Mine ears or a body

"Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou opened." (Psa. 40:6).

"Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me." (Heb. 10:5).

"Mine ears hast Thou opened"; "a body hast Thou prepared Me".

Why the discrepancy? We'll look at that in a minute. But first...

A few years ago while visiting Andrews University for a symposium, I heard Dr. Richard Davidson mention that there is no word in Hebrew for "obey", but the word translated "obey" is the Hebrew "hear".

"And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying [H8085] the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey [H8085] is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." (1Sam. 15:22). H8085 shama' "to hear intelligently".

Hearing God meant obeying Him. This makes sense if you understand the concept of the circumcised ear, or heart.

"And He said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." (Isa.6:9,10).

"And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear." (Matt. 12:14-16).

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." (Rev. 2:7).

We can't obey God unless we can hear His commands. But, for that our minds must be unprejudiced toward Him, and thus towards His voice, His Spirit. Our ability to listen must not be hampered by dullness. This "dullness" has the sense of intoxication and sleepiness. The ears and eyes are closing. Spiritually, deafness and blindness is setting in.

Some of us get hypnotized when driving long distance. Our eyes are open, but our minds are turned off. Our hands or some other body part may begin to jerk. This is the same action that happens in bed just before dozing off into deep sleep. But when driving, the jerk is a signal of danger. "Assess yourself!! Stop driving ASAP. Take a walk or a nap!"

While traveling the Christian life, are we fully asleep, fully awake, or half and half? Of the last two conditions, the third is the most dangerous, either on the highways or on the straight and narrow way to salvation. It could be compared to the half and half hot and cold soup. Jesus prefers hot. But if the options are cold and lukewarm or cool, He prefers the cold. 

So, we can also conclude that the lukewarm soup that He spews out of His mouth is also His disposition towards the driving while exhausted and half asleep. And it's His same disposition towards His followers who stood in the crowds then, or who sit on church pews today, but whose heart, mind, and soul was/is not engaged to the words spoken. He is no respecter of persons; high up or low in the church, king or priest, poor or fool, He will judge the stubbornly half-hearted as outsiders from the kingdom of God. 

"24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

25 When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:

26 Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.

27 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.

28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.

29 And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.

30 And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last." (Luke 13:24-30).

The King must have obedience. Therefore the ears must be circumcised; the hearing and thinking must be fully engaged.

Therefore, Psalm 40:6 says, "Mine ears hast Thou opened." It can take a while, but if the soul's need for divine love and acceptance exceed it's love for the flesh, then, eventually the idol will give way to the Spirit of the living God.

But how does this relate to the New Testament translation, "a body hast Thou prepared Me"?

I will defer to the following blog post from Michael Guilkes.

http://michaelgilkes.info/2019/10/06/quotation-quandary-hebrews-105-versus-psalm-406/

Michael used the theological issue of Christ's body at His incarnation to introduce his analysis of Psalm 40:6 and Hebrews 10:5. Was the body that His  Father prepared for Him perfect?

Was it a sin-free body? And if so, then how could He be our example? How could we identify with our Mediator?  Michael nicely dug out the truth of the matter concerning the apparent conflict between Psalm 40:6 and Hebrews 10:5. But he really didn't say much on the subject of Christ's body. 

So, I want to use his analysis of Hebrews 10:5 to introduce my analysis of the nature of Christ.

Hebrews 2:16,17 says, "For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him [the nature of] the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."

The Son of God strongly desired to be "made like unto His brethren". What would we hear from Him if He came to instruct us to overcome our pulls to sin without Himself ever having the pulls of sin. Even the saints suffered with their pulls, while they groan, awaiting "the redemption of our body" (Rom. 8:23)? But then if He had the pulls of sin, how could He be an acceptable sacrifice to His Father? How could He be a "Lamb without blemish and without spot" (1Pet. 1:19)?

The mysterious solution is in His Spirit. His body came from Miriam's sinful flesh, but His Spirit came from His Father, who is a most holy Spirit, infinitely holy Spirit of Christ from infinitely holy Spirit of God. And His Spirit dwelled in His Father's bosom before His incarnation, and during His 33 year stay here. 

The very essence of Christ, His thoughts, His mind, was eternally united with His Father's mind, His Spirit. Jesus never disconnected from the bosom of God. Every day, moment by moment, He abode under the shadow of the Almighty. His Father's love powered His perfection. The Father's comfort created the environment for His Son's every victory over the devil. From head to toe, peace filled the person of the Prince. The Father's Spirit from heaven, which is the kingdom of heaven, was sent down and abode on His head. 

"In the heart of Christ, where reigned perfect harmony with God, there was perfect peace. He was never elated by applause, nor dejected by censure or disappointment. Amid the greatest opposition and the most cruel treatment, He was still of good courage....

When we are born from above, the same mind will be in us that was in Jesus, the mind that led Him to humble Himself that we might be saved. Then we shall not be seeking the highest place. We shall desire to sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him." Desire of Ages, p. 331.

When we are shamed and guilted by the Schoolmaster, and we flee to Christ for a refuge, then the Schoolmaster justifies us and gives us the promised Spirit, "the Spirit of His Son" "the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:15).

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." (Vs. 16). The born-again children of God dwell in Christ's bosom, as He has forever dwelt in His Father's bosom. This is the children's source of victory over the devil and sin. "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." (1Cor. 6:17). Our spirit in Christ's mighty Spirit, His mighty Spirit in the Father's almighty SPIRIT. This is the only biblical trinity: the King, the Prince, and Their "whole family in heaven and earth" (Eph. 3:15), "the eternal Spirit" (Heb. 9:14).

Thus, while we live in the eternal haven of God's love we are being sanctified and sealed. His love fills us until it must come out in loving service to others. In His Father's bosom, He must do the same.

"Love for God, zeal for His glory, and love for fallen humanity, brought Jesus to earth to suffer and to die. This was the controlling power of His life. This principle He bids us adopt." Desire of Ages, p. 331.

"There are many whose hearts are aching under a load of care because they seek to reach the world's standard. They have chosen its service, accepted its perplexities, adopted its customs. Thus their character is marred, and their life made a weariness. In order to gratify ambition and worldly desires, they wound the conscience, and bring upon themselves an additional burden of remorse. The continual worry is wearing out the life forces. Our Lord desires them to lay aside this yoke of bondage. He invites them to accept His yoke; He says, 'My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.'" Ibid.

His yoke is His bosom, the "secret place of the most High" and the "shadow of the Almighty" that David was so excited about. We can see why Christ's yoke is so easy. Love! It's like Jacob's seven year servitude to marry Rachel. "And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.... And Jacob loved Rachel; and said [to Laban her father], I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.... And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her." (Gen. 29:11, 18, 20). 

Love makes light burdens. There is no fear in love. Dangers disappear when love is trusted. The medical missionary work will be done in great tribulation. But, the Lord of love, the Prince of Peace says, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33). Christ's mysterious closing clause can only be understood in the context of love.

"He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." (Psa. 91:4-7).