“As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.’
By the walls and in the doorways, people talk about Ezekiel. They urge each other to come and hear God's word — so the question is what they came for.
The invitation sounds right
Their words are the words of genuine seekers. You could not fault them. That is the problem: hearing the truth and gaining from it are not the same thing. One writer sets their invitation beside Cornelius, a Roman officer who sent for Peter and welcomed him with an open heart:
W. W. FeredayWhat a delightful contrast is the attitude of Cornelius and his friends! Peter came to them in Caesarea at their invitation, and they said: "You have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord" (Acts 10:33). Such an attitude of soul brings blessing... In Ezekiel's day some in Israel said to one another: "Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD." They went to Ezekiel and listened to him. They had the privilege of hearing divine truth — but they were nothing the better for it.
No intention to obey
They turned up and they listened. What they had settled in advance was the verdict they would pass on what they heard.
J T MawsonThese people came to be interested and pleased by the preaching. They came to approve or to criticize, as the word agreed or disagreed with their own view of things. But they had no intention of submitting to the Word they heard. They did not gather with Samuel's cry in their hearts, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears." They did not ask, as Saul of Tarsus did, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" Their minds were already made up to go their own way, and to please themselves.
Ears fed, heart elsewhere
One writer names two habits that empty the word of its power: curiosity, and money.
Hamilton SmithSome go to hear the word preached, not so much to get grace, as to enrich themselves with notions... Many go to the word to feast their ears only; they like the melody of the voice, and the novelty of the opinions. This is to love the decoration on the dish more than the food; it is to want to be pleased rather than built up... The covetous man thinks about the world while he listens; his heart is in his shop.
When the message becomes background music
For such hearers the prophet had become entertainment. One writer warns what happens to a person who hears truth for years and keeps resisting it:
Numerical Bible NotesHow terrible the effect on people can be. The truth is heard, it may be for a long time, but not obeyed — or obeyed no longer, and met instead with a resistance kept up until it has stiffened into indifference. The speaker may become "a very lovely song of someone with a pleasant voice who plays an instrument well" (Ezek. 33:32), or he soothes the hearer in his dangerous sleep!
Hearing raises the account
Their listening did not leave them where it found them.
William KellyTo hear and not do only increases condemnation. The outcome would prove it: the warning that pleased their ears came true in their destruction.
The test to apply
This failure does not show on the outside, so one writer ends with a question we must put to ourselves.
J T MawsonHappy are we if this state of things does not describe the meetings we know. But surely this is the test: "How much does all the preaching and teaching of the Word we have listened to affect our practical living? Do we go out from hearing the Word to do it? Or are we like these hypocrites of old who with their mouths showed love, but whose hearts went after their covetousness?" These are solemn questions. Only searching and probing reveals the true state of things.
Summary
- Invitation — Their words are the words of seekers. Yet they were nothing the better for hearing.
- Intention — They arrived to be pleased, to approve or criticize, with their minds already made up; the opposite is Samuel's "Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears."
- Appetite — Curiosity feeds on a pleasant voice and new ideas. Covetousness leaves the heart in the shop while the ears are in the meeting.
- Numbness — Resist truth long enough and it stiffens into indifference. The preacher becomes music that soothes a sleeping conscience.
- Account — Hearing without doing only increases condemnation. The test is simple: do we go out from hearing the Word to do it?