“Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.” Jeremiah 6:8
As a young child I tended to soak up instruction, curious to learn all that I could, hungry to know more and more. Yet, somewhere along the way there seemed to build up a resistance to being instructed, somewhere around the early teen-age years I obviously felt that I had received all of the instruction necessary. The children of Israel seemed to have similar feelings toward the instruction of God.
All throughout Biblical history, the Israelites were in constant turmoil between obedience and rebellion much like I have found myself over the course of time. I get a good forward motion, fully intent on the Word of God striving with everything in me to remain focused on His instruction . . . and then before I know what has happened I am in left field going in an entirely different direction. It happens all too quickly, that rebellion within rises up to divert my attention from what God is trying to teach me.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” II Timothy 3:16-17
Just as God told the Israelites in Jeremiah 6:8, God’s instruction is given to us that we might know Him and experience the fullness of life that is found only in His Word. Without the instruction of God our hearts become desolate, we become wanderers in an uninhabited land without a true direction.
“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.” Psalm 32:8
I want to know that God’s eye is upon me, guiding me, teaching me, and instructing me in the way that I should go. When I am walking in His promises, when I allow Him to instruct me, I know that I am exactly where I need to be in Him.
“Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.” Proverbs 8:32