Your Teacher
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 30:20-21
While most translations use the plural “teachers” in verse 20, a few, including the English Standard Version, use the singular “Teacher” with the upper case “T,” signifying a Messianic interpretation. This interpretation of the text is not far-fetched. If we follow the biblical practice of allowing later texts to interpret earlier texts, we find justification for this idea in the New Testament.
During the Upper Room Discourses (John 13-17) Jesus emphasized the coming of the Holy Spirit. He described the Spirit’s coming as “I will come to you.” Now, in our understanding of Trinitarian theology, we know that the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Son, but both are God. Therefore, Jesus could speak this way just as He did when He spoke about seeing Him was seeing the Father.
Then, Jesus made it a point of emphasis that the Holy Spirit would come and “teach you all things…” (John 14:26). John seems to latch on to the concept because later when he wrote 1 John, he tells the church, “You have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie – just as it has taught you, abide in him.” (1 John 2:27)
This does not mean human teachers are redundant and unnecessary appendages in the church. What it means is, the Holy Spirit is the One who teaches the believer, even when He does so through human agency. We are all taught by Christ if we are taught at all.
And to what end is He teaching us? He is teaching us to walk in “the way.” (Isaiah 30:21) It is interesting that during the infancy of the Church what we call Christianity was called “the way.” Christ’s Voice comes to us through the Holy Spirit, setting us on the road to home, and guiding us like a Shepherd every step of the way, “when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”
