Isaiah 48:17

PROFITABLE TEACHING

‘I am the Lord Thy God which teacheth thee to profit.’

Isaiah 48:17

I. I understand the text to mean, not that God teaches us in a profitable way, but that He instructs us how to get the profit in all things; that He gives that faculty—the power to take the good and refuse the evil; to imbibe the honey and reject the poison.

II. Consider how God does ‘teach to profit.’—(1) The first thing which God will probably teach and which we must receive is a general confidence that there is a profit, however imperceptible it may be at the time to us, in the thing which He is sending to us. (2) This faith given, the next thing that God puts into our hearts is to seek that good. Into those deeper meanings God will lead and admit you. But not without three things: a reverent acceptance of His teaching, hard work, and a good life.