Did We Hear?
“It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the *LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul.” (Dt 11:13, NASB). Moses conveys the urgency of what God is saying about obedience with (in essence) repeating himself, “… if you hear and obey…” (listen obediently ‘shama shama’ in the original language). In the Hebrew culture, hearing and obeying are synonymous. If we do not ‘do’ what is heard, then there was no hearing. We’ve all experienced this as mothers when telling our kids to go in and clean their room. (Enough said). Moses’ narrative continues to explain the blessing and cursing of obedience or the lack of.
When God said to Solomon “Ask for whatever you want Me to give you.” (1 Kings 3:5). Solomon didn’t ask for high and lofty things, he simply asked for wisdom. This is what we are told in Sunday school. Yet. Solomon’s request can be lost in the cultural understanding. It was indeed high and lofty. In the Hebrew, Solomon said “Natan ebed shama leb” Meaning, “Give (your) servant hearing heart…” (v9) Solomon was asking that he would hear God. He would do God’s words. All this to govern the people. Wouldn’t it be great if we prayed our leading officials were granted God hearing hearts? Hearing and doing. Wouldn’t it be great if WE echoed Solomon’s request!
Multiple times Jesus says, he who “has ears to hear let him hear…” We better pay close attention, there is something Jesus wants of His hearers. A change of behavior, a surrendering of heart or a changed mindset. He also says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” (Lk 11:28)
I am taking an online class on Biblical Studies. The professor left us with one (strong) homework assignment in week one. It wasn’t to exegesis a verse or write out a diagram of the contextual cross references. He said, “This week, allow the Holy Spirit to point out: Is there something you’ve read or heard that you are NOT doing.” OH MY! We came back and we were to grade ourselves, did we hear? Did we do? All this to point out the IMPORTANCE of God’s word.
How well are we hearing? Are we doing what we’ve heard? Either sitting in the pew (or watching from online) or when reading in our quiet time. Are we positioning ourselves to hear the Holy Spirit? Are we asking Him for the plan to implement? Or are we just filing it all away for another time, a convenient time, an easier time. If we scour the words in red, there are no statements of convenience – it is NOW.
When DOING doesn’t happen, did we hear?
In Him, DeDe (“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love & good deeds.” – Hebrews 10:24)
*LORD; Many of our Bible translations contain the word LORD in all caps, this is known as the tetragrammaton, which means ‘consisting of 4 letters’ (in Greek). It is the 4-letter name of God, YHWH. Originally there were no vowels when writing in Hebrew, they were added later – Yahweh. LORD is used some 6500+ times in scripture referring to the Eternal, Self-Existent One, Covenant God of Israel.
Inspired Fountain 