To discern is to see or have understanding, to perceive with your mind. To have vision. To discern right from wrong, good from bad, light from darkness.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the Law, happy/blessed is he.”
King Solomon – Proverbs 29:18
King Solomon received Discernment
When King Solomon was asked of God what he would have God to give him, he simply asked for “an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good/right and bad/wrong…” 1Kings 3:5-15
His prayer was granted. His name has gone down in history as the wisest of men because he was given discernment and Wisdom by God Himself. Many people come to him to learn Wisdom and Knowledge to this day. Several books written by him are contained in the Bible and also some others not included i.e. The Wisdom of Solomon.
The Ministers of God teach Discernment
“That you may put difference between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean; And that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them by the hand of Moses.”
Leviticus 10:10-11
The Prophet Ezekiel tells us of the Levites, the sons of Zadok/Righteousness. They are God’s ministers and serve His Sanctuary. They have been commissioned to teach God’s people discernment to know right from wrong.
“The priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of My Sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me to minister unto Me, and they shall stand before Me to offer unto Me [an offering in righteousness].’, saith the LORD God: They shall enter into My Sanctuary, and they shall come near to My Table, to minister unto Me and they shall keep My charge.”
“They shall teach My people the difference between the holy and unholy and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.”
Ezekiel 44:15-16, 23
The Messenger of the Covenant teaches Discernment
The Prophet Malachi tells us that God has promised to send a special Messenger, the Messenger of the Covenant, to give us knowledge, understanding and the gift of discernment.
“Behold, I will send My Messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts…
And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling of his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and do not reverence Me, saith the LORD of hosts…
Then they that reverenced the LORD spoke often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a Book of Remembrance was written before Him for them that reverence the LORD, and that think upon His Name.
They shall be Mine’, saith the LORD of hosts, ‘in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him’. Then you shall return, and discern between the Righteous and the Wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves Him not.”
Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the LORD…”
Malachi 3:1-6, 16-18, 4:5-6
Children of God learn Discernment
“Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as Jesus/Y’hoshua is righteous. He that commits sin is of the devil/slanderer/false accuser; for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: Whosoever does not do righteousness/what is right is not of God, neither he that does not love his brother.
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that Wicked One, and slew his brother. (Gen 4:1-11) And why did he slay him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.”
1 John 3:7-12
As Jesus was the Son of God manifest, so those who falsely accused him and put him to death were the sons of the devil manifest. And so are those who follow.
Looking into God’s Word is the only path to Wisdom and Understanding in order to discern what is the Truth and what is false. His WORD is TRUTH! His judgments are Righteous!
“Be, therefore, followers of God, as dear children… Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the Light: for whatsoever does make manifest is Light. Wherefore he said, ‘Awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you Light.”
Ephesians 5:11-14
The High Priest of the LORD
“As many as I love, I rebuke/correct and chasten/instruct, be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if anyone will hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
“It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing: the Words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life.”
Jesus – Revelation 3:19-20, Gospel of John 6:63
“Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High Priest, who is set on the Right Hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens, a Minister of the Sanctuary, and of the true Tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man… Who serve as the example and shadow of Heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the Tabernacle. For, ‘See’, He said, ‘that you make all things according to the pattern shown to you in the Mount‘. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better Covenant, which was established upon better promises.”
Barnabas – Hebrews 8:1-6