We are being reminded of how easily people can hear without understanding the true word of God.
This topic was explained so clearly that hearing goes beyond us on the Sabbath. Receiving is about allowing it to keep shaping our life and responding with our obedience. Yet many people today remain spiritually deaf, not because we haven't obtained a message, but because their hearts are always occupied by so many desires and influences.
What struck us the most is the explanation of idolatry. Many think it only means bowing down to those images, but it shows from the Scripture that idolatry also includes covetousness, uncleanness, and other kinds of desires of the flesh. Anything that takes God's place in the heart becomes an idol.
This makes this message deeply relevant to this generation where destruction, temptation and displaced people are just everywhere. In Mark 4 vs 12, this brings two pictures of our world today. Many see what they do not actually perceive. They hear what they do not understand.
It's just a matter for us to examine ourselves.
Are we listening to God or are we just hearing the word without any change?
So this is a wake up call to seek clarity, to go through that deception and to pursue that genuine obedience, which is in God.