# 379 When God’s Word Becomes Muted

The Book of Genesis

Day 379

Ge 41: 32 "And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

We  are taking a little break from the study in Genesis to pursue the importance of repetition in the Scriptures. In particular we are looking at the “verily, verilies” found in the Gospel of John. When God repeats things, He is merely underlining or highlighting them for us. He gives them an extra sense of urgency.

Today we will look at Joh 5:25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

Jesus has just highlighted the truth of what it takes to inherit eternal life in the preceding verse, now He indicates how spiritual ears are opened to that truth as we move from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive.  Ro 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” It is the Word of God that opens our deaf ears to produce faith, whether through the preaching of the Word or through the Sacraments. (It is the Word that gives the Sacraments efficacy)  This faith comes and remains to those who keep on hearing, and those who keep on hearing shall live.

God does not hold a gun to our head and demand that we listen, we have free will in the matter just as those who stoned Stephen did when the Word was preached to them: Ac 7:57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;  58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

Let’s look at a couple of things that can hamper our spiritual hearing: Of course, there is doubt. That’s a great ploy of the devil that he has used from the very beginning. “Did God really say?”  Then, there’s the cares of this world which can drown out the word of the God and distract us from what really matters! Mr 4:19 speaks of this danger: "and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Unconfessed sin, can also stop up our spiritual ears. (Just ask David) or listen to what the Holy Spirit tells us in Jas 1:21, “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

All these things bring dullness to our heart and the Word of God becomes muted! As Jesus said in  Mt 13:15 “For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their  ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.'

 This last one can really hinder your spiritual growth. The Jews of Jesus day, refused to be teachable. They had their idea of what the Messiah would be and no one and no thing was going to change their mind. Be open to correction in your thinking as it relates to the Word of God. Don’t ever think you know it all! Remember God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.