Isaiah 28:9
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
The question is whom God will teach knowledge and cause to understand doctrine, and the answer is those weaned from milk and drawn from the breasts, those who have moved beyond spiritual infancy and are mature and ready to receive instruction. That readiness is not age alone but fitness to learn, the state of one no longer a spiritual infant and prepared to be taught. The instruction itself is given progressively and repeatedly, precept upon precept and line upon line, here a little and there a little, through manifold teaching, even through stammering lips and another tongue. It is to be taught patiently and kept continually before the learner, a little at a time, until understanding is formed.
To such learners God offers rest for the weary and refreshing. Those who receive and respect the light God gives can grow in understanding, recognize truth, and be changed by it. This requires a submissive, teachable, loving, and obedient heart, a spirit that gives the heart to God and follows His counsel. Without that teachableness the learner is left to the sure result of supposed wise judgment without heavenly wisdom.
Those who refuse to hear cherish their own wisdom, work according to their own ideas, and trust in human wisdom and false refuges. They are pictured as making lies their refuge and falsehood their hiding place and making a covenant with death. To those who refuse, the word that should guide them becomes a cause of stumbling and judgment, so that they go and fall backward and are broken and snared and taken. They are left to the sure result of their own judgment without heavenly wisdom and brought to ruin. Against that false trust God lays in Zion a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation where belief does not make haste, and lays judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet until hail sweeps away the refuge of lies and waters overflow the hiding place. Confidence in human wisdom and false refuges cannot stand before that judgment.
The figures in the surrounding prophecy represent spiritual things, and the chapter portrays conditions in the world today. The verse shows that teaching knowledge and doctrine should begin with the child in its mother's arms as soon as it is weaned, and continue through babyhood, childhood, youth, and manhood. Believing parents are patiently to bring the word of the Lord before children and keep Bible principles before them from the start of their education, by precept upon precept and line upon line, here a little and there a little. Bible principles should be taught from the very start of a child's education, when very young, as soon as weaned.
The verse fixes the commencement of education in Bible principles in earliest childhood just after weaning, in the first seven or ten years of life when lasting impressions for good or evil are made. That early teaching is the fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom, instruction in what constitutes sin, that all sin is an offense toward God, and obedience to all the commandments of God in preparation for the coming great test over obedience or disobedience. In a health institution this manifold teaching means educating all who patronize it after the manner of Christ and converting them to correct principles. Christian principles in accordance with faith are to be maintained at any cost and lived out in obedience to Jesus Christ rather than conforming to the selfish, intemperate customs of the world.