I would note what a great thing it is to have an ear to hear. It was the mark of distinction between the corrupt mass of Israel and the true followers of the Lord Jesus. And Revelation 2 and 3 show us that it is still the distinguishing feature between the dead and the living.

Surely it is the gift of God. “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” But, like every other gift, we must prize it if we would enjoy it. “To you that hear shall more be given.” Now the subtlety of Satan is seen in this, that he seeks in every way possible to steal the ear from God. He well knows that if he can but get our ear, he has access to the heart; that if we but enter into temptation we have no power to resist it. Moreover, we are no match for his wiles. Eve listened, and she was undone. Now it is not merely positive error that is seductive: everything that is not Christ, everything that is not linked with Christ, everything into which I enter without Christ, tends to draw away from Him. If I listen, without Him, I have no power to judge or to exclude the lying vanity which would draw away from Him. If I open my ear to what is not of God, His word will lose its place and power, and I shall judge by the sight of my eyes and the hearing of my ears. “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food,” &c., the word of God lost its hold over her heart, and she became a prey to the deceitfulness of sin.

O, the divine wisdom of shutting the ear to the ten thousand vanities that would steal the ear from Christ and divert us from walking as partakers of the heavenly calling! And everything that is of man—science, politics, literature, sports, and entertainment—will try to fill our time and to divert our affections from the Lord. Everything that occupies the heart—without Christ—is an abomination which maketh a lie. It corrupts the affections from Him. What is of the world keeps in the world. If called to a thing by Christ, He will be with me and keep me in it; but whatever else I am connected with will drag me down into death. Hence the great blessing of having an honest calling in which we can serve the Lord Christ; and the danger of those who have “fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness,” and who strengthen not the hands of the poor and the needy. The house may be swept and garnished, but it is empty; and if Christ is not in, there is no power to keep Satan out.

Hence the unspeakable preciousness of the word of God. Coming from God, it leads to God. By it He gave us life at the first, and by it He nourishes the life He has given. Nothing else can feed the new man. It is by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God that man lives. If it abides in us, we shall abide in the Father and in the Son. It will maintain the soul in known communion in the midst of seduction all around and all deceivableness of unrighteousness. For there we find the Lord Jesus the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. It is the mirror in which His glory is reflected: and beholding in this glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image. Thus is Christ formed in us in truth and power.

Now nothing will compensate for this personal fellowship with the Lord Jesus in the word. However profitable the gleanings of others may be when led by the Spirit, nothing can make up for individual conscious communion with Christ Himself through the word. Alas! that our hearts could live a day without it. How lovely is this in the song! The Bride cannot do without her Beloved. He is everything to her. It is true she is slothful at one time, and at another secure; but she has no other Beloved. And when she has for a moment lost Him or grieved Him away, there is no rest until she finds Him again: “Him whom her soul loveth.” It is these living affections towards the Lord Jesus which we so much need. And it is by the revelation of His towards us in the Word that they are begotten, and when there, satisfied. Then precious to our souls are the words of His lips, more precious than gold and silver, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.

Here comes in the great importance of an ear to hear. “For doth not Wisdom cry, and Understanding put forth her voice?” But where is the opened ear? The Queen of Sheba came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” And He has said, in that same 8th of Proverbs, “Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For he that findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord.” (Comp. John 20:31.)

May the Lord grant to us, as the earth drinks in the rain which cometh oft upon it from heaven, so to thirst for His precious word, that we may know Him, and grow up into Him in all things.