Hearing, Listening and Obedience

One of the first things I learned in higher education is something that I wish had been specifically taught many years before. Maybe they teach it now, I hope so. It is a very simple concept:  hearing is not listening, and listening doesn't necessarily translate into doing.  In today's world very often the words hearing and listening are used interchangeably when they are not actually the same thing.

Hearing is the physical act of hearing someone talk, listening is paying attention to what is being said. This includes comprehension and thinking actively about what is being said. Finally there is the act of doing what is said. In the secular world this is applying the knowledge, when we are talking about Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Spirit this is an act of obedience.

Luke 6:46-49 

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

I don't know if it a change in common usage or a translation aspect (remember these words originally come from Aramaic and Greek). Either way it seems to me that the word hearing here is referring to both aspects hearing and listening.

When we heard the word of the Lord we become responsible for doing what we have been instructed to do. You may recognize these verses as the inspiration for the children's hymn about  The Wise Man and the Foolish Man. It is worth a look again as an adult. We not only have to have a strong faith to build upon our rock but we must act on the knowledge and faith. We are responsible for doing what we have been taught. The rains and the floods will come, if we have acted on what we have been taught we will be the wise man whose house stood firm.

And that leads right back into the first statement Jesus made: "Why do you call me Lord and not do the things I say?"

The Fruits of the Tree

Most of the topics recommended in the Jan 28-Feb 3 Come Follow Me deal with repentance and the baptism of Jesus. Both important topics, but as always I want to talk about what struck me in this chapter as we are instructed to follow the Spirit in our studies. So here we go, please check out these verses. 

Matthew 3: 9-10 and Luke 3: 8-9
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Matthew 7:16-19

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.   Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Jacob 5

Grafting and redeeming olive trees- adding new limbs to the old

Mark 1:17 

And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

Are you seeing a theme? I did, because as soon as I read Matthew 3 I remembered the story in Jacob. When I read Luke 3 it was reinforced, and remembered Matthew 7 (I remembered the story and had to look up the location) When I read Mark 1 I felt a connection made.

Matthew 3 and Luke 3 both talk about how trees that bear bad or poor fruit are cut down and cast into the fire, and both discuss bringing forth the fruit of repentance. Most of the people who came to John confessed their sins and were baptized. The Pharisees did not.  Matthew 7 talks about how "ye shall know them by their fruits", in the end good works (fruit) don't come from evil/bad people. Things might look temporarily good, but in the end a shiny healthy outside won't matter if the inside of the fruit is rotten. 

Does that mean people who do bad things cannot be redeemed -no it does not. Those who came to be baptized confessed their sins and wanted to change. The Pharisees did not. Jacob 5 illustrates that as well when the owner tended the tree to make is whole and well. 

Jacob 5 also talks about another part that ties in to Mark 1 - grafting new branches to make the tree strong and healthy. Jesus called many apostles to him - not one of them was a Rabbi or teacher of the gospel. He called new people to him, people with different backgrounds who were willing to listen and learn. People who didn't pretend to have all the answers and taught them, and they went out an taught others. Jacob 5 address the why of this, the new branches will go on and become new trees so that even if the original tree dies off the branches will continue. Jesus did die and live again, continued his teaching and ascended into heaven. His branches lived on and continued his work. 

Who Do You Serve?

Who Do You Serve?

We are in the book of Judges and Joshua and I really wanted to analyze leadership choices and fought with that for several days before giving in to the realization that the Lord was not done having me address the issue of Who Do You Serve?

We start out looking at the issue of if the sun "really" stood still in the heavens to provide light while Joshua and his soldiers fought in Joshua 10:12-14.

Some people think that because its not part of science it can't be true. We have made a big deal of how most of the time the Lord follows His own rules of science. He really does - mostly. Not always.

The incident in Joshua is not the first nor the last time that the Lord has interfered with the natural order of things on Earth. He made it rain manna for the Children for 40 years. He brought water from stones, parted the Red Sea, when His son is born a star appears for the Wise Men to follow, when His Son dies there is darkness across the world for 3 days. There is the plague of locusts and turning the Nile to blood. Yes, most of the time He works within His established rules, but sometimes He doesn’t.

Next we look at Joshua's final address to his people before his death.  Now this has been a remarkable campaign in the Holy Land.  A string of successes: the defeat of Ai, building an alter and reading the word of the law to all the people, making the Gibeonites servants, defeating the Amorites, conquering the whole land. 33 Kings were defeated by Israel.  Only one failure, it took two tries to defeat Ai because of Achan.  A remarkable victory.  Yet Joshua knows all to well Israels pattern after victories, to fall away from the Lord. 

The Children of Israel have a history to this point of backsliding. They make promises to the Lord and then forget Him and the promises. At this point now after 40 years with Moses (2 generations) and then years of war taking the promised land Joshua does not want to see them forget again in the promised land and takes heed to warn them. They have a new home, they have a written law, everything is laid out before them and they can prosper here but if they forget the Lord here they will lose everything and he is letting them know it is up to them.

Many of the times we are no differnet if often exactly backward from the Children in this regard. We turn to the Lord in times of trial, in times of need, and fall away in plenty. If we are to serve the Lord in our whole heart it must be in all times and in all ways.