didn’t argue about it. He said: “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down” (Nehemiah 6:3).

Nine tests the Bible gives Scripture doesn’t only call for testing. It gives the instruments. Here are nine:

A note on the sixth: at the Last Supper, when Jesus said one of the twelve would betray Him, each disciple’s response was “Lord, is it I?” (Matthew 26:22). Not “Is it he?” The question went inward. And note the first: the Bereans applied it to an apostle. “If an angel’s message can be tested,” as Paul said in Galatians 1:8, “so can anyone’s.” That includes this course. Please check everything in it.

On hearing

1. Is there any subject on which I have stopped my ears “lest I should hear”? (Zechariah 7:11–12)
2. When did I last change my mind because of correction? Who corrected me? (Proverbs 15:31–32)
3. Do I look for the “prophet besides,” or only for voices that agree with me? (1 Kings 22:7–8; 2 Timothy 4:3)

On my own eyes 4. Which of my convictions do I hold mainly because it feels right to me? (Proverbs 12:15; 14:12) 5. In what area am I “wise in my own conceit”? Has success in one place made me confident in another? (Proverbs 26:12; 28:11; 2 Chronicles 26:16) 6. Have I ever asked, “Lord, is it I?” (Matthew 26:22)

On the multitude 7. What do I believe or say because of who is watching? (John 12:42–43; Proverbs 29:25) 8. Who are my closest companions in thought, and do any of them disagree with me? (Proverbs 13:20; 27:6) 9. Where might I be one of “the more part [who] knew not wherefore they were come together”? (Acts 19:32)

On noise and stillness 10. When was I last still and alone with the Word, with no competing voice? (Psalm 46:10; Mark 1:35) 11. What do I hear, read or watch that I have never examined? “Take heed what ye hear.” (Mark 4:24)

On doing 12. What do I know that I’m not doing? (James 1:22–24; Luke 6:46) 13. Have I tested my most treasured doctrine against the Word, as the Bereans did, and not just against those who taught it? (Acts 17:11; Isaiah 8:20) 14. What is in my right hand that I have never examined? (Isaiah 44:20)

A word of hope. Self-examination without hope turns into despair. “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). David was restored. Peter, after three denials, was restored.