The Revealing of the Wisdom of God

 

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 

(Eph. 3:8-10)(ESV)

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians that "the world did not know God through wisdom"(1 Cor. 1:21)(CSB). The philosophy of the Greeks never revealed God, and the religions of men cannot find Him. Zophar, the friend of Job, asked him a question, "Can you fathom the depths of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?"(Job 11:7)(CSB). The obvious answer was "No". God has made foolish the wisdom of this world as men seek to discover Him through their knowledge and learning. (1 Cor. 1:20).

God's wisdom is a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been made unto us wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30); and in Him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden (Col. 2:3). However, the specific way in which God's wisdom is revealed is in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is God's way of dealing with the world's sin and making people fit for His presence.

To the Jew this is a stumbling block while to the educated Gentile it is foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18,23), but to those who are saved it is the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:18,24).

The true church is composed of all who have accepted the Lord Jesus as God's Son and their Savior. They have been baptized into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:22,23).

Through this body God is making known His wisdom to the angelic realm. The church is the intermediate agency. As angels watch the growth of the church they are learning about God's wisdom. Are they learning anything from you and me? This is a searching question.

(by Dr. R.H. Belton)

A Prayer For Guidance

 

O Almighty God, when our vision fails and our understanding is darkened, when the ways of life seem hard and brightness of life is gone, grant to us the wisdom that deepens faith and enlarges trust. And whenever the ways in nature or in the soul are hard to understand, then may our quiet confidence, our patient trust, our living faith in You be great...May we with a quiet mind at all times put our trust in You. Amen.

Harold Vincent Milligan

Why Seek A God Who is Beyond Understanding?

 

How great is God -- beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.          (Job 36:26)(NIV)

There are many things about God that we will never comprehend. What does it mean for God to be self-existent---to have no beginning and no end? Such a mystery is beyond understanding. But the fact that we can never comprehend God for all that He is does not mean that we cannot have a meaningful relationship with Him.

God has most fully revealed himself to us by sending his Son Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1-3). Jesus said, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14: 9). By pursuing and cultivating a relationship with Jesus Christ, we come to know God through a being of flesh and blood. As Moses said to the people of Israel, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever (Deut. 29:29).

(from the Quest Study Bible - Zondervan)

God's Word Endures

 

Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: "Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Juday has burned." 

(Jer. 36:27-28)(ESV)

The Lord specifically instructed Jeremiah to write out on a scroll a special message of judgment for the people of Judah. But the king of Judah did not like the message, so he cut the scroll in pieces and burned it in a fire. But this did not stop God's truth from coming to Judah, for the Lord simply instructed Jeremiah to rewrite the message on another scroll--with even more prophecies than the first scroll! God's Word will always endure, despite human attempts to destroy it. Let us praise God that his truth stands forever.

GOD OF ALL TRUTH, we thank you for giving us your Word. Help us stand firm upon your truth, for it cannot be shaken. By your Spirit cause us to understand your messages in Scripture. Amen.

(from the Praise and Worship Study Bible - Tyndale House)