A Discriminating Ear

"And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures."

Luke 24:45

Until Jesus opened the understanding of His disciples, they could not comprehend the spiritual and practical truth of God's word--despite their familiarity of passages, rote memorisation, obedience to the Law of Moses and teaching by Jesus.  This opening of understanding correlated with the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathed upon them (John 20:22).  We must be spiritually regenerated before we can understand scriptures that are spiritually discerned.

This morning I spent an hour metal detecting and it provided an illustration of the importance of having our understanding opened by Jesus.  By waving a calibrated detector over sand, metal objects can be sensed which cannot be seen.  After a bit of practice the user can determine what sort of target lies under the sand by the volume, duration and clarity of the tone.  Unless the metal detector is turned on, it is of no value whatsoever.  On the flip side if it picks up all ferrous content in the sand or soil it is constant noise and cannot alert the user to dig a potentially valuable target.  Once the worthless iron and aluminium foil is tuned out (using discrimination), then a metal detector can be used effectively.

For the first 20 minutes of detecting, I did not notice my settings had been changed from the "pro" to the "coin" setting.  This meant I was not hearing everything I am accustomed to and likely missed many good targets.  Once this setting was adjusted I was able to better determine what objects were buried in the sand.  This prompted me to think about how reading a Bible without the aid of Jesus opening our understanding leaves us missing out why we read the Bible in the first place:  to know God, hear His voice, to receive correction, instruction and wisdom.  Reading the scriptures without having the help of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our understanding is like waving a metal detector without batteries over the sand:  no signals and thus no spiritual benefit.  Whilst there is great truth littering God's word in plain sight, there remain priceless nuggets of wisdom discovered under the surface.

How wondrous is the grace of God who opens the understanding of unlearned, ordinary people to receive divine truth faithful Old Testament prophets and angels are ignorant of!  Through faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit enabled fisherman and tax collectors to walk in wisdom the learned chief priests and religious Pharisees could not comprehend.  Jesus grants His followers the ability to hear His still, small voice and strength to walk wisely.  A faint signal of a metal detector can indicate a great find, while a loud beep could be an empty soda can.  Let us be those who dig into God's word to discover what He is saying to us, valuing His wisdom over the worldly clamour all around us.  The sheep of the Good Shepherd hear His voice, and thus we learn to tune out the deceptions and distractions that are not of God, taking to heart His good word.