The Hearing Ear and Seeing Eye

“The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.”—20:12.

Interpretation.—The wise man asserts a truth too much forgotten by many, denied even by some, that “the ear that hears and the eyes that see” were not only constructed for the purpose, but fulfil their functions by the power and goodness of God. From a spiritual point of view, the power to see or understand and to hear or obey revealed truth, is also of God. The proverb may, perhaps, look backward with a warning glance at the cheat and also at the child who have been just before mentioned (vv. 10, 11).

Illustrations.—God Himself appeals to the eye and ear as two witnesses to His omniscience (Ps. 94:9). He makes men own that they see and hear not by those organs alone, but by His care, when He withdraws for a time or altogether the use of one or both senses, whether judicially as in the cases of the Syrian army and of Elymas the sorcerer (2 Kings 6:18; Acts 13:11), or, as more frequently happens, by natural causes. The gift of spiritual sight and hearing is His also (as Lydia and all true converts would thankfully acknowledge), and it is His to inflict spiritual blindness and deafness, making the ears heavy and shutting the eyes, as in the case of the Jews of our blessed Lord’s time (Isa. 6:10; John 12:39, 40).

Application.—How good of God to have given us these two gateways of knowledge, that the soul might not sit darkling within her house of clay! But alas! in a sinful world, they are portals also through which temptations find their way to the mind and heart. I can only make them real blessings by remembering that they are “bought with a price,” and by consecrating them to Him who bought them. Let them be voluntarily opened to such things only as may be thought upon innocently. And, oh, may even an imperfect knowledge of their marvelous structure confirm that faith in God which a more intimate acquaintance with them has ere now compelled! The time will come, if I live to old age, perhaps sooner, when my eyes will probably grow dim and mine ears dull. Let me, then, use those senses now as not abusing them. Yea, let me use them (while I have eyes to see and ears to hear) so that they may be “blessed” in the using as those of Zacchæus and others in Christ’s day (Matt. 13:16; Luke 19:3). Above all—

God give me now the spiritual power to “hear that (my) soul may live” and so to “behold the Lamb of God,” that when every eye shall see Him, and all that are in their graves shall hear His voice, I may behold the King in His beauty, and drink in His words of love!

Pearson, C. R. (1881). Counsels of the Wise King; or, Proverbs of Solomon Applied to Daily Life (Vol. 2, p. 15). W. Skeffington & Son. (Public Domain)