The Open Ear

by WILLIS, A.R. | Category: N/a | Mar 2002

Situated in the middle ear are three minute bones, the malleus, incus and stapes, so named because they closely resemble a hammer, an anvil and a stirrup. They are maintained in position by fine ligaments and convey sound waves from the ear drum to a similar membrane on the other side. Inside the inner ear is a bony labyrinth and the sound waves are conveyed, not through air, but through fluid. Those vibrations are transformed into nerve currents and then transmitted by nerve fibres to the brain. These 'inward parts', of which the psalmist speaks, fill us with awe and wonder and truly cause us to exclaim: 'I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well' (Ps.139:14). It is through the ear that we are able to receive sounds from the external world around us: human voices, bird songs and other sounds of nature, music and the everyday sounds of life. Yet although there are so many sounds around us, much is lost because we are not really listening. We hear, yet we do not perceive what we hear; our ears are 'closed', we are so occupied with other things that the sounds do not register in the mind. To really listen, we have to be selective and sensitive to what we hear.

Mildred Cable, a missionary in China, tells how she once met a blind man who was able to accurately reproduce and imitate the songs and call signs of many of the local birds. When asked how he came by so much bird-lore, he replied, 'I just listen.' That was the secret - just to listen.

God speaks to us in many ways: through the things of nature, or events in the external world, through His Word and by means of the 'inner ear' of spiritual perception. The prophets of old were men whose ears were open to the voice of God: 'they stood in the council of the LORD to see or to hear his word' (Jer.23:18). Then they were sent out to proclaim the word of the Lord to the people.

Many times in the Gospels the Lord challenged the people to give heed to what they had heard: '"He who has ears to hear, let him hear"' (Mark 4:9). The parable of the sower, in the nature of the soil, illustrates the varied response to the seed (the living Word). There is the hard heart: the word is taken away almost as soon as it is heard. The superficial heart hears the word, but has no depth to retain it. The preoccupied heart: worries, cares and desires of other things render it unfruitful. Finally, the word that is sown in the obedient and prepared heart produces fruitfulness. What lessons there are for us to learn from this teaching of the Lord! Prayer is the means by which we are able, in the quietness and stillness of His presence, to speak and communicate with God our Father. Often, perhaps, we have a limited understanding of prayer, regarding it as mainly making requests of God. But should not prayer include communion, for listening to God plays a very vital part? The psalmist's desire was: 'I will listen to what God the LORD will say' (Ps. 85:8). Samuel's ready response to the voice of the Lord was a willingness to listen: '"Speak, for your servant is listening"' (1 Sam.3:10). He then responded to what he had heard. Listening and doing are enjoined by James: 'Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak ... Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says' (1:19,22). Amid a world of noise, and the many 'tempting sounds' we hear, may we know and experience the blessedness of the 'open ear' manifested by the Lord Himself as the pattern Servant. 'He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught' (Is.50:4).

Master, speak; Thy servant heareth,

Waiting for Thy gracious word,

Longing for Thy voice that cheereth;

Master, let it now be heard.

I am listening, Lord, for Thee -

What hast Thou to say to me? (F.R.Havergal)

Biblical quotations from the NIV.

WILLIS, A.R. | Mar 2002
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