The Tongue of a Learner

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.
—Isaiah 50:4–5

Jesus said we shouldn’t worry too much about what to say or how to say it.
“At that time you will be given what to say” (Matthew 10:19). That’s not to
say that God fills our minds with thoughts we’ve never had before but rather that He takes from a reservoir of accumulated truth those things that He
wants us to say. “Oration follows meditation,” the old spiritual masters said.

Jesus said to His disciples, “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight;
what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs” (Matthew
10:27). These words are applicable to all of us. Our Lord speaks to us in solitude.
There He tells us eternal and infinite secrets. There our eyes begin to
see what only He can see; there our ears begin to detect the subtle undertones
of His voice.

I listen to the Lord’s word to Ezekiel: “Open your mouth and eat what I
give you.” Then Ezekiel looks and sees a hand stretched out to him, thrusting
a scroll into his hand. Then the Lord says, “Son of man, eat what is before
you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.” Ezekiel responds,
“I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat” (2:8–3:2).

Isaiah put it this way, speaking of the Servant of the Lord, the Messiah.
What an intriguing image! Every morning God drew near His Servant, calling
Him by name, awakening Him, inviting Him to sit at the Father’s feet,
giving Him His message for the day, preparing Him for each day’s duties and
demands. Every morning our Lord listened “like one being taught.”

That’s what enabled Jesus to speak such wise and gracious words to those
in need. He knew the source of His wisdom. He said of Himself, “I . . . speak
just what the Father has taught me”; I am “a man who has told you the truth
that I heard from God”; “These words you hear are not my own; they belong
to the Father” (John 8:28, 40; 14:24).

And so it is with us. Every morning our Lord invites us to sit at His feet, to
listen like one being taught, to take what words we need for that day. That’s
how He gives us a wise, instructed tongue. That’s how we “know the word
that sustains the weary.”

Some of the older translations render Isaiah 50:4: “The Lord God has given
me the tongue of the learned.” But the text actually speaks of “the tongue
of a learner.” We must be taught before we can teach others; we must learn
before we can ever be “learned.” And the more we receive, the more we have
to give.

Ambrose, Augustine’s mentor, wrote in the fourth century AD: “I desire
. . . that, in the endeavor to teach, I may be able to learn. For one is the true
Master, who alone has not learnt, what He taught all; but men learn before
they teach, and receive from Him what they may hand on to others.”

It’s through prayerful, thoughtful Bible reading and quiet meditation that
our Lord speaks from His depths to ours. It is when we give ourselves time
for prayerful contemplation that His heart is revealed and our hearts are exposed.
We must listen until we know what He feels, what He wants, what He
loves, and what He hates. Then we can give that word away.

“Hide yourself in God,” George MacDonald said, “and when you rise before
men, speak out of that secret place.” When we speak out of the secret
place, we have the overwhelming authority of God. We are saying again what
God has said—nothing more and nothing less.

In our relativistic and subjectivist world, the notion of a decisive and final
word from God sounds presumptuous. Discovery, dialogue, and debate are
more in vogue. But we must never forget that God’s word is exactly that—
God’s word. Behind every word we speak lies the infinite power and authority
of God Himself, an authority mediated through every utterance. Thus
Peter wrote, “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words
of God” (1 Peter 4:11, emphasis added).

Taken from Seeing God, © 2006 by David Roper. Used by permission of Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566, Grand Rapids MI 4950l. All rights reserved.