Christian Family Services Ministry

12-2-2020 – A Word for the Wise – The Lord as School Master

I do not know how the Lord teaches you but I sure know some of the most difficult life lessons He has taught me. There are many but let me just share one.

Because of my emotional distraught childhood I developed an emotional block to learning. This problem is best symbolized by my encounter with Algebra.

From my first day in algebra class I knew I would never comprehend this subject. One of the most basic fundamental concepts is symbolize in the math concept called ‘sets’ even to this day that word drives me crazy.

Regardless in the ninth grade I had a pleasant enough algebra teacher. However, I set myself down in the class in the very last row at the back of the class. Stubbornly told myself that I could never, ever comprehend this subject.

I didn’t either. I failed the first year. The next year I had to retake the class, sat in the very same place I had the year before, same desk (knew it because I carved all over the desk) and of course at the end of the year the teacher told me she was ‘giving me a D== the first ever given, not because I earned it but because she could not put up with me another year.

Now I do not know how the Lord works with you, but He was not happy with my performance. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Thirty years later, I am reading God’s Word notice a few very simple words in Deuteronomy 30:20. “loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days.”

The Lord stopped me at that point and said I am going to prove to you the reality of that statement in a manner never seen before. Do you want to learn? “Yes Lord I would love for you to teach that to me”.

For the next several months the Lord had me painstakingly go through and collect a huge amount of material on the biblical kings of Judah and Israel.

Step by step line by line until one day He said ‘you can see, but not see.” Remember the algebra you refused to learn? It is time to go back and understand it.

Taking me through both algebra and some advanced statistical analysis the Lord revealed an astonishing secret. Those kings, all of the same linage, the same DNA of the linage of David, their lives proved the very words of Deuteronomy 30:20.

The good kings, those who worshipped the Lord and obeyed his commands lived and prospered 12.4 years longer that the evil kings.

Now the lesson I learned from this besides that bit of knowledge is that the Lord sets us in situations to learn and those situation whether in grammar school, high school, or college contains lessons to be learned and time should not be wasted.

Moreover, the Lord is a painstakingly good teacher Himself if we will but pay attention. Have you not found Him so in your life?