Exodus 10:2 English Standard Version (ESV) and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”

Let us go old school here to understand the difference between listening and hearing.

The Hebrew word of hearing is o’-zen which means to uncover the ear to reveal; the receiver of divine revelation.

Romans 10:17 English Standard Version (ESV) So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

So often we teach others that faith comes merely from reading the Word. If hearing is receiving divine revelation, then faith itself comes by divine revelation. That makes faith more than just simply believing.

Faith is the game changer for us because this life in Christ came by faith. Our understanding of how this all came about is rooted in the Word. The Word is not just the New Testament. God has been speaking to mankind from the very beginning. All that we came to know about those times before Exodus is because of Moses. He met with God face to face. Being the forerunner of Christ, his example is the OT equivalent of Christ spending His nights with the Father.

John 1:1-3 English Standard Version

The Word Became Flesh

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

There is a consistency in hearing that goes far beyond simply reading and believing. When we believe without faith we fail to receive the divine revelation that is truth itself. Jesus Christ is truth and His divine revelation is the light of truth.

“I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me!”

Do we have to have the chapter and verse to know who wrote this and what he means?

Some behaviors are not plainly understood until they are seen in others. We will often allow bad habits and practices to go unchecked until we can see the foolishness demonstrated by others.

“While you preach against stealing, do you steal?”

The principle applies across the board, not just to theft. Gossip about a gossip and we are gossips. The example is consistent within all unwarranted practices which we hold without at least a reasonable understanding of why we do those things.

How many of our prayers are front loaded with “God I wish…”? Does that sound foolish? If it doesn’t it should. God is not our personal magic genie. Prayers should be serious business about serious situations because our hearts have been broken for others. A lost soul, a grieving widow, an orphan, the sick, and the lonely are just some of the things that need our prayers more than granting wishes.

Did anyone bear with this foolishness? Or do we wish that the chapter and verses were given rather than having to tax our brains to remember where we have seen them before?

There might be only one reader that wished that very thought. Maybe there were more but that only demonstrates how easy it is to get distracted from things that might matter. Maybe the lesson here is how easily we are distracted and that is why Jesus said to get to our closets to pray.

God shouted from the mountain tops and scared the people so much that they begged Moses that He should stop and only talk to him. That was then and this is nearly 2000 years after the Cross that put an end to that behavior. We no longer need a Moses to hear God.

FYI 2 Corinthians 11:1 and Romans 2:21