When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him…. Acts 7:54-57
The fact that you are reading this article means you are more likely to get struck by lightning twice than to participate in the violent killing of a man for preaching the gospel truth. That said, the core issue that led those Jews (highly religious men) to stone Stephen to death presents a threat to every hearer of God’s word at varying points and to varying degrees. Yielding to this sinful tendency to any degree puts us in rebellion against God. For this cause, we must make our minds up in advance that we will receive God’s word, no matter how challenging it may be (Daniel 1:8).
The issue of stopping our ears when we do not like what we hear is as old as humanity itself. When Eve heard the serpent’s word concerning the outcome of eating the fruit God had forbidden, she took his word over God’s (Genesis 3:1-7). It was not that he had proven himself more worthy of her trust, so it must have been for some other cause. In a recent social media post I read, an author named simply as Ane M. was cited as saying, “Eve found the serpent more trustworthy than God, not because of its credentials, but because the serpent said what Eve wanted to hear.” This seems to capture the essence of the problem, a truth confirmed by various biblical texts on the matter.
Jesus spoke of people who “…hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand…” (Matthew 13:13) because “…the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing…” (Matthew 13:15; cf. Isaiah 6:9-10). The issue Jesus addressed had nothing to do with their physiological capacity to receive sound into their ears. They had a listening problem due to their choice to block out God’s word in favor of a preferred narrative (John 5:39-47; 8:37-47). Paul warned Timothy that in his preaching the word a time would come “…when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
This pattern is repeated throughout the biblical record as time and again God’s people “stopped their ears” and refused to hear God’s word. The widespread confusion in religion today indicates nothing has changed. I wonder how often we may stop our ears and refuse to hear God’s word when we encounter it. It won’t do to dismiss our refusal to hear as less destructive than that of the Jews who killed Stephen. No, there is no acceptable degree of rebellion against the Lord and His will (John 12:47-48; Galatians 5:7; Hebrews 2:1-4; 6:4-6; 10:26-31; 12:25; 1 John 3:4-10). As was stated in the social media post mentioned above, “May I train my ears and heart to rightfully discern the will of God over the loudness of my own will” (Renate Braddy).