The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue

to know the word that sustains the weary.

He wakens me morning by morning,

wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears,

and I have not been rebellious; … (Isa 50:4-5, NIV).

All humans as well animals have two eyes and two ears. With two eyes, we see things around us in three dimensions: we can see that objects in front of us are closer to us than the other objects behind them. With two ears, we can discern which direction a sound is coming from: if the object that emits the sound is moving, we can also sense which direction it is moving to. So these two eyes and two ears help us knowing more accurately what is happening around us—the reality of the world we live in.

It is important to keep in mind that according to the Bible, there are two kinds of reality: one spiritual, and the other physical. All spiritual beings like angels, evil spirits and God are living in the spiritual world, and everything that exists there, or is happening there is reality for them just as everything of physical existence as well as of what is happening in this world is reality for us. We humans are very unique in that we live in two different worlds—the spiritual and the physical. A human is a spirit, a soul and a body. With our body existing in the physical world, we live in the physical reality. With our spirit existing in the spiritual, we live in the spiritual reality. And the soul is sandwiched between the two realities with the role to connect one to the other.

However, the problem for those who are spiritually dead is that they are spiritually blind or deaf, and can no longer perceive the spiritual reality they live in. The only reality that such people can sense or perceive is that of this world, and they do not even know that there is another reality in the spiritual world. They live thinking that this world is the only world that exists, and the life on earth is the only life they have. Such is the lifestyle of sinners, and such is their world.

God is spirit, and his word is spirit, too. If God’s word is spirit, it teaches about the spiritual reality. And in order to understand his word and perceive such reality, we need to use our spiritual eyes and ears, not physical ones. This is what we Christians need to learn more.

Words are spoken physically through the mouth of a person. Or they are written by someone’s hand. So, even if someone is delivering God’s message (God is actually speaking though him), it might be true that we are hearing it only by physical ears with the spiritual ears closed. Or, even if we are reading God’s word in the Bible, it is possible that we are only reading it with our physical eyes with the spiritual eyes closed. Then, we would not understand God’s word and message though we think we do.

Read the above scripture in Isaiah, and meditate upon it. It is our spiritual ears that God opens so that we can be taught by him. It takes God’s miracle for our spiritual ears as well as physical ears to open. But once they are open, we can hear!

As for the spiritual reality, we cannot know it by thinking hard in our head. We need to be taught. We even do not know the fact that we do not know it. We do not know what it is that we do not know, and what it is that we should know. “The Sovereign Lord (lit. my lord Yahweh)” is the teacher, and we are the “one being taught.” He opened “my ears” and your ears!

When he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8:8)."