Can this teach?
Education is at the forefront of our minds. For believers, there is more pressure from secular culture and philosophy and more choices than ever. Whether we’ve opted for homeschool, private school, or public school, there are significant questions we face in discipling the next generation. While recently reading through Habakkuk, one such important question struck me. Can this teach?
Airing his pain and lack of understanding before God, the prophet Habakkuk wrestles with the Lord’s answers as the wicked Chaldeans are used as an instrument of judgment toward God’s disobedient children. Habakkuk chapter 2, verses 18-20, contains a convicting set of questions with the one that genuinely pierced me, which seems applicable for our time and culture today.
“What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.”
Habakkuk 2:18-20
As we think about our educational system and philosophy today, we must consider our mindset and approach. We may not have carved out images of stone or wood or overlaid them with gold or silver, but how have we allowed ideas of our creation to replace God’s timeless truth? Can this teach if we remove the author and finisher of the faith from education? Can this teach if we look to modern atheistic philosophies to answer spiritual questions?
These are not easy questions. Whatever context you find yourself in as a fit for educating and discipling your children, it is helpful to ask if this can teach. Christian education can be a remarkable gift to assist in answering that question well.
