God Hates Plugged Ears

“He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” (Pr 28:9 AV)

This is a pretty serious statement.  Those who will not hear the law shouldn’t waste their time praying for anything because God will not hear it.  Worse yet, He considers the prayers of the rebellious to be an abomination.  The word for ‘…hearing…’ means, “to hear with attention or interest, listen to.” (Brown-Driver-Briggs) This proverb also suggests the individual has the ability to hear, but chooses not to.  Hence the phrase “…turneth away…”  What is not listed here is obedience.  God does not hear us if we regard iniquity in our hearts. That is, if we are living in un-confessed sin, the LORD will not lend and ear.  What the word of God does not say is it He considers the prayers of the disobedient as an abomination.  The abomination belongs to those who, knowing the word of God is about to be spoken, deliberately turn away their attention so the word of God has no chance of entering the mind.

There is something a child does, on occasion, when he does not care to hear something he needs to hear.  He will plug his ears and say something like, “I’m not hearing this, I’m not hearing this. La, la, la, la, la, la.”  This child will deliberately block out that which he needs to hear lest he hear rebuke or instruction for which he is responsible.  He fills his ears and mind with something else so he doesn’t have to admit he was wrong or be responsible for some instruction.  The irony is, if this child has any need whatsoever, he feels ill-used if his parents refuse that need.  He looks at them as though they are the worst parents in the world and they do not care for him as they profess to care for him.  If my child ever did that to me, he would not keep company with me.  I would not suffer a conversation.  This method gets a bit more sophisticated as they and we age.  Fingers in the ears are replaced by ear-buds and closed bedroom doors.  Once an adult, we drown out the word of God by or self-serving worship.  The word of God is relegated to verses on a greeting card or a motivation speak-talk.  Then, we turn around and dare to ask the LORD for deliverance once our lives are not as they should be.

We have filled the spiritual battle field with our business and the façade of emotional and un-doctrinal worship and wonder why the LORD doesn’t answer prayer.  No matter how ‘close’ we may feel to the LORD, if we turn our mind away from the law, then He considers any worship of prayer offered from our hearts as an abomination.  We don’t want to be told what to do.  We don’t want to be told what we cannot do.  We expect the LORD to accept every choice of life because He is a gracious God.  We expect Him to be a benevolent God when we have our fingers stuck in our ears.  Rather than listen to the Holy Spirit as we read His word, we listen to our favorite artist and they preach their watered down, and sometimes heretical, doctrine.  We have blocked out the voice of God because He is no longer the first and only in our hearts.  We have taken the throne and we are sticking our collective fingers in our ears all the while asking Him to hear us.  How absolutely ludicrous.  It won’t work!  God considers anything I have to say as an abomination if I won’t return the common courtesy of listening to what He has to say.