Malachi 3:16 NIV

Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.

How Important Is Listening?

The other day I went to get my haircut and after getting me seated in my chair, the hairstylist took a look at what she had before her and told me I had great hair. Now, I know that I am an old man with gray popping up everywhere and I have been shown how my hair is thinning in the back of my head but I must admit I kind of strutted a bit after I heard that comment. I felt younger, handsomer and more impressive yet nothing about me had changed. I was the exact same person I was before I got my haircut with the same list of accomplishments and failures, the same talents and abilities and the same looks but on this day I heard that I had a “great head of hair” and it made a difference.

What is it that you love hearing most? Is it a compliment? Would it be the sound of laughter or a baby cooing? How high on your list would be jazz music or classical music or rock or rap? Do you love the sound of wood crackling in a fireplace or popcorn popping just before it is ready or the gurgling sound of a mountain stream? Maybe it’s the roar of the ocean, a good story or a podcast? Perhaps it is the sound of birds singing or the Bible being read aloud. Do you love the sound of your children’s voices, of your husband or wife on the phone? Do you like to hear the sound of thunder or rain drops or the quiet stir of snow falling? Do you recall hearing the sound of your baby’s heartbeat for the first time or the interviewer telling you that you got the job? Do you have a favorite sound of all time? How important is listening to you?

The Bible often speaks of God hearing. The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer. (Psalm 6:9 NIV) Again in the Psalms we see, In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. (Psalm 18:6 NIV) And in Psalm 40: 1 is the declaration, I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. (NIV) Because God is Spirit, it is perhaps a bit strange to think of God hearing as a person hears but we must remember that all the language of the Old Testament that gives God the same characteristics as humankind possess are prophetic of what is to come; that one day God would indeed have the very features of people because our Lord was to become flesh and dwell among us. (Consider John 1: 14)

When our Lord did become flesh, His ability to hear was human in every way. Just a few examples will illustrate what we mean here. A Roman centurion approached Jesus begging him to heal his ailing servant. Jesus offered to go with the centurion and heal the servant at the centurion’s home but the centurion responded to this offer in a stunning way. The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed…When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” (Matthew 8:8.10 NIV) Jesus, just like you or I heard the centurion’s reaction to Jesus’ offer and reacted to what He heard. Another example and we will make our point regarding our Lord. In John 9 is the interesting account of a man born blind who was healed by Jesus. The religious leaders in Jerusalem were not happy with how the man who had been healed answered their questions regarding Jesus and the miracle and would not let the man have access to the synagogue. Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" (John 9:35 NIV)

In both cases and in every example we can find of Jesus hearing something said, He heard just like we do. There is no evidence, as far as we can find, that Jesus had any supernatural power to know in advance what was going to be told Him. He reacted just like we do to news we hear. It was in real time as it was happening. Jesus was astonished, just like we would be at new news He received regarding the spoken faith of the centurion. When the man He healed was thrown out of the synagogue and Jesus heard about it, our Lord went and found him. Like us, Jesus heard for the first time a wide range of statements and ideas and accounts and when He heard them, He had to process like we do what He heard. He did not have ten thousand years to think about what He already knew. It was for Him as a man fresh every time, the words He heard. God experienced what it is like for us to hear something, be shocked by it, excited by it, amused by it, saddened by it, appalled by it and then have to think through what He heard. That is an amazing revelation of Scripture. God had ears just like us, a mind just like us and He had to process what He heard just like we process it. We know how hard it is to figure out what to do with what we hear when we hear it. God also knows how hard it is because He has faced the struggle Himself to take what He has just heard and decide what to do with the new information He has gained.

In Genesis 2 and 3 we have the first descriptions of hearing occurring. Some sort of hearing is discussed in Genesis 2. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:15-17 NIV) It would seem that because everything in this passage is physical and not spiritual: Adam put into a physical garden and directed to do the physical work there of taking care of the garden and then given a command about the physical act of not eating fruit from a particular physical tree that the talking that takes place was also physical but we cannot say for certain. It certainly seems like God was speaking to Adam in a normal physical way and Adam heard Him in a normal physical way. Later in chapter 3 a physical being spoke to Eve, a serpent. That physical creature asked Eve a critical question that Eve answered. "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1 NIV) Eve knew what the serpent said and responded to what she heard. "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" (Genesis 3:2-3 NIV)

This is precisely what God did say to Adam and so Adam had to have repeated this to Eve who heard it. The conversation ends with the serpent insisting that God was wrong about them dying if they ate from the tree in the middle of the garden and that what they didn’t realize was that the fruit from the tree would make it so that like God they would know the difference between good and evil. Eve of course did eat the forbidden fruit and so did Adam and immediately their eyes were opened but not as they hoped. It was horrible for them. Sin completely wrecked their personalities and they were ashamed of their nakedness. The way Adam and Eve processed information was ruined by the Sin they committed and no longer could they think how God built them to think. They were broken people. How they processed what they heard next is telling. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:8-9 NIV)

There is in this a fascinating admission in Scripture. There was a time when God allowed Himself to be physically heard by people. Adam and Eve heard God rustling about in the garden like all of us hear. The way they processed this hearing is critical because it clearly was not in the same way as before they sinned. The two hid from God; they now were afraid of Him. Whereas before, the sound of God made them happy; after they sinned it paralyzed them with fear. From this point forward, people began to no longer physically hear God. After He sent them out of the garden, God would make Himself heard in a physical way only a few times. The Bible says that God spoke to Moses face to face as one person speaks to another. He spoke physically to Abraham before that and Jacob but almost never did He give people the opportunity to hear Him speak through the normal process of ears to brain. Satan became completely cut off from man’s ears. Never again in the Old Testament do we read of Satan speaking in a physical way to people; Satan could only talk directly to God Demons spoke and speak but not Satan.

What were we to do though if God stopped speaking to us physically? Something amazing happened when Jesus Christ came as a man and became a part of human society. Satan was given his voice and allowed to speak physically with Christ but only with Christ and the Father spoke physically with Jesus too and let the Disciples hear Him speak. A rip in the barrier between the physical and spiritual realms occurred with the coming of Jesus. Both the horrific evil of Satan could be heard physically as well as the perfect love of God. In this great moment in time, salvation came to us. Jesus Christ put us back in touch with God by letting Satan do every possible terrible act in the physical realm to Him; let Him arrange His beating, scourging and crucifixion. Upon His death, the power of Satan was broken in humanity and Sin could no longer keep us from God. In that instant, when Satan tried to destroy Christ and every single link between God and His people, Christ rose victoriously.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ brought to all who put their faith in Him for salvation the magnificent new way for God to speak to us. The Holy Spirit joins with us in conversations that are in a completely different manner than anyone has ever spoken with us in the past; in a supernatural way. But like babies, we don’t realize when He is talking with us, understand what He is saying or try very hard to make sense of God’s way of getting through to us. It is humiliating at times, frustrating often and sad to admit how little we recognize the Holy Spirit’s communication with us but it will not always be like this. By reading the Bible we learn how God really speaks to us…how to tell the difference between our own thoughts and the Holy Spirit breaking through our thoughts to talk to us…Spirit to spirit… Take a week to practice listening for the Holy Spirit speaking to you. Every opportunity you get, invite God to guide you, show you what to do, how to respond to what you face. The Holy Spirit will bring Scripture to mind, past experiences to mind and point out ways you can make the most out of the opportunities God gives you to be loving, generous and kind.