And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it.
Ezekiel is speaking to exiles who still crowd around him. They treat his warnings as entertainment, not as a message from God. So what happens to people who enjoy the preacher but never obey the Lord?
The audience Ezekiel faced
God was still speaking to a nation already under judgment. Here is how the exiles took it:
The Bible TreasuryJudgment had already set in. They were divided, disorganised and ruined. Even so, they turned a deaf ear to all God's solemn warnings through the prophets. This was clearest after the first captivity, when God kept pleading with His people through His servant Ezekiel. But they refused to take it seriously. They would not let His words search their consciences.
Listening for pleasure instead of profit
Here God compares Ezekiel to a singer with a beautiful voice who plays well. (Older translations read "a very lovely song.") Some people treat preaching the same way — as entertainment:
Hamilton SmithSome go to hear the word preached, not so much to get grace as to stock up on ideas. They have "itching ears" (2 Tim. 4:3). 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 pleasure rather than growth.
Hearing with the will already decided
The problem is not that the listeners were absent or hostile. They came, they sat, they approved — and had settled beforehand that nothing would change:
J. T. MawsonThese people came to enjoy 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 obeying the Word they heard. They did not gather with Samuel's cry in their hearts, "Speak, LORD, for your servant hears."
What crowds the word out
One rival keeps a hearer's mind busy while the preacher speaks:
Hamilton SmithCovetousness is not only getting worldly gain unjustly, but loving it too much. This is a great hindrance to the preached word. The seed which fell among thorns was choked. The covetous man is thinking about the world while he is hearing. His heart is in his shop.
A different kind of hearing
The same act of listening can end very differently. It depends on why people come:
W. W. FeredayThey went to Ezekiel and listened to him; they were favoured to hear divine truth! But they were nothing the better for it. What a delightful attitude Cornelius and his friends had when Peter came to them at Caesarea by their invitation! They said, "So now we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord." Such an attitude of soul brings blessing.
Truth heard and refused
Hearing without obeying is never neutral. Resistance, kept up long enough, can settle into permanent deadness:
Frederick W. GrantIs it not possible even for a true child of God to get into a condition like this? As far as man is concerned, he is beyond reach. He knows the truth, but it has no power over him. Nothing is left that can penetrate the hardened conscience or stir the insensible heart. How terrible the effect can be when people hear the truth, perhaps for a long time, and never obey it — or obey it no longer. They meet it with resistance instead, and keep that resistance up until it stiffens into indifference.
The reckoning that follows
This kind of listening has a price:
William KellyTo hear and not do only increases condemnation. The outcome would prove it, when the warning that pleased their ears came true in their destruction.
The question this verse puts to us
This is a test anyone can apply to their own listening:
J. T. MawsonHappy are we if this state of things does not describe the meetings we are familiar with. But surely this is the test. We have listened to much preaching and teaching of the Word. How much does it affect the way we live? Do we go out from hearing the Word to do it?
Summary
- They heard. Ezekiel's hearers came and sat in front of him. They still would not let God's word search their consciences.
- They heard as music. They loved the voice and the new ideas — the decoration, not the food. They came for pleasure, not growth.
- They heard with the will fixed. They came to approve or criticize. They did not come with Samuel's cry: "Speak, LORD, for your servant hears." Cornelius came to hear all God commanded, and blessing followed.
- They heard until they could not feel. Truth resisted long enough stiffens into indifference, leaving a conscience nothing can reach.
- They heard, and God judged them. To hear and not do only increases condemnation. Real hearing shows itself when we go out from the Word to do it.