Your Ears Are Open, But...

Friday - October 1st

Scripture to Read Today: Jeremiah 42:18-22

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You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;

your ears are open, but you do not listen.

Jeremiah 42:20

When I was a kid, I loved to watch the Three Stooges. Every now and then over the years, while channel surfing, I have come across a network playing some old Stooges clips. But, if Lesli, my wife, is watching with me, she isn't thrilled if I stop to watch for a few moments. She is not a fan of the Stooges. I guess the nuance of their humor is lost on her. Or, she has class. I am not sure which is true.

Anyone who has seen one or two of the old Three Stooges short videos has seen them all. (Now that I think about it, maybe that is why Lesli is not a fan.) The Stooges had some standard slapstick routines that they used over and over again. One of my favorites (as a kid, of course) was when one stooge, usually Moe, poked one of the others in both eyes. The other stooge would react and exclaim, "I can't see! I can't see!" Moe, the poker, would then say, "Why, what's wrong?" The response would be, "I've got my eyes shut!" Play the canned laugh track.

When it comes to our relationship with God, some of us cannot see what God is doing in our lives because, spiritually, our eyes are closed. We have our eyes shut. In Jeremiah 42, as God pronounces judgment on His people of the nation of Judah, He addresses their objections to His judgment. He says that they have had their eyes shut to all that He has done for them. He goes on to say that they have their ears open, but they do not listen. They have been unwilling to hear Him - so judgment for their sin and waywardness was coming.

Jeremiah 42:20 says, "You have seen many things, but you pay no attention; your ears are open, but you do not listen." None of us wants that statement the Lord makes against His people in that verse made about us. But, if we ignore what God says to us in His Word and what His Spirit whispers to us, the Lord would have every right to say the same thing to us. He could declare that our ears were open, but we did not listen.

As you have your ears open to what God is saying, are you listening? Are you taking in what He says and acting on it? Or, as they say, is it going in one ear and out the other? None of us will be able to say we've got our eyes closed or our ears plugged as an excuse to God.

God expects that as his children, we will both hear and listen to Him!