September 16 - Profitable for Teaching

September 16 - Profitable for Teaching

Deuteronomy 4:10, "Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, 'Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.'"

Obviously, with this blog, I am able to combine two of my greatest passions - The Bible and teaching. God's Word has so much to offer us and there are so many amazing bits and pieces both small and large contained with the pages of the Bible.

I have been studying Eastern religions for the last several weeks, going through Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism, Taoism, Indigenous (i.e. American Indian) religions, etc. and each believes that the teachings from their masters are the most important thing to be delivered to mankind.

We see very little of these teachings except through the media, television shows (remember Kung Fu?) and martial arts, but little by little they are making their way into our society. Now, I'll be honest, much of the teaching is not heretical at all ... learning to live in harmony with each other and with the world around us is important.

For the most part, though, the teachings of the eastern mystics require a lot of study to gain a lot of insight. Maybe if we'd grown up with those teachings, we'd be more comfortable with them. Buddha began by teaching 5 men that had spent time with him while he denied himself everything for 6 long years ... it took a long time for his teachings to reach the people.

On the other hand, God immediately proclaimed that the teachings He gave to Moses be taught ... even to children!

"Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." (Deuteronomy 11:19)

In 2 Chronicles 17:9, we read, "They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the Lord; they went around to all the towns of Judah and taught the people."

Confucianism (in China) was learned by the intellectuals. Since much of early Judaism was taught by oral tradition, the people heard these stories over and over until they knew them and could live by the laws simply because they were so ingrained on their hearts.

Nehemiah 8:13 "On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the scribe to give attention to the words of the Law."

By the time we get to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Israelites had been taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king, rescued by Cyrus the great and released back to Israel to restore the temple. They were desperate to know the words of the Law again.

It is good to teach the Word of God ... it is good to learn the Word of God.