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1Corinthians 1:21
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.
It sounds kinda like a cop out to say one can’t figure out. After God is all powerful and all knowing, thus human beings being quite inferior, should fear him, and let him be sovereign. Though it may sounds unfathomable, its quite true, at least of the God of the Christians. God is unknowable in the normal course of human affairs. All our efforts to know God fall flat, because of his vast superiority to the human pedigree. It takes a sovereign act of grace on the part of God to extend knowledge of himself to us.
My background is computers, and having earned a computer science degree, I have technical knowledge that others may not have. But even with that I cant imagine trying to explain to my eight year old, the mechanics of logic, programming, or the internet routing protocol that computers adhere to enabling communication over the web. It may sound quite incredulous, or overwhelming to her. At this point in her life, she is without the foundation or maturity to comprehend.
Similarly, God as it were lives in a “different dimension”, and his order of knowledge is completely higher than that of humanity. In God’s world, the miraculous is normal, and extraordinary is ordinary.
Prophet Isaiah writes of him the following
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Isaiah 40:12
He is timeless and spaceless, but yet he unfolds events and interacts with humanity, through time and space.
So what does it take to know God?
The first is humility. Pride was the stumbling block in the Corinthian church. Because of their pride they had in fact made themselves foolish, they balked at the wisdom of God, maybe not in so many words but by their prideful boasting. Paul could not tell them the deep things of the gospel, instead he had to spoon-feed them because of their pride. Humility is the appropriate posture to receive knowledge from God. Where you and I as part of Gods created beings defer to him, and his way of doing things. In this posture he can reveal to us hidden mysteries and secrets untold to all except those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:6-9)
A second prerequisite for wisdom is God given faith. As children tend to believe a loving parent’s promise, the father wants us to exhibit faith in approaching him and his word. I know for me, I’m thrilled when my daughters eyes light up with joy at the promise of a fun daddy day. Similarly God is pleased when we believe in him, and showers us with rewards, that include the knowledge of him.
Paul’s desire for the Corinthians is that they would be wise but not in the selfish vain glorious ways of the world but in humble dependence upon an all powerful God.
Another prerequisite for wisdom is love. Love not just from the father but from us his children. King Solomon the wisest man in the Old Testament loved God’s ordinances, and because of that he was given wisdom. Paul tells us that God has prepared unfathomable hidden wisdom, only for the ears of those who are in love with him. (1 Cor 2;9) This wisdom is hidden from the world, who don’t know him, much less love him.
Surely one cannot figure God out, but he does make himself known to his children who in simple childlike faith, come to depend on a loving father who graciously bestows wisdom on all who would dare to believe in him.
– Pastor Olu Jegede