Bird's-eye view
This proverb delivers a sharp, surgical strike against the heart of all hypocritical religion. It establishes a foundational principle of our relationship with God: our prayers are inextricably linked to our obedience. The verse presents a man who actively refuses to hear, and therefore obey, the law of God. For such a man, the very act of prayer, which is meant to be the pinnacle of communion with God, is transformed into its opposite. It becomes an abomination, a detestable thing. This is not because God is a vindictive scorekeeper, but because He is a person, and a relationship with Him must be reciprocal. Prayer without a heart inclined to obedience is not genuine communication; it is a self-deceived monologue at best, and an insulting attempt to manipulate God at worst. It treats God like a cosmic vending machine instead of a holy Father. The proverb serves as a stark warning that religious activity, divorced from a life of repentance and a desire to walk in God's ways, is not just neutral or ineffective; it is offensive to Him.
Solomon is teaching us that the ears are the pathway to the heart, and a closed ear reveals a closed heart. The man described here is not someone who struggles with the law or fails in his attempts to keep it; he is one who "turns away his ear," who willfully ignores God's revealed will. To then turn around and use his mouth to petition this same God is the height of presumption. The entire biblical witness stands behind this proverb, from Cain's rejected offering to Saul's rejected sacrifice to the Pharisees' rejected piety. God desires a relationship, and relationships are two-way streets. If we refuse to listen to Him, why on earth should He listen to us?
Outline
- 1. The Reciprocity of Relationship (Prov 28:9)
- a. The Condition: Willful Disobedience (Prov 28:9a)
- b. The Consequence: Abominable Prayer (Prov 28:9b)
Context In Proverbs
In the broader flow of Proverbs, chapter 28 contrasts the righteous and the wicked through a series of antithetical statements. Verse 9 fits seamlessly into this pattern. It follows a verse about the folly of gaining wealth through unjust interest (v. 8) and precedes a verse about misleading the upright (v. 10). The chapter deals with integrity in leadership (v. 2), the blessing of confession over cover-up (v. 13), and the difference between a wise ruler and a tyrant (vv. 15-16). In this context, verse 9 addresses the ultimate hypocrisy: feigning a relationship with God in prayer while simultaneously rejecting His authority in life. It exposes the wicked man's religion as a sham. He may look for all the world like he is engaging with God, but because his life is a contradiction of God's character as revealed in the law, the entire exercise is rotten from the inside out. It is another brushstroke in the portrait of a fool, a man whose life is fundamentally misaligned with reality as God has structured it.
Key Issues
- The Connection Between Hearing and Praying
- The Nature of an "Abomination"
- Hypocrisy in Worship
- The Law as God's Gracious Revelation
- The Personal Nature of God
The Deaf Man's Shout
There is a principle of basic relational decency that is so obvious we often miss it in our theology. If you are in a conversation with someone, and you pointedly ignore everything they say to you, and then you lean in and ask them for a series of favors, how do you think that will be received? You would be considered boorish, arrogant, and profoundly disrespectful. You are not treating the other person as a person, but rather as a resource to be exploited. This is precisely the scenario this proverb describes in our relationship with God.
The great Puritan Richard Sibbes got right to the point when he asked why God at times does not hear our prayers. His answer was simple: Why should God listen to us when we refuse to listen to Him? God has spoken. He has not mumbled; He has revealed His will for us in His law. This law is not a set of arbitrary hurdles. It is the owner's manual for the human soul, a description of how we were designed to function in His world. To turn one's ear away from it is to reject the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. To then approach that Creator with a list of demands is not prayer; it is chutzpah. It is a deaf man shouting, and God is not impressed by the volume of our requests when we have been deaf to His commands.
Verse by Verse Commentary
9 He who turns away his ear from listening to the law...
The first clause sets up the condition. The man in question is defined by a specific action: he "turns away his ear." This is not a passive inability to hear. It is a deliberate, active, and willful choice. The verb suggests a stubborn posture, a setting of the will against something. And what is he turning from? From "listening to the law." In the context of Proverbs, "law" (torah) is a rich word. It certainly includes the Mosaic code, but it carries the broader sense of divine instruction, wisdom, and God's revealed will for how to live. This is the gracious word of God that tells us how to find life and avoid death. So this man is not just breaking a rule; he is rejecting the very source of wisdom. He has decided that he does not want to be instructed by God. He wants to be his own god, his own source of right and wrong. This is the root of all sin, going right back to the garden. It is the declaration of autonomy. By turning his ear, he has severed the lines of communication from his end.
Even his prayer is an abomination.
The second clause delivers the shocking consequence. Given the man's posture, we might expect his prayer to be ineffective, or unheard, or useless. But the word Solomon chooses is far stronger. His prayer is an abomination. This is one of the most potent words of disgust in the Old Testament. It is used to describe idolatry, sexual perversion, and unclean foods, things that are loathsome and detestable to a holy God. This tells us that prayer offered from a heart committed to disobedience is not a flawed good. It is a positive evil. It adds sin upon sin. The man is already a lawbreaker, but by praying, he layers hypocrisy on top of his rebellion. He is like a son who spits in his father's face and then asks for the car keys. The request itself becomes an insult. God cannot abide someone walking into His presence as though nothing were amiss, as though God were so desperate for worshippers that He would take whatever He could get. This kind of prayer is repulsive because it treats the holy God as a fool who can be gamed. As the prophet Isaiah would later say, God cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting (Isa 1:13). The combination is an abomination.
Application
The immediate application of this proverb is a call to ruthless self-examination. It is entirely possible to maintain all the outward forms of a vibrant prayer life, to be in church every Sunday, to say all the right words, and for the whole enterprise to be detestable to God. The question this proverb forces upon us is this: Are my ears open? When I read the Scriptures, do I read them with the intent to obey? When the sermon is preached and the Word cuts close to the bone, do I lean in or do I turn away?
This does not mean that only the sinlessly perfect can pray. If that were the case, no one could pray. The Bible is filled with the prayers of struggling, failing saints. The difference lies in the posture of the heart. David sinned grievously, but when confronted, he repented grievously (Psalm 51). His ears were open to Nathan's rebuke. Saul sinned, and when confronted, he made excuses and tried to justify himself (1 Sam 15). His ears were shut. The prayer of a struggling Christian who hates his sin and is fighting it is a sweet sound in God's ears. The prayer of a man who is coddling his sin, protecting it, and refusing to hear God's word on the matter is an abomination.
The only exception to this rule is the prayer of repentance itself. God commands all men everywhere to repent, and so He is of course pleased when they do. But the prayer of repentance is, by definition, the prayer of a man who has stopped turning his ear away and has started to listen. For the Christian, this is the constant rhythm of our lives. We listen to the law, we see our sin, we repent, and we pray for grace and forgiveness in the name of Jesus. Our prayers are heard not because our obedience is perfect, but because we have been united to the one whose obedience was perfect, and whose ears were always open to His Father's will.