An older teacher was giving...
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An older teacher was giving advice to a new face on staff. "In every class," she said, "there will be one student who will argue with you. At first, you'll want to silence him. Don't. He's probably the only student listening."
Isaiah tells us that God has given him the tongue of a teacher and then goes on to say that he is willing to go through all kinds of abuse for his Lord. Do those two -- teaching and abuse -- go hand-in-hand? Perhaps ridicule, insult, and rejection are necessary steps on the way to salvation. The ones who argue are the ones who have been listening and who have been moved by what they've heard. Isaiah's "students" may have put him through his paces, but maybe that, too, was a test. Sure, this all sounds good, but does it hold up in the physical world?
Isaiah tells us that God has given him the tongue of a teacher and then goes on to say that he is willing to go through all kinds of abuse for his Lord. Do those two -- teaching and abuse -- go hand-in-hand? Perhaps ridicule, insult, and rejection are necessary steps on the way to salvation. The ones who argue are the ones who have been listening and who have been moved by what they've heard. Isaiah's "students" may have put him through his paces, but maybe that, too, was a test. Sure, this all sounds good, but does it hold up in the physical world?
