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12. The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.
Seeing and hearing are the two senses by which instruction is conveyed to the mind. They are component parts of that Divine structure, so “fearfully and wonderfully made.”† The natural senses are gifts common to all. The spiritual senses are the special gifts of sovereign power and grace.† It was left for man to make the ear that cannot hear, and the eye that cannot see; and then to degrade himself to the senseless level by worshipping the work of his own hands. (Psalm 115:4-8.) But the hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made both of them.
Man is deaf and blind in the things of God — “Having ears, he hears not; having eyes, he sees not.” (Matthew 13:13, 14.) The voice of mercy is disregarded. To his need, and to his remedy, he is alike insensible. His ear is open to sound advice, to moral doctrine, to the dictates of external decency. But as to the gospel, he is a mere statue, without life. All his senses are blinded, deadened, chained. (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4.) His moral disabilities can only be removed by that Almighty power which on earth gave ears to the deaf, and sight to the blind.† As soon could we create our natural, as new-create our spiritual, self. ‘The hearing ear, which Solomon intends, is that which believeth and obeyeth what it heareth. The seeing eye is that, which so seeth, as that it followeth the good which it seeth.’† But who of us, whose ears are wakened, and whose eyes are opened, will not rejoice in the adoring acknowledgment — the LORD hath made both of them? Would Lydia have ascribed “the opening of her heart” with a new power of attention and interest to her own natural effort? (Acts 16:14. Compare Isaiah 1:4.) O my God — may the ears and eyes which thou hast made be for thyself alone! to hear thy voice (1 Samuel 3:9. Psalm 85:8) — to “behold thy beauty.” (Psalm 27:4; 63:2.)
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