Tag: God’s wisdom

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1 Corinthians

To know the mind of God

1 Corinthians

The thing about dealing with an invisible God is that you will never know anything about him unless he reveals himself to you. And even when he does, what he tells you will be beyond you unless he gives you a heart that understands.

That’s one of the wonders of grace and salvation. That though we can’t see him, he revealed himself to us.

And though we didn’t have hearts that could grasp what he was saying, he brought enlightenment to us through his Spirit.

That’s what we see in this passage.

Paul asks,

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:11)

I’ve always told my wife, “Much as I’d like to be able to, I can’t read your mind. If something is bothering you, tell me.”

It can be difficult to read people sometimes. What are they thinking? What are they feeling? What are they planning?

And if it’s difficult to read people who we can see, how much more difficult is it to read God who we can’t see?

People in their own wisdom will never be able to comprehend God or his purposes.

Paul gives an example of this in verses 7-8, when talking about God’s plan of salvation. He tells us that God had in mind from the beginning what he would do, but it was hidden from us.

God had given the Jews pictures through the sacrifices and pictures through the prophets about what needed to be done for our salvation. And yet they couldn’t grasp it.

So Paul tells us,

None of the rulers of this age understood [the wisdom of God], for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:8)

Even Caiaphas, the high priest, couldn’t grasp it, not even the words that came out of his own mouth when he said,

You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish. (John 11:50)

John said of those words,

He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. (John 11:51-52)

Talk about God using you in spite of yourself. But Paul’s words in verse 14 are a perfect description of Caiaphas.

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

High priest though Caiaphas was, had someone told him that Jesus had to die for the sins of the people, he would have thought they were crazy.

Why? Because he was without the Spirit in his life.

But we who are Christians do. For Paul tells us,

However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”– but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

And again,

We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. (1 Corinthians 2:12)

And yet again,

“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)

Do we understand all things now? Of course not. There are still many things we see dimly.

Even salvation, which is one of the clearest things God has revealed to us, is clouded in mystery.

But as we draw nearer to God and mature, he will reveal these things to us even more as he teaches us his spiritual truths. (1 Corinthians 2:13)

So let us pray, “Holy Spirit, open the eyes and ears of my heart that I might know you, and that I might understand all that you have prepared for me.”

And he will reveal himself to us.

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Proverbs

Softening our hearts

In my last post, I noted the dangers of hardening our hearts toward God and his wisdom.  But in this chapter, it talks about what happens when we soften our hearts.

Solomon writes,

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  (Proverbs 2:1-6)

What does it mean to soften your hearts to God and his Word?

It means to:

Accept what he says.  To say “Yes, I agree that this is good and right.”

But more than that, it means to…

Store what he says in your heart. 

Too often, we hear something, we agree with it, and then swiftly forget about it.

It’s not enough to hear and agree.  We need to meditate on God’s Word and make it a part of our lives.  We also need to…

Turn our ear to wisdom. 

When God is speaking through his Word or through a pastor or even through a friend, we need to have a heart that’s open to it.

Too often, and I admit I do this too, we just say, “Yeah, yeah.  I know, I know.  But it doesn’t apply to me.”

But a softened heart lets wisdom in and lets wisdom transform it.  How does wisdom transform a heart?

By a person applying themselves to understanding.  By asking, “What does this mean for me?  How does it apply to my life?”

We need to take the general wisdom of God, and apply it to our everyday lives.  What’s more, we need to…

Call out for insight and cry out for understanding. 

In other words, we should ask God to give us the insight and understanding to his words that we need.

When we don’t know how to apply his words to our lives, we shouldn’t just cast them aside, saying they’re irrelevant to our lives.  We should ask him.

And when we do, Solomon says,

The LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  (6)

More than that, when we commit ourselves to wisdom, and doing things his way, Solomon says we will find victory, and God will watch over us as we walk through this life.

