Who teacheth like Him?
--Like whom? you ask. Like Him who is the great Teacher and Enlightener of the Church--even God, the Holy Spirit. This question is a sort of challenge to us to point out any teacher equal to the Lord. In what points does the teaching of God the Holy Spirit exceed all other teaching? Consider
I. The nature of His instructions. There are many valuable things, no doubt, which man’s wisdom has to teach. But look--
1. At the amazing nature of the facts which the Spirit has revealed to us. This mystery, that God so loved the world as to send His Son to shed His blood for it; nothing is worthy of the name of wonderful and glorious compared with this mystery, that God was manifest in the flesh, and died for me upon the Cross.
2. Who is like this glorious Teacher in the holiness of His instructions? The Holy Bible is the Spirit’s lesson book. It is there that all His glorious precepts are embodied.
3. And the Holy Spirit’s lessons are indispensable. The instructions which man’s wisdom gives may be useful and important in their way. But we can get to heaven without them. The Spirit teaches us the only way that leads there.
II. The way in which He gives these instructions. Note the variety of instruments which He employs, and through which He gives instruction to the heart. His chief instrument is the Written Word. Here is doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness. He teaches also by the living voices of His ministers; and, through them, what a multiplicity of arguments does He employ! And He teaches by His providence; by afflictions; by humbling providences; by mercies and loving kindnesses. Are they looking to the world for happiness and satisfaction? He makes that world so bitter to them by its crosses and vexations that they are forced to learn the lesson of its emptiness and vanity. He further enlightens the eyes of their understandings.
III. The results of His instructions. Let the Holy Spirit preach, and then the man’s faith, and the man’s practice, both are changed. They pray that God the Holy Ghost will vouchsafe to be your teacher and your guide, that He will illuminate the eyes of your understanding, and that He will reveal Christ unto your hearts. (A. Roberts, M. A.)
God’s teaching, our example
The God of the Bible is represented to us under different names and views peculiar to Himself. He is represented to us as the source and comprehension of all truth, goodness, happiness, and glory. When we try to reduce our conception of God to a finite form, the best conception we can form of Him is the highest combination of all the attributes that are good, pure, and glorious. We now view Him as our Divine Teacher.
I. The teaching character of the Divine order. The teaching intention is seen everywhere in the established economy of the whole arrangement of the constitution of the universe. It is not an arrangement to be noticed here and there, but a matter of law and universality, unchangeable and regular. The whole range and laws of nature, the whole animal economy--providence, revelation, Christianity, and the whole works of God as known to us--have a teaching commission. All have their science to make known to men; all have their influence in the moulding of human character. Everything has its message; everything is backed by Divine law and authority. This order is intended, in its teaching power, to lead and reunite us with the source and end of our life, and thus to realise the chief good of our being.
1. The supreme order of which we are subjects is one of universal relation and dependence. Illustration: relation of parent and child. One is made to teach, and the other to be taught.
2. As a teaching power, the order of which we are subjects is one of advancement. The whole is intended to advance. The order of God is ever forward.
3. The order under which we live is one of universal and unending obligation. A condition of dependence is one of obligation. To our obligation there is neither limit nor end. All we have are things to fulfil our obligation with, and the degree of our possession is the limit of our obligation.
4. The order in which we are established is one of useful purpose in its laws and provisions. The high design is to fit all its dependent creatures for the end of their being. The order of God intends to economise all its gifts and talents. No talent is to be buried, no power is to lie dormant, no plot uncultivated, and no opportunity unemployed. All are fitted for themselves, for one another, and all to show the praise of the great teacher Himself.
5. The teaching order of God has fit and sufficient resources to meet its requirements, and fulfil its designs. Everything is an educational link to some higher development. The order of God has everything in itself to make it complete. He requires no foreign element. All perfect order precludes the possibility of deficiency, or any goodness outside itself.
II. God’s teaching is our pattern to follow. All men require much teaching themselves before they are competent to teach others. Teaching is Divine.
1. God’s teaching is our pattern in the kindness of its execution. There is nothing harsh and oppressive in the teachings of God. He allures by promises, and leads on by the cords of tenderness and love; giving us a pattern how to teach those who are under our care and our charge.
2. The teaching of God is one of repeated application. God repeats His calls and applications. If one way and means are not effectual, He tries and uses others.
3. The Divine teaching is one of rule and order. Every period has its work, every work has its laws, and every act its certain and fit results. Constancy is one rule. Attention to small points is another. Earnest action is another. Every power must act its part.
4. The teaching of God is one of gradual advancement. Our wants and capacities, in the order of being, keep pace with each other. When one is small, the other is not great; and as one increases the other advances. God suits His teaching to our wants and powers.
5. God’s teaching contains in it hard lessons for us in our present state and condition.
6. God teaches, by suitable means, to accomplish the end He has in view.
III. The aim and end of Divine teaching. Wisdom is right in the end in view, and the means used to obtain it. One end is--to teach us self-insufficiency and trust in Him. Another, to teach us the evil of disobedience and sin. Another, to educate our nature in its highest powers, to its highest possible capacity. That we should understand the law of His order, and respect it. To fit us for the precise work intended to be done by us. To lead us to Himself, and to make us fit for all His will and purpose. Conclusion--The obligation on our part which the Divine administration of teaching involves. (T. Hughes.)
The being and agency of God
I. His being, as here presented. Elihu points our attention to three great facts concerning this Great Being.
1. He is mighty. “Behold, God exalteth by His power.”
2. He is independent. “Who hath enjoined Him His way?” He is amenable to no one beyond Himself.
3. He is righteous. “Who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?”
4. He is adorable. “Remember that thou magnify His work, which men behold.” Man is here called upon to adore Him in His works, which are visible to all.
5. He is incomprehensible.
(1) In His nature. He is the fathomless mystery.
(2) Incomprehensible in His duration. “Neither can the number of His years be searched out.” Notice--
II. His agency as here presented. His agency both in the mental and the material domains is here referred to.
1. His agency in the mental realm. He is a Teacher. “Who teacheth like Him?” He is an incomparable Teacher.
(1) He teaches the best lessons.
(2) He teaches the best lessons in the best way.
(a) By symbols. All the works of nature are the symbols, the hieroglyphics He employs. “The heavens declare Thy glory,” etc.
(b) By example. “He bowed the heavens and came down,” and He acted out His grand lessons in the life of a wonderful Man--the Man Christ Jesus.
(3) He teaches the best lessons in the best way for the best purpose. He does not teach as men teach, in order to make their pupils craftsmen, merchants, artists, and to qualify them for getting on in this life; He teaches in order to make them men, fit them for eternity.
2. His agency in the material realm. Four ideas are suggested here concerning His agency in nature. It is--
(1) Minute.
(2) Inscrutable.
(3) Moral.
(4) Often terrible. (Homilist.)