Ears That Do Not Hear

The hearing specialist came out to call the next patient, “Stephen”. I looked around the waiting room, but there was no one else but me. So I asked her, do you mean “David”? She said “yes, that’s who I just said.”

She was helping me decide about getting hearing aids. We looked over the results of the first hearing test. My left ear dropped off so badly in the high frequencies that they insisted I get an MRI on my inner ear canal to rule out a physiological cause. But the result that I had not noticed, prior, she pointed out. One of the tests had been word recognition. With my left ear I scored only 52%. I got 13 right and 12 wrong. The other ear was 80%. The funny thing is this. I remembered doing that word recognition test. I didn’t miss a single word, I thought. Certainly don’t need hearing aids.

My dear, wonderful wife, Carol, is the one who insisted that I get my hearing checked. So I did so, just to prove to her that I could hear just fine, thank you. She also insisted I get my vision checked. I went to the optometrist to see if I needed glasses, something a bit more prescriptive than the reading glasses I had been buying from the Dollar Store. After the vision test the optometrist started looking into my eyeballs with some special scope. He told me that glasses would do me no good, because I had cataracts that were clouding my vision so much.

I had recognized that one eye was getting more and more blurry, or cloudy, so I wasn’t surprised. When I went to see the Ophthalmologist to discuss cataract surgery she looked into my eyeballs as well. Her comment was simple, “I don’t know how you can even see.”

The morning after surgery to remove the cataract in my right eye is a vivid memory. I got up like usual and went to the sink to wash my face and wake up. I was startled and stepped back from the mirror, hardly recognizing the guy looking back at me. He had spots, scars, wrinkles and whiskers, a face I had not seen in years, I reckon. After a few days I began to realize that the left eye, the one that was my good eye, was now very cloudy. What I thought was a good eye was almost as bad as my bad eye. The doctor said, “I told you so. I have reserved another surgery date for you.”

I am amazed at how bad my hearing and my eyesight was and I did not even have a clue. It reminds me of statements in Scripture. “They have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear” (Jer 5:21). After telling a parable Jesus often challenged his listeners, saying, “He who has ears let him hear” (Mt 11:15). And at the close of each of the assessments of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 Jesus said the same, “He who has ears let him hear”.

The Jews of OT times were dull and blind to the truth of the prophets. Hard hearts, molded by the cultures around them, defiantly insisting that God should conform to their lifestyle. The Jews of NT times were dull and blind to the teaching of Jesus about the New Kingdom. They thought they had God all figured out. You can’t change a mind that is smarter than God. And the church, full of believers, is pictured by the Lord of the Church as being dull and blind to its condition. A happy, going concern, but off the mark.  All of these, having ears and eyes, are totally unaware that they do not hear the voice of God. Clueless. Just like me, with my ears and my eyes.

I wanted to understand this phenomenon. Why do so many people have ears but do not hear God, eyes but not see Him. Even those who seem to be otherwise spiritually inclined. The answer could be summed up in one word. Bias. We tend to hear God (or not hear Him), interpret His truth, and incorporate it into our life, based on the bias of our heart. The bias to accept the lifestyle of the world about us. The bias to accept long-standing theological beliefs that rule out any other understanding. The bias to be carefree and easygoing in surrendering all to the amazing love of God. In the parable of the four soils, there is one who hears the word of God, receives it, and bears fruit. That person is “noble and good” (Mt 13:13-23).