While countless parents are watching with anticipation as their children begin another year of schooling, let us take a moment to consider God’s perspective on education. He commands parents to diligently and properly train their children, and He reminds children to heed instruction from their parents (Proverbs 22:6). He also instructs us, “Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old” (Proverbs 23:22).
Moses received the best education the Egyptian royal courts could provide. He became mighty in words and deeds, educated to become a prince of the great Egyptian empire (Acts 7:22). Likewise, Isaiah was highly educated and became the political and religious counselor of his nation, serving several Judean monarchs (2 Chronicles 26:22; 32:32). Luke was not only an educated physician, but also an accomplished historian (Colossians 4:14). The Apostle Paul is famous as one of the brightest young students of the law (Galatians 1:14).
Yet worldly education was only a precursor to the true education these men would receive in God’s way. Without proper grounding in God’s way, even the finest worldly education is but vanity (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
During the Millennium, even when children may study outside the home, we can be sure that they will not be shipped off to overcrowded, dangerous, morally adrift, or underperforming schools. Rather, they will be under the care of talented, dedicated, God-fearing teachers and administrators. Then, the entire educational system—and the entire society—will be guided by Christ and the resurrected saints according to God’s righteous law. “And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:20–21).
In our free booklet The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like? Dr. Roderick C. Meredith described the beautiful future of education:
During the Millennium, teachers will know that their students are, with only the rarest exceptions, being trained well at home by both parents. So, teachers will be confident in playing a role of supplementing what parents have done. There will be close communication and cooperation between parents and teachers, and between teachers and students.… For they will live in a society based upon the principles of the Creator, which will bring a depth of peace, prosperity, and productiveness beyond anything man has ever known (p. 25).
God expects parents to provide for the education of their children, exposing them to the spiritual and physical topics they will need for success in life. And He expects children and young adults to diligently pursue their own education. Pursuing right education prepares us to serve Him more fully. And, most importantly, Christians must always remember that true education begins with the acknowledgment that there is a great Creator God, the Almighty, who is the source of all knowledge and all wisdom (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10).