THE VALUE OF TEACHING
T. E. Druckenmiller
John 13: 13–15; Proverbs 4: 1–4 (to “taught me”); 6: 20–23
One was impressed on Lord’s day with this word in John 13, “Ye call me the Teacher and the Lord,
and ye say well, for I am so”. There are several in the gospels who spoke to the Lord like that; I am specially thinking of Mary at the end of this gospel, she called the Lord Rabboni or Teacher (see John 20: 16), and one has been thinking a little of the need for teaching, the need for instruction and teaching that would help us to be maintained in the divine way; it is especially needed, I would think, in difficult days. Our brother has alluded to ministry that has gone before over the history of the recovery, and beloved Mr. Raven was a teacher, he was also what Scripture speaks of as a teaching priest (see 2 Chronicles 15: 3). How we need the priestly side among us and I think it is linked with this thought of refreshment and reviving that our brother has alluded to, and if we would take on the example of Jesus Himself we would refresh one another and we would help one another. One feels greatly the need to help one another at the present time. We live in localities, some are small like this one, others maybe have more numerically, and we are tested as to our relations with one another, and whether we can affectionately keep near to each other with a view to providing refreshment and this feature of reviving.
I am sure what our brother has touched on is a very needful matter, that even in the midst of a revival there is need for revival. You take the great revivals of Scripture; I suppose Josiah’s was one of the greatest. He was a man who valued the teaching of David, and you can see how a right appreciation of what was of God in the past history was used of God for the revival of the work of God in Israel, and there is a need at the present time for the revival of the work of God in Israel, the Israel of God. I feel that, and yet one can see that the power for it and the strength for it lie in the availability of the individual to the Lord as the Teacher, and to the Holy Spirit as the
Teacher. The Lord spoke of the Spirit not only as the Comforter but the One who would
“teach you all things, and will bring to your remembrance all the things which I have said to you” (see John 14: 26), and the more we think of that verse the more we realize how much the Lord has been saying in the ministry. It is the way the Lord is communicating to the saints; there is the teaching, and may we avail ourselves of it. One thinks of it in connection with Solomon’s references not only to the father but also the mother. There is teaching available from both the father and the mother. That would show the import and value of the masculine side among the saints and also of the feminine side. These are elements, I believe, which we need to take on in our own links with the Lord so as to fill out rightly our place in the testimony.
So Solomon is speaking of how he himself was a son unto his father “tender and an only one in the sight of my mother”, and then it says, “And he taught me”. You think of that! First he says, “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father”. I think he was himself now in the father’s place, but then he says, “For I was a son unto my father”, so Solomon had a right to take the father’s place because he filled out rightly the son’s place, and I think young ones will learn that as they grow up—if they fill out the son’s place, they will soon grow to fill out the father’s place. You can see it through Scripture; you take a dear man like Timothy, a son to Paul, then I am sure he filled out his place as a father; Paul says, “not many fathers”; he would encourage young and old to seek to develop in accord with the divine mind, and the way to it is by valuing the instruction of a father.
So I think the reference to the ministry tonight is of tremendous value to us; God has been in the ministries of the recovery of the truth, and
the more we see how God has been in them, the more we will be helped by the Spirit of God to fill out what our brother alluded to, which is a distinctive point in Mr. Raven’s teaching, that is, to know where we are and why we are there. It is striking to me that that very phrase was going through my mind today; it shows how the Lord works in very precious ways to revive a thought or two among us. So we should encourage one another to be exercised to enter into the living and abiding word of God and to be taught by it.
Then there is the further thought of the teaching of the mother; that is a very precious word,
“My son, observe thy father’s commandment”—see how he couples the father and mother together “and forsake not the teaching of thy mother”. Then he says a very important word,
“bind them continually upon thy heart”. I believe it is like the way the Lord takes to impress a thought upon us so that it is retained in our affections. What it means is that you need to lead the Scriptures daily, a little here and a little there, you get a touch and it becomes formative in the heart; it says, “bind them continually upon thy heart”. How very precious the word of God is; you read it, and it forms something inwardly in your soul, and as we do that we find that on Lord’s day morning we have a touch for the service of God. Then, “tie them about thy neck: when thou walkest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee”.
Oh it is a precious line of things! Solomon must have rejoiced as he wrote these precious Proverbs. I can see that he as a father would write about what a father should do, how he should first be a son; he would just feel that the way he was linked with David his father was in joy. I believe our young people, if they can just enjoy
the precious meetings, these gatherings together, whether few or many can be present, would just have a sense of the preciousness of being in touch with what is proceeding for God. We would find how it strengthens us and how it revives us, and how it would protect us. You see, it says, “when thou walkest, it shall lead thee”; there is protection in that—“when thou sleepest”—think of it—“it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee”. It is almost like a night season; you sleep, then later you wake up, and it says, “it shall talk with thee”. How near the Lord is; He is near to us, and the Spirit, how preciously near He is to us, so that we may be taught.
Then the result of teaching is the preciousness of what we had in John, that our relations with one another are flowing in happy harmony in view of the saints being succoured and the conditions in our localities improved for the glory of God.
Word in meeting for ministry, Croydon
19 July 1983