Proverbs 20:12
“The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD has made even both of them.”
The Ear that Hears
For a few moments, let’s ponder the wonders of a human ear that hears. The outside of your ear is called the “auricle.” It resembles the bell on a tuba or euphonium. Those musical instruments are designed to broadcast the sound. Their sounds are formed by the pressure of air from the musician’s lungs rushing through the valves.
But the human ear reverses that process. The ear’s bell, or auricle, is designed to capture sound. Then the ear canal acts like a signal processor – amplifying some frequencies while reducing others. And this is how those sounds make an impact on the eardrum.
Have you have ever watched a skillful bass drummer in a marching band? If so, then you have some idea how your ear works; all you have to do is reverse the process.
Deep inside the human ear is the tympanic membrane (also known as the “eardrum”). It is 1 cm in diameter – the size of the head of a metal thumbtack. In the marching band, the musician’s drumstick hits the drum. But in human hearing, the drum hits the drumstick!
The eardrum is connected to three tiny bones called “ossicles.” These three are the malleus (or the mallet), the incus (the Latin word for “anvil”) and the stapes (the stirrups). In a marching band, the bass drummer has straps around his wrists to keep him from losing the drumsticks. So you could think of human hearing as drumming in reverse.
When the pressure waves (that we call “sound”) hit the eardrum, the drum moves the mallet, which strikes the anvil, which moves the stapes or stirrups. If you think of these as a vibrating chain of bones, then you have the basic concept. By the way, the stapes are the smallest bones in the human body. They are 3 mm long (the width of two pennies put together).
Now pause with me for a moment to reflect on the message behind this miracle from Proverbs 20:12, “The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD has made even both of them.”
This remarkable ear mechanism, designed by God our Creator, magnifies His great glory. And remember, some of God’s creatures have an even greater capacity to hear than we do.
Elephants and some whales can hear infrasonic sounds (below the frequencies that humans can hear, in the 20khz range). Dogs and cats can hear some ultrasonic sounds, but bats and dolphins can hear even high ranges. One insect can hear a range about two times higher than the bats and dolphins. That insect is the greater wax moth[i] which can hear sounds up to 300 khz. Bats use high pitched screams to locate those moths; but the moths can hear the bats and try to avoid being eaten by them.
Wonders such as these begin to boggle the mind. Some scientists say that these capacities merely evolved. Proverbs 20:12 says that the Lord created them.
But beyond the bones, the process of human hearing gets really interesting. An organ in the ear called the “cochlea” resembles a snail. It is filled with fluid called “endolymph.”[ii] The cochlea consists of 3 fluid-filled channels that respond to the pressures from the stapes bone. Since there are 3 channels, this allows the fluid pressure in the cochlea to return to normal after each sound is processed. How are the pressures inside the cochlea transferred to your brain for processing? Our Creator designed hair cells to connect the fluid-filled cochlea to the brain.
Scientists are still studying these hair cells, but here is how they think these cells work. They act like batteries that transmit electrical charges. They contain ions from elements such as sodium, potassium and calcium. As the hair cells are moved by the cochlea, they transmit minute amounts of voltage into the neurotransmitters of the auditory nerve in the brain. And this is how you “hear.”
As you can see, there is a fantastic amount of mechanical and electrical engineering bound up in the phrase, “The hearing ear!” But what is the point? What is the message behind these marvels? “The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD has made even both of them.”
The Eye that Sees
Consider the human eye that sees. Light enters through the transparent front layer called the cornea. The cornea can be curved to help the eye focus. Some of that light that passes on through the pupil and through an inner lens. That lens is curved by tiny muscles and fibers to sharpen your focus when you are watching something.
If you have used a camera, you know that it is important to get a person or object in focus. But your eye does this automatically.
You can demonstrate this by holding your hand at arm’s length in front of you. Now move your hand toward you. If you were using a camera, you know that your hand would look blurry as you bring it closer. But your eye automatically adjusts to keep your hand in focus. This means that your eye can see your hand clearly, even as it blurs the distant background. If you have 20/20 vision, you can clearly see something 20 feet away that should normally be seen at that distance.
Professional baseball scouts look for players who can see things 20 feet away with the clarity the most people see at 12 feet away (or 20/12 vision). By the way, some eagles and hawks have 20/2.5 vision. This means that they can clearly focus on their prey almost 2 miles away!
In the human eye, the light passes through the lens and through a glass-like liquid before it reaches the retina on the back of the eye. Inside that chamber of liquid are special (phagocytic) cells that consume specks of blood and debris in the fluid. As you get older, you will notice what are called “floaters” in your vision. This is debris that is too large for those special cells to consume.
