Sometimes we hear with eagerness, and other times we hear reluctantly. Our eyes may be open but fail to see. The tendency is to hear what we want to hear, and to see what want or expect to see. Something can be right in front of us and we can't see it.
Our eyes and ears are constantly bombarded with information, and we are forced to be selective in how we process that information. Selective sight and sound reception is nothing new. Communication between husbands and wives, parents and children, falls short due to selective reception. A man may become accustomed to tuning out the voice of his wife. Children hear parents when it suits them, but no longer hear when it becomes inconvenient or undesirable. We tune out noisy kids to focus in on a conversation. We may, at one and the same time, see and mentally reject what we see.
Men have often responded to God with selective hearing. God charges Israel with tuning Him out (Isa. 42:20). Jesus asks the disciples why they have eyes but cannot see, and ears, that do not hear (Mk. 8:17-18). The Apostle Paul charges the Judaizers of his day with having a spirit of stupor (Rom. 11:8). Men have often tuned out God. We do well to learn from their mistakes. The writer of Hebrews warns us that we will suffer dire consequences if we repeat their mistake (Heb. 3:7-11). May we have not hardened hearts, but humble hearts, that we may truly see God's truth, and eagerly hear God's Word to us.
