MARK tells us that after His special journey into the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon for the healing of the Syrophœnician, the Saviour made a circuit of the Decapolis district. This consisted of ten cities which had been granted special privileges by the Roman conquerors about a century earlier. There, as everywhere else, He found abundant need for the exercise of His divine power and mercy. A man was brought to Him who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech (Mark 7:31-3731And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. 32And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; 34And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. 36And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; 37And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak. (Mark 7:31‑37)); a humiliating picture of every man’s moral and spiritual condition as the fruit of the Fall. God lost man’s ear in the garden; ever since that fatal day the disposition of the whole human family has been to listen to anyone rather than to God. Hence the exhortation to the chosen people: “Hear, O Israel” (Deut. 6:44Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: (Deuteronomy 6:4)), and the divine lamentation: “Oh, that My people had hearkened unto Me” (Psa. 81:1313Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! (Psalm 81:13)). Hence, too, the appeal to us all: “To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Heb. 3:77Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, (Hebrews 3:7)). The tongue of the unregenerate man is as estranged from God as the ear; for none can deny that the most eloquent conversationalist betrays an impediment in his speech as soon as the things of God and Christ are introduced.
The Saviour took the sufferer aside from the crowd. It is good to be alone in the divine presence. The busy hum of the world is not conducive to spiritual reflection. The great destroyer of souls would rather keep men in a continuous whirl of business and pleasure than see them sitting down quietly in meditation before God. But it is in the hush of the divine presence that we learn our sin and guilt, and our deep need of sovereign grace. There, apart from the thoughtless, clamorous crowd, we see things in their true light, and our souls find eternal blessing.
The Saviour touched first the ears of the afflicted one, and then his tongue. This order is significant. In the spiritual realm the ear must be opened to receive divine instruction ere the tongue is able to speak forth God’s praise. “We believe, and therefore speak” (2 Cor. 4:1313We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; (2 Corinthians 4:13)). “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:1717So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)). He who has received by way of the ear the Gospel of Christ into His heart will delight to speak of the marvels of God’s grace to all around.
As He touched the man the Lord looked up to heaven, and sighed, saying, “Ephphatha,” that is “Be opened.” The burden of the world’s sin, and the many miseries attendant upon it, oppressed His gracious spirit. He recalled the day when, ages before, He pronounced His whole creative work “very good” (Gen. 1:3131And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31)), and He groaned as He considered all the havoc that Satan and man had caused through sin. It was this that brought Him from above. But He had come, not to heal physical diseases only, but to make atonement for sin by His blood, in order that all who believe might be delivered once and forever from the guilt and thraldom of sin and be reconciled to God in peace and blessing.
The astonished multitudes who beheld the present miracle exclaimed, “He hath done all things well.” With what fullness of meaning may this be said when the new heavens and the new earth appear, peopled by countless myriads of the blest, saved from sin, suffering, and death as the fruit of His priceless sacrifice.