In Matthew 13:15, Jesus is reminding His disciples of the prophesy
found in Isaiah 6. "For the hearts of these people are hardened and
their ears cannot hear and they have closed their eyes - so their eyes
cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot
understand, and they cannot turn to Me and let Me heal them."
The
Savior, here, is saying that what was true for the prophet Isaiah and
applicable to the Jews of his day, in the same manner is true today.
That the generality of people are a
people who have despised the grace of God, and in their hearts have
grown cold to the Gospel message of Jesus.
The NLT uses the word hardened, but other versions use the word callous, and DULL.
Dull means slow to understand, heavy, sluggish, slow in motion, blunt, and having a thick edge as in a dull knife.
Ahh... a dull knife.
And a knife is only made dull because of extensive use. Which here
implies that the heart ONCE had a bend toward things of God. A heart
once yielded to a history in the Lord of Lords.
But was no longer sharp.
And thus darkened to the revelation-light.
Closed off to understanding.
And just as a knife must be sharpened regularly to maintain it's
cutting edge and usefulness, so must the Christ-follower be sharpened
regularly. And we maintain that sharp edge when we recognize our deep
need of the Savior, and stay in continual union with Him.
In
order to not get "dull" in heart, I must, you must, WE must, maintain a
keen awareness of what God is doing, and what He has done, and
passionately pursue Jesus with everything we have.
It all matters.
And everything is at stake.
"To those who listen to My teaching, more understanding will be given,
and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not
listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away
from them." Matt 13:12.
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