Isaiah 30:20

Thine eyes shall see thy teachers

Trouble making the heavenly Teacher real

The siege shall surely come, with its sorely concrete privations, but the Lord will be there, equally distinct. .. Real, concrete sorrows,--these are they that make the heavenly Teacher real! It is linguistically possible, and more in harmony with the rest of the passage, to turn “teachers,” as the E.. has it, into the singular, and to render it by “revealer.” The word is an active participle, “moreh,” from the same verb as the noun “torah,” which is constantly translated “law” in our version, but is, in the Prophets at least, more nearly equivalent to “instruction,” or to our modern term “revelation” (Isaiah 30:9). Looking thus to the One Revealer, and hearkening to the One Voice, “the lying and rebellious children” shall at last be restored to that capacity for truth and obedience, the loss of which has been their ruin. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)

Unseen teachers

There are troubled hours in life, in which we long to see our teachers; to know what certain things mean; and to have it explained why some special trials have been put upon us, and to what end events, now inexplicable, are tending. Devout men and women suspect, or feel sure, already; they think that the hand of the Lord is in all thin They rest assured that what seems wrong now will be made right by and by: that all is for the best; and, more than this, they are persuaded that some time or other, perhaps as death approaches, perhaps in the shadowy and thoughtful place of departed spirits, perhaps at the last great day of God, they shall see their teachers, and comprehend it all. (Morgan Dix.)

The blessing of Christian teachers

Though the Gospel first began to be preached by the Lord, yet, as it was expedient that He should go away, He has instituted, and in every age preserved an order of men, for guiding others in the way of faith, of holiness, and of peace.

I. A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE ADVANTAGES WHICH MEN DERIVE FROM THIS INSTITUTION.

1. Attend to the thousands who devote themselves to the service of the sanctuary, and whose characters are improved and ennobled by their previous studies. With what diligence and success, prompted by motives of piety and benevolence, do they search for the good way, that they may walk in it themselves, and teach and recommend it to others with advantage! Their gifts ripen and expand; their moral and religious excellences become distinguished. Giving themselves to the Word of God and to prayer, and, in subserviency to these, to inquiries after truth, to meditation, and to the perusal of useful human writings, their good resolutions strengthen; and their knowledge, wisdom, activity, and usefulness increase.

2. Public teachers often refine the taste, improve the genius, civilise the manners, and promote the literary pursuits of a nation.

3. Instructions from the pulpit greatly promote a virtuous behaviour.

4. Attend to the gentle, penetrating, beneficent effects of pastoral instruction, on the sorrowful, the disconsolate, the tempted, the doubting, the feeble-minded, the sick, and the dying.

5. Teachers are profitable as they spread and defend the doctrines of religion, and excite and cherish just sentiments of Divine things.

6. Pastoral instruction is a chief means which God hath appointed to rescue sinners from the ruins of their apostasy, and to interest them in His favour and friendship.

II. But, must it not be acknowledged that CONGREGATIONS SOMETIMES DERIVE LITTLE OR NO BENEFIT FROM SERMONS, and that to their teachers much of the blame belongs?

1. Bad men regard the effect of what they preach with cold indifference, except in so far as worldly honour or interest is advanced by their seeming success; and efforts naturally are feeble and ineffectual, where desire is languid.

2. Sometimes a clergyman’s behaviour is not visibly influenced by the doctrines and duties of religion. Men of small sagacity discern it, infer his craft and disingenuity, or conclude that they may imitate him without hazard.

3. The natural abilities, extent of knowledge, and persuasive talents, highly important in a teacher of religion, do not always accompany true piety. (J. Erskine, D. D.)