Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? (Isaiah 40:13)
The idea of wisdom preoccupied the ancients, especially the Greeks, whose interest gave us the word philosophy, the “love of wisdom.” Socrates, reputed the wisest man, claimed he was wise because he realized he knew so little, advocating self-knowledge as wisdom’s starting point. Proverbs tells us Socrates was wrong: proper fear of the Lord, not self-knowledge, is the beginning of wisdom.
Wisdom is not something we create or find: James 1 teaches us that God gives wisdom to those who ask for it in faith. Wisdom comes from God, because it is one of His attributes. As had the book of Proverbs (chs. 3 and 8 especially) before him, so Isaiah highlights the display of God’s wisdom in His creative work.
For the millennia from Adam’s naming of the animals in Eden onward, humans have sought to understand the mysteries and wonders of the natural world — a world God spoke into existence in six days. Outer space’s vastness boggles our minds, and a single cell’s DNA information density overwhelms us — and all of this is the product of the divine mind. Out of nothing, He brought this rich complexity. Our God is incomparable!
How most exact is Nature’s Frame!
How wise th’ Eternal Mind!
His Counsels never change the Scheme
That his first Thoughts design’d. (Isaac Watts)
God’s creation shows His all-surpassing wisdom just as clearly as it shows His immense power.
Originally published in God’s Revivalist. Used by permission.
