"All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children." ISAIAH 54:13
WHEN THE JEWS are brought again to Zion, and converted to God, they will be an example of a people, "all taught of the Lord". God says, Jeremiah 31:34, "They shall all know me, from the least of them even unto the greatest of them". And again, Isaiah 60:21, "Thy people shall be all righteous". They are to be the first example of a "righteous nation". In some of our well-ordered parishes, we see a people all taught of man; but, ah! how much ignorance, deceit, and wickedness are lying below the surface. But all the children of zion shall be taught of the Lord, and, therefore, they will be a people of great peace, and great holiness.
Such is the case of spiritual Zion at this moment. They are all taught,
not of man, nor of angel, but of the Lord, and their peace passeth all understanding.
1. Meditate on the great teacher, the Lord. He alone knows divine things as they are. Ministers have but glimpses into the eternal world. They see but little of sin, of the shortness of time, of the depth of hell, of the love of God of the person, work, and grace of Christ. Therefore they cannot teach effectually. Books also are infinitely imperfect. The best of them are but sparks from the Bible, mingled with human darkness. But the Lord knows all things as they are. "All things are naked and laid open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do." He knows our infinite guilt- hell and destruction are before Him. He knows the Son. "No man knoweth the Son but the Father." He knows) "The love of Christ, that passeth knowledge". He then can make it known. O my soul hast thou been taught of the Lord? Again, He alone can teach the heart. Man can speak to the ear, to the understanding, to the memory, God alone to the heart. The reason why human teaching does not convey saving light to the soul is, that the heart is dead. The carnal mind is enmity against God, and against everything that comes from God; and, therefore, when the truth is presented, the worldly heart draws the mind away from beholding it. But when the Lord is teaching, He touches the heart, and it melts under His hand. He awakens concern in the dead soul, so that the person runs to hear the word preached. He makes the soul willing in the day of His power. He makes salvation, by Christ, clear to the mind, and sweet to the heart, in the same happy moment. None can teach like God. He can teach a child, or an idiot, or an old man. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? "O send forth thy light and thy truth, let them lead me, let them guide me."
2. What is divine teaching? It is not mere head-knowledge of divine things. Many have great knowledge of the Bible, have read it all, studied much of it, learned much of it by heart; they know the Catechism well, they have a just notion of divinity; some have great knowledge of books, of Boston, and Willison, and Flavel; some maybe great judges of sermons, able to discriminate between legal and evangelical preachers; alas! all this may be, and more, without one spark of divine teaching. Alas! how many ministers have there been like the finger-post that points the way, but does not go. No doubt Judas had a clear knowledge of divinity, and could preach well, yet Jesus said he was a devil. We know that Satan has great knowledge of the Bible, and yet he only trembles.
What then is divine teaching? It is God giving the soul a sense of the wondrous beauty, excellence, and sweetness of the way of salvation by Christ. "Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Take an example in one of the most eminent saints that ever lived. "The first instance that I remember, of that sort of inward sweet delight in God and divine things, that I have lived much in since, was on reading these words, 1 Timothy 1: 17, 'Now, unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.' As I read these words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the divine Being; a new sense, quite different from anything I ever experienced before. Never any words of scripture seemed to me as these words did. I thought with myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be if I might enjoy that God, and be rapt up to Him in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in Him for ever! I kept saying, and as it were singing over these words of Scripture to myself; and went to pray to God that I might enjoy Him; and prayed in a manner quite different from what I used to do, with a new sort of affection. But it never came into my thought that there was anything spiritual or of a saving nature in this. From about that time, I began to have a new kind of apprehensions and ideas of Christ, and the work of redemption, and the glorious way of salvation by Him. An inward sweet sense of these things, at times, came into my heart; and my soul was led away in pleasant views and contemplations of them."
Ah! this is divine teaching. This is the teaching that brings us to the foot of Christ, like the woman which was a sinner. Before, we are perplexed about coming to Christ, believing on Christ, closing with Christ; but now it is all sweet and easy; we cannot but believe on Jesus. This is teaching that fills the bosom with all joy and peace. It gives "great peace", "peace like a river", "joy unspeakable and full of glory". This is the teaching that sanctifies. A man may have the head-knowledge of an angel, and the heart of a devil. But when God touches the heart He makes all things new.