For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who through use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The author of Hebrews is saying that the Christians here should be more mature than they were. They received the “milk”, the principles and foundations of the faith. But, they were supposed to now be at the phase of eating “solid food”. Those who have been Christians for a while should be skilled in the word of righteousness. Their senses should be exercised to discern both good and evil. Exercised means that the believer is using their senses to discern what is right and wrong.
When we hear the word “senses”, the first thing we think of is the 5 physical human senses. But, there are also spiritual counterparts to these senses. In the next few posts, we’ll discuss our spiritual senses - Taste, Hearing, Sight, Smell, Touch.
HEARING
In this post, we’ll discuss the sense of hearing. The English word hear comes from Old English words ‘heran’, ‘hieran’, and ‘hyran’ which had Germanic origins. This means to hear, perceive by ear, listen to, obey, follow, accede to, grand, or judge.
Let’s look at some verses that deal with the sense of hearing.
Isaiah 55:3 - Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—The sure mercies of David.
Revelation 2:7 - “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’
John 10:27 - My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
With our physical sense of hearing, we listen with our ears. But, with our spiritual sense of hearing, we hear with our hearts in order to hear God’s voice. God’s desire was to have fellowship with man, that is why we were created. To have fellowship or a relationship, you need communication. And the only way that we can communicate with an omnipotent God is to hear His voice with our spiritual ears. Our physical ears are inadequate to hear His voice. We need to experience His voice as we draw closer to Him. By doing so, we can discern His voice from other things in our lives.
A perfect example of this can be seen through Elijah’s experience in 1 Kings 19.
(vs. 11 & 12) Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
In these two verses, we can see there were many things that came to Elijah while he was standing on the mountain. He was waiting to hear the voice of God. God could have spoken to him through the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. But God spoke to him in a still small voice.
God speaks to different people in different manners. He spoke to Moses in a burning bush. He spoke to Daniel through visions. And He spoke to Elijah in a still small voice.
As mentioned in John 10:27, It is our responsibility as a believer to listen intently with our hearts so that we can discern the voice of God in the midst of everything else. His voice should be our beacon and we should know it and follow it.