"He instructed him." So He does us. It was to instruct us that God, in His great mercy, gave us THE SCRIPTURES. He has not left us to grope our way in darkness, but has provided us with a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Nor are we left to our own unaided powers in the study of the Word. We are supplied with an infallible Instructor. The Holy Spirit is our teacher, "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things ... the anointing ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you" (1 John 2:20, 27).
Right views of God's truth are not an intellectual attainment, but a blessing bestowed on us by God. It is written, "a man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven" (John 3:27). No matter how legibly a letter may be written, if the recipient is blind he cannot read it. So we are told, "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14). And spiritual discernment is imparted only by the Holy Spirit.
"He instructed him." How patiently God bears with our dullness! How graciously He repeats "line upon line and precept upon precept" (Is. 28:10)! Yet slow as we are, He perseveres with us, for He has promised to perfect that which concerns us (Ps. 138:8). Has He "instructed" you, my reader? Has He taught you the total depravity of man and the utter inability of the sinner to deliver himself? Has He taught you the humbling truth "Ye must be born again", and that regeneration is solely the work of God, man having no part or hand in it (Jn. 1:13)? Has He revealed to you the infinite value and sufficiency of the atoning sacrifice of Christ whose blood cleanses "FROM ALL SIN"? Then what cause you have to be thankful for such Divine instruction.
