THE WISDOM OF GOD

W. McKillop

Isaiah 11: 1–4 (to “meek of the earth”); Proverbs 9: 1–4 (to “hither”); Luke 7: 34, 35; Romans 11: 33–36

We were speaking in the reading last night about wisdom, and I would seek, with the Lord’s help to pursue the thought further. Wisdom, as we know, is an attribute of God, and one that is spoken of as existing even before creation according to Proverbs 8. Like other attributes of God it came into activity in regard of the creation, especially the creation of man, and has entered into God’s operations ever since. I have no doubt that the wisdom of God entered into His purpose and into His counsel. What He purposed and the way that He intended to bring it about involved His wisdom.

As we think of these things according to Paul’s doxology in Romans 11, it would lead us to be worshipful as in the presence of God in His wisdom. Isaiah prophetically presents to us the blessed Man who was characterised by wisdom, and who was the expression of it. We might say that the supreme expression of the wisdom of God was the incarnation of Christ. In a Man what God is in His nature and in His attributes, including wisdom, came so near to man, and is so near to us yet. Of course, wisdom entered in the greatest way into the death of Christ. God removed morally the entire order of things that was contrary to Him, and in the resurrection of Christ introduced an order of things in His wisdom that answered to His nature.

We do well to ponder the blessed Man who was here among men as spoken of in Isaiah; who was marked by the Spirit of Jehovah resting upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah. How supremely wisdom came out in our Lord Jesus Christ as coming among men. Doubtless there was great wisdom in the fact that the Lord sought not to change anything publicly while He was here. He did not seek to remove Caesar or Pilate, nor did He seek to replace Caiaphas or Annas. These matters remained untouched. When one spoke to Him saying, Speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me, the Lord made it plain in His wisdom that He was not dealing with such matters, if we keep in mind, beloved brethren, that He exhorts us in Matthew 11 to “learn from me”, we would quickly understand, as we get wisdom from God, that it is not our part to want to change anything here, or to regulate matters between persons, or to take up things that are outside our responsibility as assembly persons.

I suppose this reference to a shoot out of the stock of Jesse is really an allusion to the Person of Christ because it antedates David. In Revelation the Lord said, I am the root of David. This expression, “a shoot out of the stock of Jesse”, would allude to the divine Person who came into manhood. He brought with Him in infinite fulness and perfection every attribute of God.

He is the One that I would seek to interest us in, particularly as wisdom. James would encourage us by saying, “But if any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God”, James 1: 5. I would suggest that if nobody lacked wisdom, James would not have written that. Clearly he contemplates that there will be a lack of wisdom, but that it can be supplied by persons asking God for it. And remember he tells us what the characteristics of the wisdom from above are.

It is a greatly needed matter that we should be characterised by the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, and so on. It centres in this blessed Man, a sphere of wisdom and understanding. It is touching that divine perfection is presented to us in a Man as a Model for us. These seven things spoken of are intended to affect us so that we desire to take them on as learning from Him. We shall not learn wisdom by study, but we shall learn it in company with Christ.

It says, “he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears”. I would suggest, beloved brethren, that it is a feature of divine wisdom forming us and characterising us that we are marked not by the sight of our eyes, or the hearing of our ears, but by spiritual discernment. The Spirit of Christ would really be what is said here—the spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of Jehovah. I would encourage us, therefore, to draw near to Christ, and learn from Him so that we might be characterised by these blessed features. You remember that the apostle had to ask the Corinthians, Is there not a wise man among you? He did not say that there was not, or that there was not a wise woman, but he raised the question in order to exercise them because there were things happening among them that were out of keeping with the thought of wisdom, and yet they had the advantage of God having made Christ to be wisdom to them, which is an advantage we have too. We were noting last night that God has made Him to be wisdom to us, wisdom that is divine at the source, and it is in this Person. As we draw near to Him we shall find that we acquire wisdom, and that the principle on which God operated in creation, according to Proverbs 8, will be the principle on which we operate in our localities.

I refer to Proverbs 9 because it shows that wisdom involves the ability to provide what is structural. The previous chapter shows God used wisdom in the creation itself. We know, as instructed believers, that the actual Person who was operating in this way mediatorially in the creation was Christ, the One who is said, as He comes into manhood, to be God’s wisdom.

Wisdom is to lead to a structural result; “Wisdom hath built her house”. I think we could connect that rightly with Acts 2; it was evident that wisdom’s house was there, and spiritual resource from God was there available to men. Wisdom

hath built her house, that would be a place of habitation; it is also a place of ornamentation—

“she hath hewn out her seven pillars”; further it is a place of provision—“she hath slaughtered her cattle, she hath mingled her wine, she hath also prepared her table”.

