May 21
Read the Instructions
Pr 8:34 Blessed is the man that heareth me…
The highly competitive students in Mr. Smith’s “Advanced
Communication” class were anxious to do well on the test. Within just a few
seconds of starting the test a number of students jumped up from their seats
and loudly reported “ I am following all the directions”. And they were. That
was what the test had instructed them to do.
Mr. Smith was known for
giving unusual tests. This test had a couple places where the students were
asked to stand next to their seats and declare they were following directions.
The first direction said they
should read everything on the test before they started doing any of the tasks
on the test. The last line on the test
instructed them to skip every question or task from #2 on and simply sign their
name on the paper and sit at their desk quietly. The few who followed directions had big smiles
as they watched other classmates loudly announce “I am following all the
directions.”
The students who stood
thought they were doing good. Especially the first few who announced they were following
all the directions.
So it is in the Christian
life. We can think we are following all the directions, and maybe doing it better
than others around us, but may have overlooked some critical directions. Our
verse for today is sort of like that.
Pr 8:34 Blessed is the man
that heareth me…
We find the phrase “blessed is the man…”
repeated 8 times in the Psalms. (Psalms
1:1, 32:2, 33:12, 34:8, 65:4, 84:5, 84:12, 94:12) In Proverbs we find “Blessed is the man…” only
in this verse. And what is the recipe for double happiness (blessed) here?
Blessed is the man that heareth me!
Most of us are familiar with the phrase
“selective hearing”. For some unknown
reason it seems to develop in teenagers and husbands. They hear what they want
to hear. Oh, there is nothing wrong with their ears. Their ears process the
sound, but their brains can block it out. It is as if they did not hear “please
take the trash out” or “do your homework first”.
Several things contribute to selective hearing.
Let’s consider three of them. First is plain old rebellion. I don’t want to do
it so I won’t. I will do what I want. I may hear what you say, but won’t do it.
Secondly is distraction. If a teen is on the
phone with another teen and you give them instructions, they will nod or mumble
“sure, yes, OK!” Anything to stop any
outside interruption of their really, really, really important conversation.
The same thing happens when people watch sports.
Lastly is lack of interest in what is being
said. They hear, but because it deals with an area where they have less than
zero interest they do not see any connection with what was said and themselves.
So it is in the Christian life. Do we have
selective hearing when God speaks to us? Are we rebels? Do we say yes when the
Bible says No! Or perhaps our lives are so filled with distractions we fail to
hear what God wants us to do. We may even read the Bible but distractions are
louder than the Word of God for us. Or have we gotten so callous that we hear
what God wants and since we are not the least bit interested we see no
connection between Scripture and our daily lives.
That is not the kind of hearing we find in our
verse. A couple verses earlier we find another recipe for being happy.
Pr 8:32 Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children:
for blessed are they that keep my ways.
Hearken is a sort of old fashioned word that
meant to listen, hear, and apply what is being said. It is paired with the idea
of obedience to the way God has directed with the result of blessedness.
(happiness)
Two verses later we find our verse for today.
Pr 8:34 Blessed is the man that heareth me,...
We do not receive blessing simply because we
hear, we are blessed when we put into practice what God says to us in His Word.
For our meditation today pause and think about
how God speaks to you, instructs and guides you. Are you a doer or a forgetful
hearer?
Jas 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of
liberty,
and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer,
but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed
in his deed.
Jesus said “whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man,
which built his house upon a rock:”
He continued “And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not,
shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:”
It seems to me that the world is having more
influence in the church than the church is having in the world. Why is that? Is
it because our modern culture has convinced us that we are all special people
and Jesus loves everyone no matter what they do or how disobedient they are to
His teachings? Do we have “selective hearing”? Are we guilty of “cafeteria
Christianity” where we just chose what we like and skip the rest. What kind of
impact would the church have if Christians simply became doers of the word and
not hearers only. Our verse in Proverbs reminds us that “Pr 8:34 Blessed is the man that heareth me”
Joshua understood it well. He gave the Israelites
some excellent advice that we could still use today.
Jos 1:8 This book
of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein
day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according
to all that is written
therein:
for then thou
shalt make thy way prosperous,
and then thou
shalt have good success.