His wisdom will protect us from falling in with wicked men (and women), and keep us away from the adulteress woman (and man).

In short, while the wicked will pass away because they rejected wisdom, we will find life.

How about you?  Do you have a heart softened toward God and his wisdom?  Are you seeking it actively?  Are you applying it to your life?

Because when you do, that’s when you find a life worth living.

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Job

A hard truth

Job

As we continue to go through Job, Job’s friends continue to hammer along the same line, insisting that Job must have done something wrong to deserve all problems he’d been suffering through.

But in the midst of their arguments and Job’s counterarguments, we face a question that is never really answered, and it’s one I’ve noted before.

The question:  Why is it that God doesn’t do more?  Why is it that when people do evil, we don’t always see them suffer for it.

Zophar’s answer is quite simple.  “Sure the wicked may prosper for a while, but eventually they will suffer for it.”

Job comes back by asking, “Really?  Then why do I see so many wicked people living on, growing older, and becoming more powerful?  Why is it that they’re enjoying their lives in safety and prosperity, even though they show disdain for God?

“You say that their children suffer for their evil actions.  But why don’t the evil themselves suffer?  They don’t care what happens after they die.  Why doesn’t God punish the evil themselves?”

Job then closes chapter 21 by saying,

So how can you console me with your nonsense?  Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!  (Job 21:34)

He continues this line in chapter 24 and ends it by sarcastically throwing their arguments in their faces and saying, “Okay, now I’m affirming what you said.  The wicked will get their just deserts.  Fine.  Now how are you going to prove it?”

The hard truth is that there are many wicked people that prosper.  That don’t get their just deserts here on earth.

And while we can console ourselves with the fact that they will indeed face judgment before God some day and receive justice, it’s still hard to understand why God doesn’t punish them now.

The ultimate answer is,  “I don’t know.”

When you look at the parable of the wheat and tares in Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus does seems to imply that it would be impossible to take out the tares (evil people) in this world without causing harm to the wheat (those who belong to God).

Perhaps one way to look at it would be this:  through the evil that people commit and the harm that they cause, some people actually turn to God.

People that would not have otherwise given a second thought to God get their world shaken, and as a result turn their eyes on the One they had long ignored.

I’ve long felt that many Japanese people, in particular, are that way.  The percentage of Christians in Japan is very low (less than one percent), and I’d guess that the majority of those that come to Christ do so as a result of some crisis in their lives.

That said, I’m not completely satisfied with the answer, nor do I feel it’s complete.

What I do think it shows, however, is that God knows more than we do.  He has purposes and reasons that we don’t know or can even understand.

It is, in fact, one of the main points of Job.  That we as his creatures with finite knowledge are in no position to question our creator who has infinite knowledge.

We’ll definitely be tackling this more in later blogs.

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Isaiah

Where wisdom comes from

Isaiah

Does God understand advanced physics? Biology? Technology? Are these things beyond him? Sometimes people tend to think that way.

Even in the time of Isaiah, people were questioning the wisdom of God. It was one of the reasons that so often, they failed to trust him.

And so God in this little speech asks the Israelites where they got their ideas for farming from.

I’d never really thought about it before, but considering that God created Adam and Eve in the garden, it was probably he in the beginning who taught Adam and Eve the basic techniques they needed to get started.

Over time, he then helped them and their descendants to discover different techniques to better grow their crops.

At the very least, he was responsible for giving them the intelligence to figure things out, if he didn’t outright tell them.

And so when he told the Israelites about all these techniques that their farmers were using, he said it is,

His God instructs him and teaches him the right way. (Isaiah 28:26)

And again,

All this wisdom comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom. (29)

So what’s the point? Everything we know originated with God. All that we have learned over the centuries, God knew from the beginning. There is nothing that we have learned that God doesn’t know.

He understands science, he understands economics, he understands psychology, he understands finances, he understands relationships, he understands everything that we need to make it through life.

And so the question is, “Why don’t we trust him?”

