Have patience with the Lord's salvation

David came forth from the sheepcote unlearned. He had never had the opportunity to join with other students at the school of the prophets. They were learning to be prophets, to prophesy with decorum as befits the Most High. But, David came from leading his father’s few sheep, caring for the ewe lambs, learning from the same structure that the established school of the prophets had, but out of the loop. In fact, his school was superior to the one everyone accepted as the best, because no human was his teacher—Jesus was his teacher. Daily, he received the light distilling from above, and daily he grew in favor with God and man. Unlearned, he possessed a wisdom and moral strength that no one recognized.

He was the runt of the family, and his development into a man was also stunted. His mien was not of the kingly type, as his brothers’ was; his bearing was ever only a boy’s. Following the leading of the Holy Spirit, his mind was like that of Abel, who subconsciously disdained the pride of his towering elder sibling. David and Abel marched to the beat of a different drum. They had another tempo, an upward calling, which, amongst their peers, only they heard.

Their intellectual growth was stunted, but their intelligence was not. Constantly did their minds churn, but in a different direction from the world. If their ability to learn the ABC’s was slow it was only because they were busy learning other subjects that the multitudes left untouched. Mercy, compassion, submission to authority, humility, a good conscience, the science of salvation, etc. tied their minds up and prevented an unbalanced curriculum of only the things of this world. They were laying up their intellectual treasure in heaven. They were receiving the true education, a whole knowledge of God. They weren’t retarded as some men count retardation, but daily gathered up the things of eternity, the things of God, whom to know is eternal life.

From this school David graduated to rule over a kingdom of priests.  He had sat at the feet of the Master, had attended faithfully to the Master’s lessons, and was valedictorian of his class. Thus, he was qualified to rule and his Master saw to his exaltation. The Lord made him king of the holy nation that Jesus had desired 500 years before. “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Ex. 19:4,6). The road had been very rocky for the nation, but somehow, by the grace of God, sufficient punishment from heaven and enough seeking after God had resulted in a son of Israel who could unite them under holiness to God.

David could rejoice in a people who had sought God’s face, “This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” (Ps. 24:6,7).

His boast was in God and His kingdom. “With every truly converted soul the relation to God and to eternal things will be the great topic of life.” The Great Controversy, p. 463. David’s boast was not in nationalism, as we see in Israel today. It came from love for man and supreme love for God.  “For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.

But Thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.

In God we boast all the day long, and praise Thy name for ever. Selah.” (Ps. 44:6-8).

 “My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.

O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.” (Ps. 34:2,3).

“The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.

Clouds and darkness are round about Him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.

A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about.

His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled.

The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.

The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory.

Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship Him, all ye gods.

For Thou, LORD, art high above all the earth: Thou art exalted far above all gods.

Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.

Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.” (Ps. 97:1-12).

Today, do you feel overwhelmed with your job or school, with family issues, with relationship or friend issues? If so, it may be because you are in a school that others have never entered. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, may be overriding interests you have that prevent you from excelling in the common things of life. God is distilling in you what He deems important, and you will excel at holiness, if you submit to Him. But, many who He is working to make His Levites keep their eyes on the miasma of this world and frustrate His efforts to make privilege them with an exalted status of the sons of God.

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal. 5:17).

Satan tempts the world to demean such a status as not exalted, but laughable. By this he hopes to keep people away from what he fears the most, an army that can, and one day will, destroy his earthly kingdom.

If your growth by man’s standards has been slow, remember that God calls to, but rarely gets a response from, thesmart and talented and quick-witted, the rich and powerful, those that are applauded and celebrated by this world. Disdain applause and recognition; let the Lord develop in you the truly important things—eternal things. Let Him put His love for righteousness into your heart so that you love to love and serve. Let Him put in you enmity against sin. Walk with God, in whose communion there is a peace that the world cannot give.

And in that peace, let the fruit of righteousness and His every other lesson germinate, spring forth, and bud. Then the wisdom of God will characterize your wisdom, and you will blossom with a beauty that brings glory to God. This school will probably take longer than the world’s, but it really pays off in the end. Be patient with God.

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” (Ps. 1:1-3).

If we will forsake the rewards Satan dangles before this world’s minions and invest in the true rewards, in the thankfulness and gratitude from those to whom we have been a blessing, then God will reward us openly.

“Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward [rear guard].

Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath [the seventh day measures our daily communion with the Master Teacher], from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” (Isa. 58:8-14). 

“And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.

For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.…
I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.…

For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.” (Isa. 61:5-9,11).

