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Little pitchers aren’t the only ones with big ears!
Becky Gillette
Becky Gillette

You will know that I, the Lord, have heard every contemptuous word you spoke. ...  Ezekiel 35:12 (NLT)


When I was growing up, the phrase, “Little pitchers have big ears!” was often said by grown-ups who wanted to talk about secrets but us kids were close by. We got the impression that this was a type of code to let the people in the group know that a later time would be found for relaying the “behind the scenes” scuttlebutt!

There was a good reason for this! If we didn’t know that the stories being told were meant only for particular ears, we would most likely share them at our next show-and-tell at school! When I was teaching, I learned that, when I first met the parents/guardians of my students, it relieved many minds when I would promise to not believe everything I heard, if they would not believe everything they heard. Verifying information with the other parties involved was always needed when interesting stories were being told on the playground.

Ezekiel served as a street preacher in Babylon for 22 years to the first group of exiled Jews who were sent away from Judah. He not only prophesied to the Jews, but also to seven other nations surrounding Israel. The scripture for today comes from Ezekiel’s message to Edom.

One of the major problems of having more than one god is that it’s hard to figure out which one is the head honcho. Each of the gods needs to be approached in particular ways and there tends to be no one who has final authority. Each of the gods is usually treated pretty casually—unless you need something particular from one of them.

God told everyone that he was it. He was the one who made all the final decisions and that, no matter what everyone thought, he was listening to everything that was being said! The more contempt that these other nations were heaping on the heads of God’s chosen people, the more they would have to deal with. Everything that they planned to do to the people of Israel and Judah would rebound on them – in triplicate! These other nations thought that God’s people were destroyed and were easy pickings. God told them, in no uncertain words, that they were mightily mistaken.

One of the dangers of being the winner in any contest is that we never really know what’s going on in the background of the contest. Our opponent may have come down with the flu only minutes before the bout and we were just lucky that he didn’t throw up on us. It’s possible that the other person decided to throw the game for whatever reason.  

We can rejoice in our win but it’s better not to get too carried away with slamming the other party into the ground! Words have power in them, and we never know who might be listening when we say them!


Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She has recently published her first book, Jessie’s Corner: Something To Think About, which is now available for purchase. Based on several lesser-known scriptures from the Bible, this is a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.