The Good Knowledge of the Lord!
2 Chron 30:22 And Hezekiah spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the LORD: and they did eat throughout the feast seven days, offering peace offerings, and making confession to the LORD God of their fathers
27 Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven.
In today’s reading, the phrase ‘the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the LORD’ jumped out at me, and the thought crossed my mind: “If Levites can teach the good knowledge of the Lord, then obviously, Levites can also teach incorrect, or bad knowledge of the Lord!”
I was immediately reminded of the Psalmist’s prayer:
Ps 119:66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments.
Judgment refers to our decisions, and this prayer is wonderful, in that he is asking God to teach him to be able to make both good decisions, but also to understand, from the Word of God not only what to do, but why it must be done.
In the secular academic world, this whole concept, of seeking God for direction, revelation, and knowledge is totally foreign. In fact, to make the statement: ‘The Word of God says’ to the average humanistic academic, would receive this response:
Job 21:14 Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
In modern language this might be stated: ‘This is an academic discussion, not a religious one, so leave your Bible verses out of it!’ As if God was not in academia, that academic reasoning is greater than the knowledge of God!
1Ti 6:4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
Oh, that, like Job, they might meet Him! Hearing Him say to them:
Job 38:1 ¶ Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
In His presence, the vain arguments of men, cease.
Which is why I spend so many hours each day in prayer, for you, and for those in acadamia.
Simply giving you an ear tickling teaching does you no good, but I teach and preach, in faith believing that you will have a radical encounter, each time, with the living God. That He might bear witness to what I do, by signs, wonders, miracles, and revelation in the earth:
Like Paul, I desire: 1Co 2:4 That my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
Yet there are religious teachers in the earth today, educated, yet not anointed:
2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
Pr 19:27 Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.
Lu 11:52 Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.
True knowledge of God, will produce a demonstration of His power, for He always backs up His Word, with His power!
Ho 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
I hear Holy Spirit speaking this verse to the United States this morning….
God has a controversy with this nation, with people who fill the airways with human opinions, devoid of truth, mercy, and the knowledge of God in the land…
The solution?
Pr 2:3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
This is for Christians! Why because God always deals in the earth, through His people’s response or rejection of Him.
Isa 5:13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge:
2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
God will heal our nations, when we humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways.
One definition of wicked says: ‘braided with evil, as in the braiding of a string used in a candle wick’
Pride, I have learned, is not merely an arrogant, haughty, puffed up, elitist attitude, but in God’s sight, is in ‘simply having a better idea than Him’.
We act out of our culture, our earthly knowledge, and directly disobey the Word and Spirit of God, and this is pride!
1Pe 5:5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
I have learned that I often do not know anything, until circumstances become desperate, then I cry out to Him, and seek His face, to discover, that I was wrong in my thinking in some area, and I needed to change.
Isa 33:6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
So I cry out to Him, and often, only then, am I truly willing to hear a good word from him, and he usually sends it through ministry gifts.
Jer 3:15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Mal 2:7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
Just a good Bible teaching is not enough, we, called of the Holy Spirit, by His voice, must constantly hear what He wants His people to hear, that day, directly from His lips!
Keeps us praying!
Ho 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee,
People of God can be destroyed by lack of knowledge or rejection of knowledge.
The ‘lack of knowledge’ part I am working hard on two ways, for this is the clear responsibility of ministry to provide:
a. I am continually in prayer and study of the Word, growing in my gift and calling. (I am a seminary student)
b. I am aggressively seeking to pioneer Bible schools internationally, and to prepare teaching to instruct and equip ministers to be able to bring that good word in season.
The second part of that verse deals with the reception of the word we teach and preach, by the hearer. We pray, fervently that we have a good word in season, and that the hearts of people who hear or read this, are receptive to what we share, but one of the greatest heartbreaks in life, is watching people refuse the Word of God, and experience often shattering heartbreaks in life.
Let me give one simple example: Healing. If a Christian studies the Word of God in the area of divine healing, they happily discover that ‘by the stripes Jesus took upon His body on the cross, they were healed when Jesus bore not only our sin, but also our sickness upon the cross’. They learn that though sickness exists in the earth, that we have a covenant with God, that also includes healing of our physical bodies, and that if a symptom should arise, any symptom, of any disease, that we can go to God, in faith, having believed His Word, and receive healing, from anything, anywhere, anytime.
Yet, this seems too good to be true, and so I weep, when I see the countless Christians that suffer horrible atrocities at the hands of cancer, heart attacks, and myriad other ‘incurable’ diseases by modern medical science, that kill loved ones, and God gets blamed for it.
Ec 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
We understand, we care, we love, and we weep….
1Co 15:34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
These are verses from which I derive part of the daily prayer, I am praying for you, today, and every day, you are precious, and you are loved:
Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Php 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
Col 1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God
Let’s Pray:
“Father, reveal Yourself to us today. Meet with us, open our eyes, draw us by Your Spirit, and in Your mercy show us our pride, self-will, and areas of unbelief and wickedness. Grant us good knowledge of You and Your ways, today, that we might walk before You, in truth, in Your name I pray Lord Jesus, Amen.’