 

We will have the education that the Son had, and we will have followed the Lamb whithersoever He went. In our ears will ring the songs of paradise and we will respond with a song that no one around us can sing. We will never be drunk with anything that intoxicates, “wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to [ourselves] in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in [our] heart to the Lord.” (Eph. 5:18,19).

Our education will be of the most costly type, of a rich, abundant character filled with Christ’s righteousness, and in communion with our God and friend. We will be the envy of everyone around us. They will desire to have the peace that we possess and the lessons that we learned in His classroom.

  Our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range. There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim. True education means more than the pursual of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.

     The source of such an education is brought to view in these words of Holy Writ, pointing to the Infinite One: In Him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom.” Colossians 2:3. “He hath counsel and understanding.” Job 12:13.

     The world has had its great teachers, men of giant intellect and extensive research, men whose utterances have stimulated thought and opened to view vast fields of knowledge; and these men have been honored as guides and benefactors of their race; but there is One who stands higher than they. We can trace the line of the world’s teachers as far back as human records extend; but the Light was before them. As the moon and the stars of our solar system shine by the reflected light of the sun, so, as far as their teaching is true, do the world’s great thinkers reflect the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. Every gleam of thought, every flash of the intellect, is from the Light of the world.…

  In a knowledge of God all true knowledge and real development have their source. Wherever we turn, in the physical, the mental, or the spiritual realm; in whatever we behold, apart from the blight of sin, this knowledge is revealed. Whatever line of investigation we pursue, with a sincere purpose to arrive at truth, we are brought in touch with the unseen, mighty Intelligence that is working in and through all. The mind of man is brought into communion with the mind of God, the finite with the Infinite. The effect of such communion on body and mind and soul is beyond estimate.

     In this communion is found the highest education. It is God’s own method of development. “Acquaint now thyself with Him” (Job 22:21), is His message to mankind. The method outlined in these words was the method followed in the education of the father of our race. When in the glory of sinless manhood Adam stood in holy Eden, it was thus that God instructed him.…

  Love, the basis of creation and of redemption, is the basis of true education. This is made plain in the law that God has given as the guide of life. The first and great commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” Luke 10:27. To love Him, the infinite, the omniscient One, with the whole strength, and mind, and heart, means the highest development of every power. It means that in the whole being―the body, the mind, as well as the soul―the image of God is to be restored.

     Like the first is the second commandment―“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Matthew 22:39. The law of love calls for the devotion of body, mind, and soul to the service of God and our fellow men. And this service, while making us a blessing to others, brings the greatest blessing to ourselves. Unselfishness underlies all true development. Through unselfish service we receive the highest culture of every faculty. More and more fully do we become partakers of the divine nature. We are fitted for heaven, for we receive heaven into our hearts.

     Since God is the source of all true knowledge, it is, as we have seen, the first object of education to direct our minds to His own revelation of Himself.…

     The Holy Scriptures are the perfect standard of truth, and as such should be given the highest place in education. To obtain an education worthy of the name, we must receive a knowledge of God, the Creator, and of Christ, the Redeemer, as they are revealed in the sacred word.

     Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator―individuality, power to think and to do. The men in whom this power is developed are the men who bear responsibilities, who are leaders in enterprise, and who influence character. It is the work of true education to develop this power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men’s thought. Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen. Instead of educated weaklings, institutions of learning may send forth men strong to think and to act, men who are masters and not slaves of circumstances, men who possess breadth of mind, clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions.

     Such an education provides more than mental discipline; it provides more than physical training. It strengthens the character, so that truth and uprightness are not sacrificed to selfish desire or worldly ambition. It fortifies the mind against evil. Instead of some master passion becoming a power to destroy, every motive and desire are brought into conformity to the great principles of right. As the perfection of His character is dwelt upon, the mind is renewed, and the soul is re-created in the image of God.…

    Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God’s ideal for His children. Godliness―godlikeness―is the goal to be reached. Before the student there is opened a path of continual progress. He has an object to achieve, a standard to attain, that includes everything good, and pure, and noble. He will advance as fast and as far as possible in every branch of true knowledge. But his efforts will be directed to objects as much higher than mere selfish and temporal interests as the heavens are higher than the earth.

     He who co-operates with the divine purpose in imparting to the youth a knowledge of God, and molding the character into harmony with His, does a high and noble work. As he awakens a desire to reach God’s ideal, he presents an education that is as high as heaven and as broad as the universe; an education that cannot be completed in this life, but that will be continued in the life to come; an education that secures to the successful student his passport from the preparatory school of earth to the higher grade, the school above.  Education, p. 13, 14, 16-19.