Description
Listening
If we want our time spent with the Bible to be productive, we need to listen intensely, with a listening heart (lev shomea, 1 Kings 3.9). The entire Bible is predicated on the fact that God speaks and people listen. People in the Bible walk by faith and not by sight, because listening is the only way to an encounter with the living God. Israel, God’s people, is in essence a community of listeners (see especially Deuteronomy and Jeremiah), and so is the Church. The Greek word ekklesia means assembly – a group of people brought together by God’s word and gathered around the risen, living Christ, who is God’s definitive Word to humanity. The command to listen is central in both the Old and New Testaments because without listening there can be no covenant…