Proverbs 28:9 Commentary and Bible Study

Should it be any surprise to us that if we do not listen to God, he will not listen to us? Here is someone who has been instructed from Scripture, who has had opportunity to learn God’s word perhaps from a child, but who sets no value on what he has heard and who finds it preferable to choose his own way. His ear, which should be eager to hear what God has to say and zealous to obey him, has instead become closed. He finds excuses not to listen and pays more attention to those who lead him away from God, question the existence of a Creator, ridicule the idea that there will be a judgment, and scorn those who take the Bible seriously. The Scripture has less and less attraction to him and his conscience speaks more and more quietly.But here is a crisis in his life: illness or bereavement, or a loss of work or loss of friends. In the past he would have cried out to God to help him, but what will he do now? He has kept God at arm’s length from him, not really concerned about the coldness that has come over him, and now he suddenly needs the Lord’s help. He will pray to God who he sees as there for his benefit, flattered by his bothering to pray at all. How different is the Lord from what he imagines! This may be a person who has never come to faith and is deluded about salvation, or it may be a true Christian whose heart is now cold and who a deceived himself about his walk with the Lord. God will not answer the unbeliever without true repentance, and the believer also must be brought to face up to his backsliding before his prayer is answered.