Wisdom’s house was found in Acts 2, as they came under the sound of the glad tidings.

Indeed what had been established by the coming down of the Spirit from Christ on high was the house. There was a place of provision, of light and of satisfaction.

It was also a structure from which the word went out, as it says, “she hath sent forth her maidens—she crieth upon the summits of the high places of the city”. What went out was really from wisdom’s house and persons were greatly affected by it, and the appeal of the Holy Spirit at the present time is in this word, “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither”.

Wisdom in this chapter is a feminine thought; it would point to what is worked out subjectively in persons. Also something is going out in the way of testimony, something in the word of God which is to appeal to persons who are simple. We would like to think that there are no spiritually simple persons among us, but perhaps we only need to review our own histories, our own households, our own localities, to see that this cry of wisdom is urgent. The Spirit of God really intends that the dispensation should finish with persons who are certainly simple as to that which is evil but wise as to that which is good. His cry, His speaking, His service, are all intended to bring about a state of spiritual maturity, and to establish in every locality a company of persons who are characteristically divinely wise, having been made so as having been in company with Christ.

So in chapter 14 we find that “The wisdom of women buildeth their house”, Proverbs 14: 1. If we think of Solomon, we think of him as the great builder in the Old Testament, typical of Christ. What we have here refers to what is working out subjectively among us. It is not

the wisdom of the king or the wisdom of men, but “The wisdom of women buildeth their house”. It would point to how what is constructive is going on in every locality, because there are persons who are formed in wisdom; persons who are delivered from the working of their natural minds, and who are delivered from their natural feelings and sentiments, but who understand what the pattern of the house is. You will remember that Ezekiel was told to declare to them the pattern of the house. The pattern of the house has been declared to us, especially in Paul’s ministry. But in the Lord’s goodness again in the ministries of the recovery the pattern of the house, and divine wisdom in its structure and function have been abundantly declared to us.

What we want now is to be working together in building our house, because it says, “their house”; it is a collective thought, the wisdom of women. They are not interfering with one another, they are not at odds about what the pattern is; they are subject persons, and the truth has had scope in them subjectively, for they are spoken of as women, and they are building their house. It is a wonderful way to view our localities, that as persons who are subjectively formed after Christ by the Spirit of God, we are able to work together constructively in wisdom. The contrast is folly, “folly plucketh it down with her hands”, Proverbs 14: 1. I suppose the system about us, which is spoken of in Ephesians 6, the universal lords of this darkness, and in Colossians 1, the authority of darkness, is really what folly is, and it is all destructive. We cannot but sorrow over the moral destruction that we see about us, but there is this constructive work going on, “The wisdom of women buildeth their house”. We might say that was God’s house and it is; it is Christ’s too. He is Son over it, and He has built it. But here the saints are being credited with working constructively, and so it is called their house. They are acting in wisdom on constructive lines so that the thing is definitely established, and known to be such. It is as though the Lord would say, I am pleased with what is going on in the place, and it is yours—“The wisdom of women buildeth their house”.

The passage in Luke involves that not only does wisdom have a house, and not only are there women who are building their house in wisdom, but there also are wisdom’s children. The woman in this chapter would clearly be one of wisdom’s children because she is neither engaged with the splendour of the Pharisee’s house, nor is she deterred by it, but she is occupied with the blessed Man in whom the spirit of wisdom is seen. The form which wisdom took in her case, was the exercise of grace in forgiveness, so her heart was bound up with Christ. There are others, as we go through the gospels and we come to the Acts, who are wisdom’s children. Saul of Tarsus, after his conversion, was one of wisdom’s children; he was immediately subject. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and he exhibited that, saying, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? All the plans and purposes that he had engaged in before were all discarded, and he is now following the will of Another. That is the beginning of wisdom; it is one of the marks of wisdom’s children that they are ready for the Lord’s bidding. So he is told, “enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”, Acts 9: 6. One of wisdom’s children would show that this great feature of subjection and obedience to the Lord is so marked that without hesitation he goes. It is a great thing that we should evidence that we are children of wisdom by unquestioning obedience to the Lord.

