Dear Rose Park,
Have you seen or heard of those places where you can go axe-throwing? In previous generations you went to a bar or restaurant and played darts. Now you can go to a place where you can overhand throw an axe at a dart board. I’ve never been, but I have to admit it does sound a bit of fun. As I saw an advertisement one afternoon for one of these places, I thought of my devotional earlier in the day and then I thought of you all.
Psalm 40:6 reads, “but my ears you have opened.” Other translations sound like, “thou hast given me an open ear” or “my ears you have pierced.” However, the Hebrew language isn’t as delicate. The literal translation in the Hebrew language is “ears thou hast dug for me.” In his book, Eat This Book, pastor and theologian Eugene Peterson writes:
The Psalms poet was bold to imagine God swinging a pickaxe, digging ears in our granite blockheads so that we can hear, really hear, what He speaks to us. The primary organ for receiving God’s revelation is not the eye that sees but the ear that hears - which means that all of our reading of Scripture must develop into a hearing of the word of God.
Print technology - a wonderful thing, in itself - has put millions and millions of Bibles in our hands, but unless these Bibles are embedded in the context of a personally speaking God and a prayerfully listening community, we who handle these Bibles are at a special risk. If we reduce the Bible to a tool to be used, the tool builds up calluses on our hearts.
This is a powerful and evocative image. God swinging a pickaxe in order to dig holes in the sides of our granite heads in order that we might hear Him and receive His word. I don’t know about you but ask my wife and I’m sure she’ll tell you there are times I need an extra ear dug into my head so that I might hear and listen well.
This is all to say, as we continue through the Advent season, I’d encourage you to listen well. Do not treat this Advent season as just another season to go through the regularly anticipated motions. Take a moment or two to pause and listen to what God might be saying. Listen well to the Magnificat in Luke 1. Then pay attention to the prophecy of Zechariah immediately following. Dig out your ears and hear the words of the angel in Luke 2 and then marvel at the words of Simeon when Jesus is presented in the temple.
Let God swing the pickaxe and dig out ears for you if necessary so that you might listen closely and listen well to the Word written the bible and the Word made flesh in Jesus.
Grace & Peace,
