I’m sure you’ve all seen the three wise little monkeys associated with a Japanese proverbial maxim: Mizaru, who sees no evil – covering his eyes, Kikazaru, who hears no evil – covering his ears, and Iwazaru, who speaks no evil – covering his mouth. While there are varying meanings ascribed to the monkeys, it appears that most of the time, people associate with them the possession of maintaining a good mind, speech, and action. Often the monkeys are also used to refer to someone turning a blind eye to some impropriety of sorts.

As children who don’t want to hear specific words or see what they’re being shown will at times cover their ears, close their eyes, and scream “la la la la la la …..”, the Jews in the Apostle Paul’s day are being confronted with the fact that they have hardened their hearts to the will of God and have had their eyes blinded so they cannot see the truth and have had their ears deafened so they won’t hear.

Jesus had to confront this hardened heart of Israel, especially within its leadership, as He was ushering in the Kingdom of Heaven. They didn’t want to hear what he had to say, so they turned a deaf ear to His words, and they didn’t want to see what He was doing, so they attacked His miracles and even accused Him of working for Satan rather than God.

And yet, as Paul will confess, God was using their hardened hearts, their deaf ears, and blinded eyes to inspire a righteous jealousy of the Gentiles in order to draw them into saving faith in Jesus Christ. I pray that you will come to church on Sunday morning with eyes wide open and ears ready to hear the Spirit’s calling in your heart so you can surrender your life to a Savior who loves you.

John