The remarkable retina on the back of the eye is equipped with special photoreceptors that turn the light into electrical signals. Those signals are sent to the brain by way of the optic nerve. Once again, the eye is a marvel of mechanical, hydraulic and chemical engineering.
To date, man-made cameras have not been able to match the wonders of the human eye. It can recognize shapes, colors, and the speed of objects in motion. Through your eyes, you develop spatial awareness – giving you the ability to recognize how objects are located with reference to your body.
The ears can “hear” pressure waves that we call “sound.” But the eyes can see differences in the electromagnetic spectrum. Each color is a different frequency. This means that your eye can sense the distance between the crests of the waves of light that enter your eye. So you see colors by recognizing those different wavelengths.
Now what is the point of these scientific marvels? “The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD has made even both of them.”
Applications of this Proverb
Our Creator
God created the hearing ear and the seeing eye. How much greater are His capacities than our own? If you can hear and see, how much more can God hear and see? The Bible testifies that God is omniscient – meaning that He knows everything. He is omnipresent – meaning that He is everywhere present at once. His remarkable creative power (including ears that hear and eyes that see) testify to His omnipotence – God is all powerful. When the psalmist contemplated the reality of God’s knowledge and power, he was overwhelmed. He wrote, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it” (Psalm 139:6).
In the last message[iii], we studied Acts 17 to see the purpose for which nations exist: it is to seek after God and find Him. Our Creator has given us ears to hear and eyes to see that we might seek Him and find Him. The created world around us is testifying to our Creator.[iv] We have the privilege of reading and hearing God’s Word. This means that the hearing ear and the seeing eye should be used by each created person to pursue knowledge of His Creator.
About The Word, Jesus Christ, the Scripture says, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:3-4). Jesus Christ is the Creator of all men.
Our Savior
But mankind rebelled against the Creator. Since the Garden of Eden, mankind has used God’s creation – including our ears and eyes – to sin against the Holy God. But Jesus Christ has offered Himself as our Redeemer. “But God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He died for our sins and rose again. Jesus Christ is the Savior for all who will repent and trust Him.
Our Judge
“… Now [God] commands all men everywhere to repent: because He has appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He has ordained; whereof He has given assurance unto all men, in that He has raised Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-32). Jesus Christ will return as the Judge of all the world. He will judge every man and woman, including how we have used our ears and eyes. If you have ever used your eyes and ears to discern and make judgements, those senses testify to you about the ultimate Judge.
If God gave you these abilities, then you are accountable to Him for the way in which you use them. God is the Creator of our senses, and the infallible Judge of how these abilities ought to be used.
Historically, many men have tried to be practical Deists. Deism teaches that God created all things and set them in motion. But it also teaches that God does not presently superintend His creation, nor will He judge it. This practical denial of God is expressed in verses such as Ezekiel 8:12, “Then said He unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD sees us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.” The sinner says to himself, “God doesn’t see me,” but the opposite is true. His own ears and eyes testify that God hears and sees.
God Hears the Prayers of His Children
If you enjoy the marvelous miracle – that your ears can hear and that your eyes can see – then contemplate this present reality: “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil” (1 Peter 3:12).
Your remarkable, created senses testify to you that God can see and hear you. Why not turn this wonderful knowledge about God into fellowship with God? Put your power to see and hear into practice by drawing near to God.
Beyond Our Senses
Scientific studies of the animal kingdom tell us that there are abilities beyond our human capacities. Through the use of scientific instruments, we have learned to study these realities. But God has given us a way to study that which is beyond our ability to see and hear.
The Scriptures explain, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for those that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). We can never hope to scientifically deduce or observe what God alone can reveal to us by His Word. God has prepared rewards for His children that surpass our wildest imaginations. But He has revealed many of these things in His Word. Eye has not seen it, nor ear heard it – yet. But the One who made the hearing ear and the seeing eye is the Lord who will bless His children for eternity.
And this is the message behind our marvelous human senses: “The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD has made even both of them.”
Pastor Gordon Dickson, Calvary Baptist Church, Findlay, Ohio https://www.cbcfindlay.org/the-hearing-ear-the-seeing-eye/
[i] See Hannah M. Moir et.al., Extremely high frequency sensitivity in a ‘simple’ ear, Royal Society Publishing, August 23, 2013, accessed at https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0241
[ii] For a fascinating scientific explanation, see Barry D. Jacobson, Human Ear, MIT, Transduce acoustic energy into electrochemical nerve impulses that can be processed by the brain, accessed at https://web.mit.edu/2.972/www/reports/ear/ear.html
[iii] Why Your Country Needs True Christians, accessed at https://www.cbcfindlay.org/why-your-country-needs-true-christians/
[iv] See Psalm 19 and Romans 1.
This is the post for the morning message on July 9, 2023
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