Proverb of the Day 5/28

Proverbs 28:9 - “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”

I wonder why this gorilla has his ears covered? Is it because someone is trying to tell him to do something that he doesn’t want to do? Or, is it because he has seen sooo many little kids do it to their brother or sister? I think, most likely, it is the latter. We, as human beings, have a natural, yet sometimes sinful desire to discard anything thing that comes to our ears that we do not want to hear, even if it is truth. But, if that which is being spoken IS true, and we do turn “away” our “ear”, this proverb shows us the consequence.

We all want to be heard. No one likes to be ignored, God especially. I, by the grace of God, am a young preacher. I have have the opportunity to preach many times in our main service at church. As a preacher, when you are putting a sermon together, you will often say, “Oh boy, this will really help so and so!” The time comes to preach the sermon and you “leave it all on the field!” You really give it all you’ve got! And…they totally disregard everything you’ve said! I think, “If they would just listen! This could be the very thing that helps them with ____!!!” It hurts deeply to see them turn away from the Word of God. How much more do you think God hurts when we are sitting in a pew listening to the man of God, or when we are sitting on our bed reading His Word, or when we are listening to a sermon on the blog…and we hear EXACTLY what God wants us to hear to help us with ____, and we totally disregard it!!!

We say, “Oh, I’ve already tried that!” or “That won’t help me!” or “That’s not what I need!” We all think that we are the exception to the rule and therefore it is very easy for us to think, “Well, my case is different!” When God says, “NO! I have laid down a principle in my Word that will help you, but you are turning your ear away from me!!!” Oh, how many people lives have been ruined because they have taken the advice of man rather than God!!??!! How many times have I seen people who had financial problems and they REFUSE to tithe!!! They KNOW that God has COMMANDED them to tithe, but they have a better idea!!! They are turning their ear away from the Word of God! How many times have people had problems with a particular sin and not removed every “provision for the flesh”, thinking that they “can handle it”??!!?? They had a better idea than God!!! They are turning their ear! How many times have people heard a message or gotten counsel from God’s man and the Word of God, and still decided to “do their own thing”??? Well, if you or I want to turn away from what He has to say, we have that option, but there is a consequence…

…“his prayer shall be abomination.” As you already know, the word abomination means, “The object of detestation, a common signification in scripture.” (Webster’s 1828) Can prayer be an abomination to God??? WOW!!! “Zack, are you telling me that God can HATE my prayer?” No…God is telling you that. We do not realize how great a sin it is to turn our ear away from God!!! We do not realize the price we pay when we plug our ears to the man of God!!! We have no clue how much we forfeit when we refuse godly counsel!!! What do we lose? We lose our “line” to God!!! The person who goes to church with a problem…hears a sermon about that problem and refuses to listen…will not have much influence that night when he pray about that problem!!! God is looking down saying, “What??? Are you kidding me??? I just preached to you for 45 minutes!!! And you took what I gave you and threw it away!!! You listened to your friends instead of me!!! Do you really expect me to listen to you right now???”

The point is…why would God listen to us if we will not listen to Him? He said our “prayer” shall be abomination. He lists it right up there with the 7 things that God hates in Proverbs 6. It is hard to believe that our prayer can be disregarded by God, but…think about the effort that He put into putting that Bible into your lap. Think about all of the men who DIED a horrible to death to ensure us that we would have God’s law in our hands!!! And what do we do with it??? Yes, we read it, but sometimes…we turn our ear away and do our own thing. I cannot imagine how much that must hurt God!!! Are you listening to Him? Are you taking godly advice, even when it does not compute with your reason and logic? Remember,

Isaiah 55:9 - “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

But…

Proverbs 21:13 - “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.”

I don’t know about you, but I want God to hear my prayers…but He can’t hear us if we are not hearing him. Let’s unplug our ears to God’s Word…