God's Wisdom

What is the wisdom of God? Is something we can fully understand? Is something we can see? Feel? Touch? Today I hope give you a better understanding of God’s Wisdom. My hope that you walk away praising God for who He is and how He loves us.

Before we get into the the definition of Wisdom, I want to start by quoting Tozer:

The wisdom of God is something to be taken on faith... we do not reason in order that we might believe, but we reason because we already believe. If I have to reason myself into faith, then I can be reasoned back out of it again. But faith is an organ of knowledge; if I know something by faith, I will reason about it. For this reason I make no attempt to prove God’s wisdom. If I tried to prove that God is wise, the embittered soul would not believe it anyway, no matter how perfect and convincing the proofs I might bring. And the worshiping heart already knows that God is wise and does not need to have it proved. So I will not attempt to prove anything, but simply begin with the statement that God is wise.

Tozer, A. W., & Fessenden, D. E. (2001–). The attributes of God: Deeper into the Father’s heart (Vol. 2, pp. 124–125). WingSpread.

Proverbs 3:19

By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place.

Jeremiah 10:12

But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

To sum up Tozer and these two passages:

1. We do not reason that we should believe / we reason because we already believe

2. We don’t need to prove God is Wise / God is Wise because God is God.

So as we start thinking through the Wisdom of God, we have knowledge (not a hope or guess) but knowledge that God is Wise.

Many people may ask the question “if God is Wise and Good, why do bad things happen to good people?” I think this is a great question to ask. The simple answer is SIN.

God created everything good - Genesis 1:26 - 2:18But Satan tempted the first Adam and his wife Eve - he whispered in their ears saying “betray God” “you’re better than Him” “He’s hiding something from you”Adam and Even disobeyed God and from that moment on all of creation groaned.

Romans 8:19-22

19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

God’s wise plan will happen, it just isn’t going to be complete until the end of the world as we know it.

That was the introduction and now that brings us to how we can define wisdom.

Wisdom Defined

Wisdom is the ability to see the end from the beginning, to see everything in proper relation and in full focus. It is to judge in view of final and ultimate ends and to work toward those ends with flawless precision. God Almighty must be flawlessly precise

Tozer, A. W., & Fessenden, D. E. (2001–). The attributes of God: Deeper into the Father’s heart (Vol. 2, p. 130). WingSpread.

God doesn’t make mistakes. He’s always right all the time.

God’s wisdom means that God always chooses the best goals and the best means to those goals. This definition goes beyond the idea of God knowing all things and specifies that God’s decisions about what he will do are always wise decisions: that is, they always will bring about the best results (from God’s ultimate perspective), and they will bring about those results through the best possible means.

Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine (p. 193). Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.

As we have discussed before, there are some things of God that we can have similarities to like (love, mercy, happiness) and this is one attribute of God that we can have, wisdom, but just like those attributes of God this attribute, Wisdom, is different than our earthly wisdom.

God’s Wisdom Is Infinite

God is all wise, he can’t be a little wise here and there, he’s always wise all the time, because he’s an infinite God. An Infinite God has Infinite Wisdom.

Proverbs 3:19

By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place;

God’s Wisdom Revealed

Jesus was the only one worthy to open the scrolls.

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” 11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

The New International Version (Re 5:9–12). (2011). Zondervan.

God’s wisdom is also seen in his great plan of redemption. Christ is “the wisdom of God” to those who are called (1 Cor. 1:24, 30), even though the word of the cross is “foolishness” to those who reject it and think themselves to be wise in this world (1 Cor. 1:18–20). Yet even this is a reflection of God’s wise plan: “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe … God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise … so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor. 1:21, 27, 29).

Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine (p. 193). Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.

An interesting point to make is that some people may look or may have looked at Jesus on the cross and think how can God be revealing Himself there on the cross, while Jesus is dyeing and bleeding?

Precisely the opposite was happening, God was reveling his Wisdom through the death and resurrection of His one and only Son Jesus.

20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

The New International Version (1 Co 1:20–25). (2011). Zondervan.

“The wisdom of God is something to be taken on faith... we do not reason in order that we might believe, but we reason because we already believe.”

Do you have faith or are you still searching? If you’ve gotten this far in the teaching I’m guessing you’re searching. What is it that is keeping you from believing? There is no amount of “proof” that will convince a person, there comes a point where you just need to have faith and believe. Don’t listen to the world where they try and tell you there is no God....or how could a loving God let bad things happen. That is from Satan, he wants to confuse everyone, he wants you to not believe. He wants you to question everything, demand proof, because the more time you spend searching for answers that can’t be answered, it will keep you from believing. Don’t listen to this nonsense, cry out to God, repent and turn to Him. Put your faith in Him. He is the all Wise One.

For those of you who have believed, who have faith to know that God is Wise and can be trusted, praise God! Live your life worthy of this, don’t waste your life with frivolous things, things that will fade, things that in the end won’t last. Press hard, continue fighting the fight, don’t give up, it will be worth it all one day!