Introduction: If you are a committed reader, you too may have had this experience: You find that rereading your favorite books, plays, poems, or non-fiction pieces is infinitely sweeter than your first reading. That has certainly been my experience. Some of my favorite novels are As I Lay Dying, Absalom, Absalom!, The Road, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Huck Finn, Crime and Punishment, and Great Expectations. Each one I have read multiple times. And each time the book “gets better.” Well, how does that make sense? The books hadn’t changed, of course, but I had. I see more, have had more experiences, am older, and hopefully wiser than earlier. I have matured, and so I see the wisdom that the writers infused into their masterful works.

But so much depends upon the reader. The analogy is one Jesus Himself taught. He said that not everyone will respond to wisdom, to truth, to depth. Many will reject it. Why? Because, in the words of Christ Himself, not all people have ears to hear. That is, they are spiritually deaf to saving truth.

Jesus referred to them as pigs or swine as a metaphor (see Matthew 7:6, for example). They would trample the profound because they are incapable of appreciating it. They cannot discern any difference between gold and rubbish, between value and detritus.

Connection: Solomon taught the same principle in the following three lines:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
    and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
For by me your days will be multiplied,
    and years will be added to your life.
If you are wise, you are wise for yourself;
    if you scoff, you alone will bear it (Proverbs 9:10-12 ESV).

The point is straightforward, of course. The wise person fears God. The fool, on the other hand, scoffs at the reality of God, and the fool thereby reveals his own folly. The contrast is clear: the wise person vs. the fool.

When Jesus was teaching in Matthew’s gospel, for example, he says again and again, “He who has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 13:9 ESV).

A Question: Why did Jesus quote Isaiah 6 at length in Matthew 13? Here’s the passage:

¹⁴ Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

“‘“You will indeed hear but never understand,
    and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
¹⁵ For this people’s heart has grown dull,
    and with their ears they can barely hear,
    and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
    and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
    and turn, and I would heal them.’

¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. ¹⁷ For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Matthew 13:14-17 ESV)

Again the principle is clear. It becomes clearer upon each rereading: Spiritual deafness is pervasive. Not all have ears to hear. You can labor and teach and write and preach and pray, but unless and until God grants people spiritual hearing, it’s unopened mail, so to speak. The message has been delivered but not received.

It’s pearls before swine, sometimes. The saving power is in the message, the content, not in the deliverer of the message. So often we can be swayed by charismatic speakers, teachers, writers, preachers, etc. but so often we find those men were wrong, dangerous, manipulative, and in it for themselves rather than for the truth. There is no shortage of fallen Christian so-called leaders, sadly.

Encouragement: I am encouraged, and I hope you are too, by this simple fact: Christ Himself was rejected by His own people. Over and over again they tried to throw Him off a cliff, or stone Him, or whip Him. And eventually, in the fullness of His appointed time, He went to the cross in accordance with the divine plan. And His every word proved true.

It is encouraging, therefore, to know that prophets are without honor in their hometown–just as with the Lord Himself, just as with Paul, just as with Ezekiel, just as with Daniel, et al.

Faithfulness is what’s vital, knowing up front that the pearls of wisdom are still to be offered, but also aware that there’s no paucity of pigs who will gladly trample them in the mud. But some, dear ones, will have ears to hear and eyes to see, and that is why the true prophet goes in hope and committed faith in the blessed assurance that ultimately, truth wins, and there will be a reckoning.