How Wise is God?

The twentieth century produced an information explosion unparalleled in human history-instant access to volumes of konwledge at the click of a mouse. Yet with all we've learned and with all that's been written, man's wisdom is still impotent to answer life's most basic spiritual questions, and to make life's most important choices. With all our accumlated knowledge and technological advances most of humankind still lives utterly foolishly. Knowledge is not enough; wisdom is needed to save us from ourselves.

Because of the expansive knowledge that has been unlocked over the past hundred-fifty years, we can now experience things that before were found only in science-fiction novels. And we can now do things that ethicists aren't sure we should do. Or to put it another way, we now have the ability to understand and achieve things that before were impossible, but not the wisdom to decide whether we should do them or not. Again, what is needed is wisdom, and not wisdom that comes from the direction of man, but wisdom that comes from above, from God Himself.

Webster defines wisdom as "the quality of being wise; the power to judge rightly; and following the soundest course of action based on knowledge, experience, and understanding." Wisdom is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means. Wisdom sees the end from the beginning, so there's no need to guess or conjecture. The wisdom of God then is the attribute of God whereby He produces the best possible results by the best possible means. How can we tap into the wisdom that comes from above, from God?

We attain God's wisdom first, by fearing Him. Proverbs 9:10 assures us that "the beginning of wisdom for man is to fear God." Wisdom is vitally connected with the reverence toward, and obedience to God. Secondly, we attain God's wisdom by asking for it. We are clearly taught in Scripture that "if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives genereously to all without reproach" (James 1: 5).

God's infinite wisdom is revealed...

* Through Creation- Psalm 19:1-7; Psalm 104:24
* Through Providence- Psalm 33:10-11; Romans 8:28
* Through Redemption- 1 Corinthians 2:6-10

God's almighty wisdom is always active, and never fails. All His works in creation and providence and grace displays it. And we cannot know His wisdom until we know the end toward which He is working. What is His purpose? He plans to gather a great host of people to honor and worship Him for all eternity. To that end He is moving, and for that end we are called to cooperate with Him.