MasterTruth

Jesus is in Charge of Wisdom

Hidden wisdom is another way to look at God’s secrets. He is the Master at hiding deep eternal truth. But what is the point, you may wonder. Does one need a master’s degree to learn this wisdom? Some think so and would urge you to enroll in their Bible college. But then, what chance does a young or simple-minded person (who can’t afford Bible college) have to know the deep things of God?

There’s an answer for that, and it’s found in what I’d consider the passage of full mention on the mysteries of God. You will want to get to know the Bible study rule of “full mention.” That is, any topic you are curious about in the Bible has at least one spot that explains it thoroughly. Start there in your study of whatever the topic is.

When it comes to the hidden wisdom or the deep things of God, the go-to passage is 1 Cor. 2:7-16. In a nutshell, the way to learn God’s hidden wisdom is by the Spirit of God. Those without God’s Spirit living in them will never comprehend God’s mysteries or His deep truths. He hides them from non-believers. Remember that God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and at salvation, His Spirit comes to live in us (John 14:17, Col. 1:27, 1 John 4:4).

Everyone else… how can they possibly grasp deep spiritual things when they don’t have the Spirit?

It turns out, Jesus loved the beauty of wisdom hidden from smart knuckleheads. 

“At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” (Matt. 11:25)

Babes. Let’s call them the poor simple-minded we considered above who know Jesus. The fact that they know Jesus isn’t even because of their limited smarts. Because God wants the glory for what we know. Two verses after Jesus praised God for revealing things to babes, he said, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matt. 11:27). We’re bumping into another mystery of God we will never fully grasp, and that is His sovereignty combined with His choices. An unregenerated mind will look at that concept, and the closest they will come to understanding it is naming it fate. That is, “stuff happens for whatever cosmic reason.” God’s air breathed into that equals His sovereignty. God knows hearts, and He knows who to entrust with the truths of Jesus. Even Jesus didn’t entrust Himself to everyone. He knew those who believed in Him only because of His miracles. With that knowledge of people’s hearts, He knew who to commit himself to and who not to (John 2:23-25).

Don’t cry “foul!” too soon. You don’t know enough about the secrets of God and who he reveals them to to judge yet. His truths are treasures—pearls He won’t cast before swine.

Tell me what you think. Jody

The Mysteries of God in the Water

Waters can be calming and healing, but they can be terrible, stormy and destructive—a conduit of testing. They demonstrate both the mercy and severity of God.

“Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.” (Ps 77:19)

We can see the surface of the dichotomy of water reflected in the Bible. He leads me beside the still waters (Ps 23:2), while His throne in heaven is surrounded by water (Ezek. 47:1-12).  His son came down to earth as the Living Water (John 4:13-14), while in the day of Noah, the earth was flooded with water. How was it that only one family remained after this tragedy? Wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water (1Pet 3:20).

Others were saved by water. Remember the Israelites’ crossing of the Red Sea? The miraculous parting of the sea that saved His chosen fell back into place and drowned their enemies. (Ex. 15:4-6)

And when the Israelites became thirsty as they wandered in the wilderness, God miraculously and mysteriously made a fountain from a rock for them to drink from. It pictured Christ, the Living Water, and was a place of testing for them. Would they believe God or not? Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah Selah. (Psa. 81:7).

In Christ’s day, there was a pool of water in Jerusalem that an angel would occasionally stir, and whatever infirm person was first into the pool after the stirring of the water would be healed (John 5:4). But one day Jesus walked by, fastened his eyes on one impotent man who had suffered from some infirmity for 38 years, and simply spoke healing to him, and he was healed (5:9). He was saved by Water of a different kind.

For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. (Psa. 36:9)

People who need healing (mental, emotional and physical) turn to all kinds of things for healing and reprieve. Some of those things might work for awhile, but the secret is that healing is with the Lord, and there is no substitute. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jer. 2:13) Don’t run from the living water. Draw from it. Make no other substitutes.

Now let’s look at the more severe nature of water. It is the stuff of storms—literally and figuratively. While we don’t know why storms come into our lives, often unexpectedly, we know one secret: Jesus is in control of it all. What looms to drown us is simply a walking path for Jesus. (Matt. 14:22-33). He walked on the stormy sea and impressed Peter enough that Peter asked if he could also walk on the water. And he did, until he saw the boisterous wind. He had enough presence of mind to pray “save me,” and Jesus did. But the lesson was O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? The waters were his testing ground.

Remember the mysterious verse we are looking at: Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. (Psa. 77:19) Jesus is equally unaffected with waters, choppy or calm. Once he was asleep in the boat with the disciples during a storm, and they woke him and asked Him to save them or they would perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! (Matt. 8:26-27)

It escaped them, and often us, that God made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in it. (Psa. 146:6) Turbulence to us is finger painting to God. His very voice is associated with the roaring of water. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder. (Rev. 14:2a) No less than five verses describe his voice as like that of many waters.

Hopefully, we’ve caught a glimpse of the mysteries of God in water. There’s one more to think about: There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most high. (Psa. 46:4) God’s throne is surrounded by water from which the tree of life grows that we will be able to eat freely from. (Rev. 22:1-2) The mysteries of water will be made plain when we see Him. For now, waters show us the perfect mercies, judgment and testing of God.

Jody

The Secrets of God

Don’t you hate it when everyone around you knows a secret—the same secret—and you don’t? Your mission becomes to find out what everyone else knows so you can be in on it.

But now, what if the one with the secret is God? Are you curious? The truth is, God does have secrets. It raises many questions. Does he intend to keep them secrets, or does He like to share His secrets? Here’s an answer: “The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.” (Psalm 25:14) “For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous.” (Proverbs 3:32)

Just a casual look and you can see that not only does God have secrets, He likes to tell them, but only to certain people—those who fear Him and the righteous, according to these verses.

Those two verses are enough to make me curious. Why does He have secrets? What are they? Who all does He show them to, and who does He hide His secrets from? Where do I find out these secrets? Why would God show them to some people and not to others? Why is it a good idea to find out the secrets?

For some perspective to this discussion of God’s secrets, let’s start here: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33) Whatever I learn of God’s secrets is just a drop in the bucket of the magnitude of what God knows. After all, He’s the creator God with a master plan for everything that happens to everyone that lives. “For in him we live, and move, and have our being…” (Acts 17:28a)

Consider Job, who had everything taken from him—from his family, to his possessions, to his health. The giant secret was why? The whole book is an account of him and his friends trying to figure it out and explain it. His friends often get a bad rap, but one of them said something truly profound: “Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?” (Job 11:7) The answer is no.

It’s worth a read to hear what God said in the end (Job 38-41). In a long discussion of His creation, God divulged a lot of prophesy, though He didn’t answer the simple question of why. But He did reveal secrets. While Job didn’t get the why, he got the bigger picture. We know why from the side discussion between God and Satan in chapter 1 that Job was not privy to. I guess you could say we know the secret that Job didn’t hear. But Job got the wisdom he needed to not question God, but rather to bow to His power and sovereignty.

We may not get the answer to some secrets, but we have access to unimaginable mysteries. Immense curiosity and a humble prayer for wisdom is what it takes to learn them. Do you have that curiosity? If so, you can learn some of the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

Stay tuned. We will explore secrets and mysteries further. In the meantime, tell me what you think.

Jody