Mark 4:9 & Matthew 13:9 (Anyone with ears...)

I'm working through a reading plan that will see me read the entire Bible in a year. It's the first time I've done this and it's been an eye opening experience. Sometimes it's a passage I've heard others mention or a saying I didn't realise was in the Bible in the first place.

Today's Monday Message is based off a different connection that I occasionally see in my reading. In this case a well known phrase from the New Testament that looks to be linked to the Old Testament. Not an unusual occurrence I'm sure, but one that gone me thinking.

Mark 4:9
Then He said "Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand."

Matthew 13:9
Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand."

Both of these verses directly follow the Parable of the Sower, just in the different Gospels. Jesus uses this phrase to indicate that the meaning is hidden in the parable. Even His disciples have to ask him it's meaning.

But why the reference to having ears to hear? Seems an odd turn of phrase.

About a week ago, in my reading, I came across this verse:

Ezekial 12:1-2
Again a message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, you live among rebels who have eyes but refuse to see. They have ears but refuse to hear. For they are a rebellious people.

They have ears but refuse to hear.

This passage from Ezekial comes just before he is to pretend to be sent into exile as an example of what awaits the people of Israel.

Because of their rebellion they refuse to hear the warnings from God's prophets and the meanings behind what they are told.

Isaiah sees God in a vision and, after some preliminaries including his cleansed of sin and guilt with a burning coal, God asks for a messenger. Isaiah volunteers and this is the first part of what he is told to say:

Isaiah 6:9-10
And he said, “Go and say to this people,
‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand.
When you see what I do, you will not comprehend.’
For the hearts of these people are hardened,
and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes—
so their eyes cannot see,
and their ears cannot hear,
and their hearts cannot understand,
and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.”

God's message for the people of Israel shows how the way they are living has caused them to stray so far from God that they simply cannot hear from Him any more.

The rest of the passage speaks about God's plan to drive the people of Israel from the land completely, leaving only a small, Holy portion.

In this case it's not a refusal to listen, it's a total inability to listen.

When I read these two passages, I immediately thought of the parable of the sower with its well known tag line. And it got me thinking.

Even Jesus' disciples needed to be told the meaning of the parable, and they were His right-hand men! Could it be that the inability to hear from God was still apparent in the people in Jesus' time? If so, what hope was there that Jesus would be understood by those He spoke to?
I've prayed about this question and I think I've got a sense of the reason, or a small slice of it.

Jesus came as a servant leader; To serve others, not be served. He came as a redeemer for the people of Israel as well as the Gentiles. As we know, it was necessary for Him to be rejected for God's plan to work. It relied on the people of that time not seeing what was in front of them or hearing what needed to be heard.

By adding this phrase to the end of the parable, Jesus was highlighting the point that the people of Israel were still rebellious, even then. Telling the disciples what was meant was a small glimpse of the story they were deeply involved in.

So what is the story I'm involved in that I'm not seeing or hearing properly? Have I had a glimpse of the whole without realising it? How can I turn my ears and eyes to God to more fully know His plan for my life?

Maybe you struggle with these questions too. It'd be great to chat in the comments or on facebook at www.facebook.com/yourmondaymessage