As you go through the Acts further you find, for instance, in chapter 16 certain women who are characteristically engaged in prayer; they would be wisdom’s children. They are outside of the city by the riverside, but they are engaged in prayer—wisdom’s children, outside the life of the city, but in touch with God, so they become assembly material. You might say that Lydia stands out in that regard, justifying wisdom; the Lord opened her heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul, and she said, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there”, Acts 16: 15. She justified wisdom in the way she related herself to Paul. I would ask every one of us, young and middle-aged and older. How are you currently relating to Paul and his ministry? Paul is the last word as to assembly matters. The Lord took him up as an elect vessel, and he brought out, as gifted of the Lord, in a most remarkable way, the whole counsel of God, and he has the last word in all matters pertaining to the assembly.

Today, the exercise for every one of us who are among wisdom’s children is that we are relating ourselves to Paul, and what underlies that is faithfulness to the Lord. Her heart was opened to attend to things spoken by Paul, but she said, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord”. Underlying our acceptance and practice of what Paul has ministered is faithfulness to Christ. The Lord says, about those who scorned Him as being a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners, “wisdom has been justified of all her children”. What a triumph it is for God that in these cities and villages where we live, where the will of man is so rampant, and where his folly as under the power of Satan is so evident, there are persons who are justifying divine wisdom in having taken them up. They are characterised by subjection and faithfulness, and attending to the things spoken by Paul.

So if we attend to the things spoken by Paul, there would be, I believe, two great matters before us; one, divine Persons themselves; the other, the assembly. You can understand why Paul prayed that the Ephesians, to whom he opened out all these things, should get from the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him”, Ephesians 1: 17. I fully believe, beloved brethren, that the Lord intends that those of us who are walking in fidelity to Him and in separation from evil, before the dispensation finishes, are to understand unhinderedly the working among us of the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God. Those of us who serve in any little way might well make that a major item in our private prayers. Another item we may well take up and be urgent about in our private prayers is what he said in chapter 3. “in reading it, ye can understand my intelligence in the mystery of the Christ”, Ephesians 3: 4. I should not like to finish my time in this dispensation as a person who is partially knowledgeable and partially ignorant about the mystery of the Christ. I am sure there is nobody here who wants to finish his time, or the dispensation, if the Lord comes for us all soon, as a person who is only partially spiritually intelligent, because only partially formed by this glorious truth, and only partially having the experience of it in the Spirit’s power. I am not saying that is so about anybody, but I am just urgent that all of us should have these things before us—the full knowledge of God, and Paul’s intelligence in the mystery of the Christ—and that we should lay ourselves out to go in for these.

I believe that enters into what I read at the end of Romans 11. It says, “O depth of riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” There is no allusion to height here, it is depth. I think Paul is saying that to enter into this, to the extent that redeemed creatures indwelt by the Spirit of God can, we must be increasingly affected by the depths involved. “O depth of riches”. Think of the depth involved in the incarnation; think of the depth involved when Christ went into the lower parts of the earth. What depths these are! How they bring out both the wisdom and knowledge of God. How the apostle would set this before us in order to attract us into it. He says, “how unsearchable his judgments”. We often say we do not fully understand the ways of God; we do not; but I do think He fully intends us to understand His purpose. I do think He intends us to fully understand His counsels of love. I do think He intends us to understand “This mystery is great”, as the apostle said, “but I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly”, Ephesians 5: 32. We may not understand God’s ways among the nations, or even in the things that may happen physically in the bodies of the saints, but there are things that are open to us, and the Spirit of God would strengthen us to go in for these things and understand them through formation and experience.

As he finishes he says, “For of him, and through him, and for him are all things”. God, in His infinite blessedness is before the heart and mind of the apostle, and it bows him in worship.

In saying everything is “of him” Paul is referring, of course, to what is of God, what is spiritual; and “through him” which would be operational; and “for him”, that all is intended to return to God, especially in that vessel of glory, the assembly in Christ Jesus, in which there is glory to God throughout all generations of the age of ages. So he says, “to him be glory for ever, Amen”. His soul now is full of the wonderful knowledge of God, not just in regard of creation, great as that is, but in regard of the whole realm of divine purpose; how it has proceeded from God and how He is operating to bring us into it responsively and intelligently. So he says, “to him be glory for ever”. How our souls would rise up as affected by what the apostle is saying in this responsive note of worship to God. God is before us in His infinite blessedness, but so near to us in Christ; God known by us in Christ, and whom we serve intelligently in the power of the Holy Spirit. I commend these simple thoughts to the brethren that we might see the prime value of wisdom at the present time, and how worthwhile it is to acquire wisdom from God, that we might be engaged in this wonderful matter of worship to Him. May God bless the word.

Address at Cumnock
23 October 1998