Sacrifice of Education

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 11:22

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.

Insights:  Yesterday we learned that Paul was willing to sacrifice his ego in order to proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior of the world.  Today we are going to see how Paul also sacrificed through education.  You may be going back up to the verse above and reading it and saying to yourself, “I don’t see anything in this verse about education.”  And you would be correct.  At the same time, Paul is emphasizing his heritage.  I encourage you to go read Acts twenty-two and get a fuller comprehension of Paul’s history and lineage.  In this verse Paul is telling the Corinthians that he is a true Jew and has gone through the most rigorous of training.  Jewish boys would start their education around the age of five and from that time until about ten they would memorize the first five books of the Old Testament.  If they were the best of the best, they would go onto secondary school.  If they were average or below, they would go and start an apprenticeship with their father or other trades men.  In the secondary school they would memorize the rest of the Old Testament.  This schooling would finish around the age of eighteen.  If they were the best of the best of this group they would then be selected by a rabbi and would follow him around for the next several years.  If they were still the best of the best they would become a rabbi themselves and around the age of thirty would start training up new rabbi.  If they were still the best of the best, they would then be selected to sit on the leading council of advisors known as the Sanhedrin.  Church history speculates that Paul was a member of this group of seventy leaders.  It is true that Paul was doing all of this educational work before he actually encountered Jesus, but the Lord knew He was going to use Paul and that Paul needed this training.  Paul was a perpetual student formally for over thirty years and a lifelong student after the formal was complete.  We can learn a great deal from Paul in this regard.  We ought to read, listen and converse continually.  We ought to be pursuing deeper understanding and truth about God.  We ought to have an insatiable appetite for knowledge when it concerns our Lord and Savior.  So, Beloved, sacrifice with education in regards to the Lord.

Questions:

1. Do you have a hunger for knowing God’s word?
2. Are you willing to sacrifice your time in order to grow in your understanding of God?

Prayer: Lord, I want to know You more and more.  Forgive me when I allow things to distract me from You.  Give me a burning hunger to know You and spend time with You in the Word.  Grow me in grace. Amen.