THE SUSTAINING NATURE OF INSTRUCTION

Isaiah 50:4 (NIV 1984) The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

The tongue can be instructed or ignorant. Hopefully, you have experienced the benefits that come from the profound words of wisdom uttered by the mouths of saintly people, the kind of words that deeply move the heart and shape destiny. And I'm sure you have heard the many utterances of absolute foolishness, for that seems much more prevalent in our media-crazed, YouTube-driven society. What separates the two? What causes one or the other? Isaiah reveals it to us: instruction! Having instruction makes wise; not having it makes foolish. There are two kinds of tongues: instructed and uninstructed. Only the Sovereign Lord can give true instruction; for every competing source of wisdom delivers ignorance, false gods employing false prophets speaking foolish nonsense. Is this not where we are in our culture? We can so easily get caught up in nitpicking our fellow Christians on minor doctrinal differences that we fail to see the false prophets of sexual perversion and wicked preachers of gender fluidity staring us in the face. Beloved, the false prophets are here. They track with Jezebel and the Nicolaitans, embracing sexual perversion, even coupling it with spirituality (see Rev 2). We can listen to these fools, or we can listen to the prophet of God who has heard His voice and can give the instructed word that helps sustain us in weariness. Follow this ancient path, and we also will develop the instructed, prophetic tongue that gives words that bring rest (Jer 6:16).

Are we listening to the Spirit of God? Are we willing to be taught? People who only hear don't heed, but those who listen, learn and do (Jms 2:22-26). If we are teachable and have a willing spirit, we will not only hear, but listen, and God will instruct; we will learn, and encouragement will come.