The Knowledge of the Holy: The Wisdom of God
[Editor’s Note: This is a 23-Day Series exploring different aspects of God’s nature and personality, using Tozer’s “The Knowledge of the Holy” as a discussion starter. You can read the introduction of the series here.]
Trusting the person who knows everything becomes easier when we are convinced of the character of the person who has the knowledge. Yesterday we read and wrote and spoke about God’s omniscience, His ability to know everything. Today we read about God’s wisdom. The two ideas, knowledge and wisdom, are often confused in our day, but they are essentials that build our trust in God. The enemy desires to convince us that God either isn’t knowledgeable or that He is not wise. If he can win either battle, we will be worse off. And so this topic of God’s wisdom must be understood and lived out.
Our natural minds want to come to the conclusion that God is not wise. We look around and see so much wrong that it is difficult to come to another conclusion. Tozer reminds us that this attribute must be understood by faith. We believe it and then we understand. In our understanding, we come to a place where we understand the world is marred by the sin of man and subject to frustration. This world we see, though birthed in the wisdom of God, is tainted by man trying to move in his own wisdom.
Wisdom, according to the Bible, is not just informational, but full of moral qualities: love, purity, and justice. We’ve known smart but impure people: we call them shrewd. But God is full of wisdom, not just all-knowing, but full of the qualities that make us willing to put our trust in Him. Many times it’s easy to look at what God does and conclude that He is not wise. But we have to understand that God is devising a perfect end and achieving through a perfect means. God is doing the most good for the most people for the longest period of time in all of His dealings with us.
Our belief in God’s wisdom–that He is working on our behalf for our good–get’s tested in our daily actions. We so often plan our own strategy, pray some, strive for our best interests…and as Tozer points out, with all of this activity, we still fear we will miss our best good. Tozer points us to a better way–hate our wisdom and fall on the wisdom of God. Believe He operates in wisdom for us, even though some times we may not see it.
I know in my own life, this has been a struggle. It’s easy to doubt God’s wisdom when life takes a turn that is painful. These are the places where I must remind myself that God is more committed to my eternal happiness than I am. This is a powerful reality that I think we rarely feel. Like toddlers who feel their parents must hate them when they are punished for playing with knives, we so often feel God doesn’t have our good at heart. But this is where we must mature- in trusting that our Creator sees better than we do.
Jesus tells us the same thing: If our earthly Fathers are evil and they give good gifts to their children, then how much more will our heavenly Father seek to give good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11)? It’s this understanding that God knows our needs (omniscience) coupled with His willingness to do us good (wisdom) that satisfies our hearts that he is truly trustworthy. And this is one area I need to grow in immensely. I need to be able to trust God when I cannot see the good God is currently doing for me.
I’ll finish by quoting Tozer:
It is heartening to learn how many of God’s mighty deeds were done in secret, away from the prying eyes of men or angels…When the Eternal Son became flesh, He was carried for a time in the darkness of the sweet virgin’s womb. When He died for the life of the world, it was in the darkness, seen by no one at the last. When he arose from the dead, it was “very early in the morning.” No one saw Him rise. It was as if God were saying, “What I am is all that need matter to you, for there will lie your hope and peace. I will do what I will do, and it will all come to light at last, but how I do it is My secret. Trust me, and be not afraid.”
What was your take away from today’s reading? Let us know in the comment section.
It’s not to late for you to join in with us. You can catch up in the posts below:
The Knowledge of the Holy Series
Day 1: Why We Must Think Rightly About God
Day 3: A Divine Attribute: Something True About God
Day 5: The Self Existence of God
Day 6: The Self Sufficiency of God
Day 9: The Immutability of God
Day 10: The Divine Omniscience
Day 11: The Wisdom of God
Day 12: The Omnipotence of God
Day 13: The Divine Transcendence
Day 14: God’s Omnipresence
Day 15: The Faithfulness of God
Day 16: The Goodness of God
Day 17: The Justice of God
Day 18: The Mercy of God
Day 19: The Grace of God
Day 20: The Love of God
Day 21: The Holiness of God
Day 22: The Sovereignty of God
Day 23: The Open Secret
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Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 
I truly believe that most times we do not see the wisdom of God in the world because we have different goals than God does. We say we should go this way because our goal is that way, but God see a greater goal that goes in a different and many times more difficult direction.