So often we look at God’s word and what he teaches, and we say, “But God you don’t understand. You don’t understand how our society works. You don’t understand what I need to make it through this life. If you did, you wouldn’t ask of me the things you say in your Word.”

But in saying that, we make God much smaller in our minds than he really is.

God not only created us, he knows how everything works. He didn’t make us by accident. He didn’t just snap his fingers, create everything, and then say to himself, “Now how did I do that?”

God knows. He understands. And in him is all the wisdom that we need to live life.

So let’s stop making God smaller than he really is. Let us instead see him as he truly is.

As Paul wrote,

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

“Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?”

For from him, and through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33–36)

Categories
Genesis

The power and wisdom of God

Genesis

As I read Genesis 1, God’s power and wisdom really strike me. With a word, God created. “Let there be light,” and bang! There is light. “Let there be plants and animals,” and bang! They appear.

I kind of wonder how God revealed all of this to Moses. Did he just say, “Okay, Moses, on the first day, I created light. Then on the second day…”

Or did he give Moses a time lapse vision of the whole thing. That would’ve been awesome to see.

If God did give a vision to Moses of the creation events, it might give credence to the theory that the earth is very old. Moses saw everything happening in a very short time, but actually, it took millions of years.

I know, I know. There are some of you out there that are ready to shoot me now for even suggesting this.

But considering that neither you or I were actually there, we’re just going to have to wait until heaven to find out.

Honestly, I don’t know if creation was done in 7 literal days or not. All I’m saying is that IF…IF God gave Moses a time lapse vision of the whole thing, it COULD give credence to the 7 “time period” interpretation of Genesis 1.

Speaking of how God revealed all this to Moses, I wonder how God would have explained all this if he had been talking to modern day scientists?

I wonder if God did explain it all to the scientists, could they grasp it all even now?

We’d like to think we’re so advanced. We’d like to think that if God explained it all we could grasp it.

We certainly understand more about our world and our universe than Moses did. But if God explained it all, could we really grasp it? Maybe. Maybe not.

I think scientists will have a fascinating time talking with God about all this when they get to heaven.

“Oh! Is that how it worked? We were close to the answer, but we were a bit off.” Or “Wow! We were way off on that one!”

So what’s my point? Stand in awe of God’s power and wisdom.

Sometimes we look at this world and we question God. We look at the evil that is in this world and we question why? Why does God allow earthquakes? Why does God allow murder?

In my case, I sometimes ask, “Why do I have to have diabetes? Why do I have to have ulcers?” (I have to have a checkup for both next week. Ugh!)

Some answers are simple. “Bruce, you have diabetes because you drank too much Pepsi!” Other questions, though, are much more difficult. And we struggle with them.

But if we can’t grasp the scientific questions, how can we hope to grasp the philosophical questions of life?

God’s wisdom is so much greater than ours.

There are simply some things that we’ll never understand while we’re on this earth.

There are simply some answers God will never give us because we won’t be able to grasp them even if he does give them to us.

What he does ask us to do is to trust him.

Even if we don’t understand.

Even if we never get the answers this side of heaven.

Just trust him.

Trust that he knows what he’s doing. Trust that he’s good. And even more, trust that he still does love you and that he still does care for you despite your circumstances.

That’s the lesson of Job. God never did give Job any answers to his questions of why he suffered so much.

All he said was, “You’re not qualified to judge me and what I do. You have neither my power nor my wisdom.”

And Job fell to his knees and said:

I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

You asked, “Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?”

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

You said, “Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.”

My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:2–6)

And as Job humbled himself before God, as he put his trust in God despite the circumstances, God worked to turn his situation completely around.

So whatever our situations, whatever our questions, whatever our struggles, let us stand in awe of the God who knows more than we can grasp.

More, let us trust that he does know best and has the power to transform our worst problems into something glorious.

As the apostle Paul wrote:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

“Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33–36)