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opened"; He had no need to utter the words "be loosed", for with the opening of the ear,
the tongue was loosed, and he "spake plain".
The expression "the tongue of the learned" is a trifle misleading. "Learned" conjures
up before the mind great scholarship, venerable age, and all the accompaniments of
"learning". The word before us would be better translated "learner" or "disciple", one
who is a willing follower, rather than one who has attained great scholarship. This gift
conveys to the possessor that priceless ability "to know how to speak a word in season to
him that is weary". When we remember the grace of the Lord, His patience and
longsuffering, and withal His pity and His love, and when we compare that with our own
sharpness, our own lack of tact, our abruptness, we may perhaps be led to acknowledge
how much we need the opened ear so that we may have a tongue that shall speak in
season.
"Lord speak to me, that I may speak,
In living echoes of Thy tone."
is a prayer that we may all pray with profit, and with assurance of blessing when the
answer is given.
The ear, in Isa. 50:, is said to be both "wakened" and "opened". The wakening is
"morning by morning", and is suggestive of continual communion with the Lord. The
idea conveyed by the word "open" is clearly perceived when we remember that it gives
us the word "key" in Isa. 22: 22. The added clause, "and I was not rebellious", is
really an expansion of the idea already presented by the wakened and opened ear. To
hear, and especially to hearken, in the Scriptures often meant to obey.
"To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (I Sam. 15: 22).
"They refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder" (Zech. 7: 11).
Here then is one of the foremost "openings" in Christian service, the opening of the
ear, so that the message to be given may be received, and from the close association of
hearkening with obeying, there may be some correspondence between doctrine and
practice on the part of those who seek to serve their God.