Proverbs 20:12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made them both.
This is an interesting verse to me. Why would Solomon state the obvious? I don’t know but it does get one to thinking. My brother likes to state the obvious… it gets on my nerves sometimes. Sometimes he says things like ” You know, if the temperature drops and the moisture in the air increases it will snow tonight”. I’m sure he does it on purpose… and its ok… sometimes I kind of enjoy that part of his sense of humor… really!
I looked back over some verses in this chapter and Im just not sure if he’s specifically linking this to any of them. So, let’s just think about it as a stand alone proverb.
Yes! First we see this truth in a physical human being. God is Creator. The LORD made the hearing ear and the seeing eye…For most of us that is obvious. But that begs the question: who has made the blind eye and the deaf ear? Actually the Bible tells us.
You may be acquainted with the story of Moses and how God told him to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let his people go. Well, Moses was not a good speaker. Heres what he said to God. Exodus 4:10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
Its true… God is sovereign to give us sight or create us as blind…
But we also see this same sovereignty of God spiritually when God makes us a new Creation in Christ Jesus. He is the one who gives us eyes to see his glory.
2nd Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Jesus talks about both spiritual blindness and spiritual sight beginning in Matthew 13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 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.
So in closing its true that as Solomon said the LORD makes the seeing eye and hearing ear alike… and in retrospect maybe this does go along with other verses we have seen in this chapter… God gave us eyes and ears and we are responsible to God for what we look at and what we see and how we use these amazing gifts God has given us. It applies to the ways of children in Proverbs 20:11 and to those who take advantage of others in the previous devotion and… well I can see the correlation now all the way to verse one.
I’ll close with a passage from Ephesians 1 which talks about how we might even as believers continue to have the eyes of our heart enlightened to see more of Gods glory. I hope you all have a great day in the Lord. God bless!
Ephesians 1:18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
