Isaiah 50:4,5

Taught by God

Isaiah 50:4,5
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 Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back.

Comment

Learning to speak the word in an edifying manner is much a part of learning to listen. I find many want to be spokesmen for God, but many don't listen carefully to what God says. So also they are quick to speak out their opinion of others, but often misconstrue or misread the positions those other people have actually taken. For example I've had many respondents to this web site, posing as teachers, who appear to have simply read the headings or quickly scanned through the materials and then went on to zealously voiced their opposition to positions that I never took. In fact, as they don't bother to listen, they often claim I believe the very opposite of what I've actually written. "He who answers before listening— that is his folly and his shame." Prov 18:13

Listening involves listening to others, discerning what the situation is. But even more so it involves listening to God. These are not mutually exclusive. For God speaks through people as for example he speaks through the apostle Paul and other writers of the Bible.

Jesus said, It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. John 6;45 Even apart from Jesus Christ there are people listening and learning from the Father. For before they come to Jesus they had been listening and learning from the Father. And even Jesus says of himself, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does." John 5:19

Those born of God have been also given a special gift to learn from God. "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."John 16:13 "the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." John 14:26 Thus your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," Isaiah 30:21

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