Plagues. The idea of plague is no longer distant, unfamiliar, the memory of older relatives or neighbors. It is familiar. The fear. The uncertainty. The affliction. The anxiety. Death. It’s all too real.

While the plagues of Exodus were judgments upon the nation of Egypt due to pharaoh’s hardness, the words translated plague(s), meaning “to push” or “to touch” by the hand or power of God, however, also prepared hearts to open, and ears to hear.

Few of us have escaped the experience of personal or community tribulation. During distress our ears are open. Our senses are on alert. We want to know. We want news, information, or warning. We are listening for rescue, even when anticipating the unexpected.

As in Egypt 3000 years ago, in the midst of this global pandemic, with the uncertainty facing so many, we are learning to look to heaven in a more expectant way, and depend on the faithfulness of the One who is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

Messiah said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matt. 11:15; cf. Deut. 29:4). To have ears to hear, biblically, was to have a heart ready to act on the word received. Yeshua is saying there is a difference between having ears, and having ears ready to hear.

As we deepen faith in Messiah, He opens our hearts and ears to hear Him, trust Him, and follow Him, out from the plague, to freedom (Gal. 5:1).

Be well. Shalom.