Have you noticed the way some Christians are proud to be uneducated? Preachers will say things like “well, I’m just a poor country preacher, but …” and you can tell they wear that badge with pride. Pride in your own ignorance is a classic example of anti-intellectualism, and it has deep roots in the American church.
We Americans have always taken pride in our common-sense and homespun wisdom. Perhaps it began with colonists who refused to be impressed by the English with their education and culture, then continued with frontiersmen and westerners who refused to kowtow to those from the finer schools “back East.” Being a Native Texan I absolutely get that. When it comes to on-screen manliness, the tough cowboy who can barely spell his name beats the absent-minded professor every time. But we don’t live on a movie screen; in the real world the balance of power is decidedly different.
Most Americans have a sort-of average education. Most of us completed high school and college but were not really paying attention. We may not remember much, but we are familiar with the broad strokes. We cannot perform calculus, but we remember the struggle to survive a difficult math class. We cannot name three works by Shakespeare, but we recognize the man’s portrait when we see it.
But what if you lacked even that? What if, instead of classes that you ignored and then forgot as quickly as possible, you had NO education?
My grandfather is a case in point. In 1905, Willie Wales, the oldest of what would become ten children, quit school at 8 years old to earn cash money driving mules out of the forest loaded with virgin timber. Paw Paw, as my generation called him, was a smart man with no education. When he was in his sixties, his bosses at the ESSO refinery in Baton Rouge told a reporter that old Willie was “able to cope with any situation, no matter how critical. He has a level head and a practical manner, and … is one of our most valuable employees.”
Willie may have had a level head and a practical manner, and he was certainly good in a crisis. But he was keenly aware that he had not completed his education. He read the newspaper and the Bible and was by no means illiterate. But he refused to teach Sunday school to even the smallest children, concerned that he would be handicapped by his lack of education. I think he simply believed there were so many others who WERE educated, that the children would be better off learning Bible stories from them.
Unwilling to teach, Paw Paw served the Lord by visiting those in the hospital. He was such a faithful visitor, the preacher joked that when he got a telephone call about a church member in the hospital, he would arrive only to find “Mr. Willie” had already been there.
I am proud of my grandfather’s faithfulness, and of his willingness to serve the Lord in whatever manner he could as an uneducated man. But I also know that he was painfully aware of the loss.
An education means something—and no one knows that like those who must do without. An education provides tools: tools with which to THINK, to REASON, to DEBATE, to DRAW CONCLUSIONS. Education will help you understand the Bible. Education will help you persuade others that the Bible is true. Education will help you dissect fact from fiction and truth from lies. Education is one of the most powerful tools we have. And yet many of us paid as little attention as possible in school, even in college. Others worked hard, but do not see much value in education, not our own, nor that possessed by others.
Where do you think Jesus stands on the subject? When it comes to education, WWJD: What Would Jesus Do? What does God have for you and me?
Would God prefer servants who are educated or servants who are not educated?
Consider these examples.
“Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds” Acts 7:22.
Moses had all the advantages of Egyptian learning and Hebrew learning. Can you imagine ways in which God might have used this broad and deep education in the life of Moses?
Young Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, arrived in Babylonian captivity “skillful in all wisdom and endowed with knowledge, understanding, and competence to stand in the king’s palace.” The four were already educated, and then were chosen to be part of a group of young Hebrews that would be educated for an additional three years (sounds like law school), so they might learn “the literature and language of the Babylonians” Daniel 1:3-5. God blessed the education of these four: “God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom” Daniel 1:17.
What about the Apostle Paul? His was an excellent education.
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but raised in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers” Acts 22:3.
Researchers believe Paul’s training began when Paul was fifteen and lasted EIGHTEEN years. Gamaliel was a leader among teachers (Acts 5:34) and Paul soon became a rising star among the Pharisees “I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age” Galatians 1:14. Not only is Paul well educated in the scripture, but he knows the literature and cultures around him, quoting pagan and secular writers in Acts 17:28 and in Titus 1:12.
Finally, consider Ezra, whom the Bible repeatedly refers to as an “expert in the law” Ezra 7:21. Ezra was a scribe, which some describe as a PhD in the law of Moses. According to tradition, Ezra had memorized the entire law of Moses and could write it down from memory.
In fact, some historians believe that at the time of Jesus ALL Jewish children were expected to memorize the Torah by age 12. In other words, ALL Jewish children memorized Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy before age 12. That is five books, or 187 chapters, or 5,852 verses. Can you imagine? (No wonder the Jewish people to this day are an academic force to be reckoned with.)
Imagine this: you are excited about your Bar Mitzvah, the invitations have gone out, you are looking forward to the party and the gifts you will receive, but Mom reminds you, “You still have to memorize the last four chapters of Deuteronomy!”
Think about that. Everyone named above—Moses, Daniel and his friends, the Apostle Paul, Ezra, Jesus and the disciples—and EVERYONE ELSE that was raised Jewish in those days—memorized GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, and DEUTERONOMY. Well, let me make one correction. Moses did not memorize the five books of the Torah. Moses WROTE them. Everyone else memorized them.*
And most of us have not even read all five books.
God, help us appreciate the education you have provided for us. Show us how to strengthen our own education in areas that may be weak. Give us a deep appreciation for the Bible and help us become true scholars of the scriptures. May you be glorified by our minds!
ΑΩ
* P.S. A man I grew up with is now a rabbi in Jerusalem. Ross told me he is not convinced that all children memorized the Torah, “but the elites certainly did. In fact, many memorized the entire Hebrew Bible, and vast portions of the Talmud as well.” Memorized the entire Hebrew Bible? The Hebrew Bible is numbered and arranged differently than the Protestant Old Testament, but is essentially the same 39 books. And my rabbi friend reports that many of the most accomplished rabbis memorized the entire Hebrew Bible–the complete OLD TESTAMENT–and would then begin memorizing the rabbinic writings of the Talmud. Wow.
Household Words: 