A large part of our service time is dedicated to listening to a speaker expounding on the word of God. Listening to sermons is an integral part of our worship.

Yet, it is easy for our hearts to grow cold towards His word, as we start to criticise the speaker and even the word of God.

In Micah 2:6, we see that the wicked people in Micah's time opposed those who preached. They wanted to filter what the servants of God were preaching (presumably to not preach messages of warnings and destructions).

Micah is not the only prophet who calls the people out for this. The prophet Amos, for example, does as well (Amos 2:11-12).

"Don't always talk about God's judgment, we should focus more on His love!"

"Don't always talk about how we need to keep the Sabbath properly for the full day!"

"We don't need to keep emphasising that True Jesus Church is the only true church that is saved!"

Do we catch ourselves saying these things, either out loud or in our hearts?

If so, we may inadvertently be like the Israelites in the Old Testament, who were condemned by God. Perhaps we too might rather hear illusions and "smooth things", i.e., things that are pleasing to the ear and easy to accept, rather than the law of the LORD, or "right things", i.e., things that may be hard to swallow, but gives us life (Isaiah 30:9-11).

Or perhaps we may make comments against certain speakers, criticising them for their lack of eloquence, their lack of depth of knowledge, or even when they end a few minutes late. We listen to sermons as though it is a performance, rather than to nurture ourselves with the word of God (Ezekiel 33:30-33).

When we are not vigilant, we end up listening to the word of God seeking to satisfy the desires of our hearts, rather than for doctrine, correction, and instruction (2 Timothy 3:16). This is just like the Israelites, whom God accused would rather listen to one who preached to them of wine and drink (Micah 2:11). They listened to the word of God to feel good about themselves, not to work out their salvation.

We need to guard our hearts today, so that we never ever despise the word of God (Isaiah 30:12). We should never see it as "precept upon precept, line upon line", that is, seeing it as unnecessarily long, unimportant, or repetitive (Isaiah 28:13).

The Bible is sacred, it is the living word of God (Hebrews 4:12), the power of God to salvation for all who believe (Romans 1:16), making us wise for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15).

If we truly recognise, appreciate, and believe this, our hearts will be filled with the desire to read and hear the word of God. We will be filled with fear and reverence towards God's words, and those who preach it.

The word of God is filled with promises waiting to be fulfilled in our lives. His word does good to those who walk uprightly (Micah 2:7).