God Digs Ears

"In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offerings and sin offering you have not required." Psalm 40:6

 In reading over Psalm 40 this morning, I couldn't help but be taken by this verse. What does the Psalmist mean when he says, "In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear?" Sacrifices and offerings were the focal point of worship in Old Testament times. If you doubt that, you should read the book of Leviticus. God had made animal sacrifices the focal point of Old Testament worship to teach the people that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Lev. 17:11). Every Old Testament animal sacrifice was a shadow of Jesus' death on the cross, the final and ultimate sacrifice for sins.

So why is David saying to God, "In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted," when it is God who required them? There is another passage of Scripture that sheds some light on this, its Psalm 51. There, David says, "For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Ps. 51:16-17). What David means is that as important as animal sacrifices were, there is something that God delighted in more. God delights then and now in our broken spirit and contrite heart. He wanted that more than he wanted David to go through the motions of making another animal sacrifice. He wanted David's repentance and new obedience. Dear Ones, God delights more in your heart-felt repentance than he does all your sacrifices and service in life. Without our daily repentance the cross of Christ remains far off and all our religious experiences are mechanical. Never forget that.

 Now what comes next, is a little gem I think. David says, "but you have given me an open ear." A more literal translation says, "ears you have dug for me." Notice two things. First, it is God who digs ears for David. That's grace. We cannot dig ears for ourselves. Second, we need to have ears dug for us. Why? Because sin deafens us so that nothing that God says gets in. We need God to dig ears for us so that we can hear the gospel promises, repent, and follow him in new obedience.

 Stay with me because there's more! The author of Hebrews puts this verse in the mouth of Jesus saying, "Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure" (Heb. 10:5-6). Why has the part about "ears you have dug for me" been replaced by "a body have you prepared for me?" The author of Hebrews is quoting Psalm 40:6 from the very first translation of the Bible called the Septuagint, a Greek translation. It's hard to say how these translators went from 'digging an ear' to 'preparing a body', but the idea that God makes body parts is in both. So, dear ones, if Old Testament sacrifices and offerings were sufficient to appease the wrath of God and forgive sins, God would not have prepared a body for Christ to come into the world and die for us. As God to dig new ears so that you can repent and believe the gospel all over again today.