The Ear Speaks
The ear is an incredible entity – a perfect combination of art and engineering. It’s hard to fathom how anyone can seriously consider evolution after examining the ear. It is perfectly fashioned to capture sound waves and funnel them into the waiting drum of the middle ear to make sense out of life. We have two of them, you know, working in perfect harmony to create meaning and balance. Just because every vertebrate has the similar system does not denote common ancestry.
The ear has been adorned with diamonds and gold to enhance the beauty of its owner. Some people don’t like their ears. I have a friend who thinks his are too big. I’ve never noticed. He tells of his embarrassment and agitation on his first date with his someday-to-be-wife that a carnival vender kept pointing out how large they were. The point is as a society we acknowledge the esthetic value of the ear. It has been as such from the foundations of the world.
It was not uncommon during Old Testament times to see a man walking around with a hole in his ear lobe – an opened ear. The significance thereof was that this man was owned by another. This man willingly placed himself a slave of another for the rest of his life. A Hebrew man by law could only be a slave for six years and then released in the seventh. If he wished to remain a slave he could request to stay with his master. His master would take him before the council where the slave would make his wishes known. The master would take an awl and pierce the slave’s ear to indicate the transaction.
The very first readers of Isaiah 50:5 would have understood this as would have the readers of Psalm 40:6. My pastor has been teaching on the Tongue of the Learned on Wednesday nights out of Isaiah 50. The duel meaning Father conveys in this passage is a work of art how He intertwines the tongue and the ear and ultimately the heart. We must hear before we can speak. We must listen before we can understand. We must submit as a disciple before we can be entrusted with revelation. We must give our heart. It is Father that awakens me to hear as a disciple – to have a heart to listen. He has opened my ear.
The ear has been adorned with diamonds and gold to enhance the beauty of its owner. Some people don’t like their ears. I have a friend who thinks his are too big. I’ve never noticed. He tells of his embarrassment and agitation on his first date with his someday-to-be-wife that a carnival vender kept pointing out how large they were. The point is as a society we acknowledge the esthetic value of the ear. It has been as such from the foundations of the world.
It was not uncommon during Old Testament times to see a man walking around with a hole in his ear lobe – an opened ear. The significance thereof was that this man was owned by another. This man willingly placed himself a slave of another for the rest of his life. A Hebrew man by law could only be a slave for six years and then released in the seventh. If he wished to remain a slave he could request to stay with his master. His master would take him before the council where the slave would make his wishes known. The master would take an awl and pierce the slave’s ear to indicate the transaction.
The very first readers of Isaiah 50:5 would have understood this as would have the readers of Psalm 40:6. My pastor has been teaching on the Tongue of the Learned on Wednesday nights out of Isaiah 50. The duel meaning Father conveys in this passage is a work of art how He intertwines the tongue and the ear and ultimately the heart. We must hear before we can speak. We must listen before we can understand. We must submit as a disciple before we can be entrusted with revelation. We must give our heart. It is Father that awakens me to hear as a disciple – to have a heart to listen. He has opened my ear.
posted by brent at 10:15 AM
2 Comments:
Well said.
Thanks for stopping by Jason.
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