Can You Hear Me Now?
Do you remember those old cell phone commercials where a man walks around saying, ‘Can you hear me now?' – over and over again? It reminds me of a humorous story about an elderly man who said to his wife, 'For fifty years, you’ve been tried and true.' Hard of hearing, she replied, 'What?' So he repeated himself, but again she said, 'What?' Finally, he shouted, 'For fifty years, you’ve been tried and true!' She then quipped, 'Well, for fifty years, I’ve been tired of you, too!'
Sometimes we can hear the sound of speaking, yet not understand (comprehend) the message. For example, in Acts 9:7 the men travelling with Paul “heard” a voice, yet in 22:9 it says that they did not “hear” a voice. Is this a contradiction? Certainly not. Both passages together give us the fuller narrative. These men heard something, but they did not understand what they heard. In a “sort of/kind of” way, this might be similar to someone shouting to you from a distance, but you are not able to discern what they are saying.
Sometimes, though, our inability to hear is self- inflicted. We hear only what we want – or choose to ignore the truth entirely. Jesus highlights this contrast: 'Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice' (John 18:37). But He also warns, 'He who rejects Me and does not receive My words has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day' (John 12:48)."
Friends, “...faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas. 1:22). Jesus said, “...whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall” (Matt. 7:24-27). “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Mk. 4:9).
Aaron Veyon
