4/06/19

Isaiah 8:20

To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

This verse has an especial importance to me because it was one of the first I memorized after I was converted.  It has three simple parts to it.

1.      The direction we are to go for our education.  Let me quote Calvin here, “God reveals Himself to us in the Law and declares what is that relation to us He chooses to hold, and lays down what He demands from us, and in short everything necessary to be known.”

2.       Contradictions to God’s direction must be expected.  There are two reasons God’s Word is rejected.  It is both moral and restrictive.  Human self-love is consuming.  Love for your neighbor in the way the Scripture commands is so morally demanding that human nature refuses it.

When the rich man was asked, “How much money do you want?”  His reply was, “some more.”  God places a restriction of human “get” and says “give.”  Man wants that as an option.  God makes it a necessity.

3.       God’s solution to our ignorance is non-negotiable.  “There has never been a dawn their heart.”

Let me quote from Calvin, “The mode of expression here is emphatic.  He brings an accusation of blindness against every man who does not instantly and without dispute adopt this sentiment that we ought not to be wise beyond the Law of God.”