How the Lord Teaches Us

Isaiah 28:23-29

23 Give ear and hear my voice,
Listen and hear my speech.

24 Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow?
Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?

25 When he has leveled its surface,
Does he not sow the black cummin
And scatter the cummin,
Plant the wheat in rows,
The barley in the appointed place,
And the spelt in its place?

26 For He instructs him in right judgment,
His God teaches him.

27 For the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin;
But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick,
And the cummin with a rod.

28 Bread flour must be ground;
Therefore he does not thresh it forever,
Break it with his cartwheel,
Or crush it with his horsemen.

29 This also comes from the LORD of hosts,
Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.

We are to listen to the teaching of God according to how He wants us to learn, precepts built on precepts as it was written earlier in Isaiah 28:10 for us to consider and heed.  This means we need to slow down and make the time to listen to His word that we might gain understanding as we consider His meaning and intent.  Things have appointed places, which is why a good systematic theology can outline the main teachings of the scriptures, just as the farming examples show us here by Isaiah’s hand.  We should learn not to go over and over the same spot in the Bible because it is familiar or because we like and mostly understand it, but plow through the other fields of learning from the Lord from Genesis to Revelation also.  The context of the entire crop is more nourishing and pays off in the harvest if we expand our work to cultivate understanding for more complete wisdom.  There are appointed places for each type of grain that the wise farmer puts in the ground and so we must plant the truths of God and His works in ordered places in our minds and hearts to understand their instruction best.  In all these approaches it is vital to trust God given insight and understanding, however.  Yes, He teaches us and gives right judgment of discernment in our reading and studies of the scriptures which our own abilities cannot.  Just as certain crops each must be harvested differently, such as the examples of the grains needing varying sizes of tools to avoid damaging the seeds being removed from their restraining husks, so we must learn from the Lord how to extract the one meaning from each proverb with multiple applications and extract more obvious commands and examples in their context care and diligently for our full spiritual nourishment.  If we spend all our time preparing to make bread from the wheat and neglect the other crops, it will be flattened and crushed past having the right taste and in a timely and necessary manner for our full growth as a result.  These words of sound wisdom come from the LORD of us all according to His word of wonderful counsel and excellent guidance for our good growth and fruitfulness (Matthew 13:23, 2 Timothy 2:6, 3:16-17).  This is how the Lord teaches us from the scriptures.  Consider these things in your handling the word of God (2 Timothy 2:15) and harvest well for your spiritual growth, which is your sanctification, as well as to rightly instruct others in making disciples.