The Wisdom of God and Today

The LORD says: “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices” (Isa. 29:1). Very clearly is this woe directed at Jerusalem, because it says that David dwelt there, and in verse 9 it says: “It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against Zion” (Isa. 29:8). So, the text tells us that this is about Jerusalem, this woe, but also that everyone that will try to fight against it will be frustrated, like in a dream when he has eaten and is full and wakes up faint and empty, not because of Jerusalem itself but because of the LORD.

The LORD has poured out upon the spirit of the people a deep sleep and closed eyes, and their leaders and prophets have been covered. And no one can understand this vision because it is sealed and the people that should understand it, do not. And the LORD laments: “Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for even the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid” (Isa. 29:13–14). Exactly of this did Jesus accuse the Pharisees and the Scribes; they transgressed the law of God to keep their own tradition, the fear of the LORD was long gone. This is a true sign of a true believer that he fears the Lord. Today there is no fear of the LORD, nor in the society, nor in the churches, nor in the heart of men, while Isaiah states, “Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (Isa. 8:13). When we stop fearing the living God, we become lost, we start to love the world and the creation instead of the almighty Creator. We fall into idolatry, the precepts of men are getting more important than the law of God, the wisdom of the world becomes more important than the wisdom of God, but God promises that the wisdom of the wise men shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent men shall be hidden.

Here comes the grave warning: we shall not seek to hide our counsel from the LORD, which is exactly what many are doing, they try to hide their counsel from the LORD since theirs is contrary to the LORD’S. Their spiritual discernment is shut down and they believe that they know better than the Lord. The Lord is shut out from their life, from their counsel, they confess and deny Him with the same mouth. And they say: “Who seeth us? And who knoweth us?” (Isa. 29:15) Ezekiel had the same message: “Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? For they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth” (Ezek. 8:12; cf. 9:9). And Isaiah continues in his view of sinful man in general (this is about Babylon): “For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me” (Isa. 47:10). This is the natural conclusion of man’s sin–wickedness, and his knowledge and wisdom has perverted him, in denying the LORD’s sovereignty. This will always follow man’s sin.

Then comes the strong denial of the Lord’s sovereignty as Creator and King. We hear this every day, everywhere: “Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?” (Isa. 27:16). In this day of confusion, man does not seem to know who he is; is he male, or female or some other pronoun, is he heterosexual (less likely today) homosexual, bisexual, asexual, pansxeual; we hear the lies from every side: “God made me like this, just accept it,” or, “God gave me the wrong body, just accept it.” What they are saying is, that the LORD has no understanding, or that he did not make them or that he made them like that. The thing is that the LORD has made every man and woman exactly as he intended, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” (Gen. 1:27–28). The intention was to create man into either male or female that they may multiply. There is no third gender, there is male and female that they may multiply. This is God’s intention and plan; this is the created order. The church has always acknowledged and confessed that creation order until today; here it comes instead with its stroking confirmation and says that God accepts you even in your rebellion against Him. God does not care about your rebellion, he only cares about that you are feeling seen and valued and confirmed, he does not care about your sins, he does not care about your obedience. (I love the KJV bible because they usually have no chapter headings that might lead you in the wrong direction). KJV continues: “Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin” (Isa. 30:1).

These chapters in Isaiah 29–30 talk about seeking help from Egypt instead of the LORD. I want to apply it to the confusion that prevails today because the people were also confused. Remember that God used both the Assyrians and the Babylonians as his rod, they did not end up against Israel by chance, they were used by the almighty God of Israel. Amidst all of this you have people that have counsel against the Lord, false prophets, and the people are blinded by the LORD, he has poured out over them a spirit of deep sleep, they are given over because of hardness of heart. The people have a mechanical ritualism as worship far from the true worship of the regenerated man, and they have the false notion that they are wiser than God, and that they are equal with the Creator. All of this stands out today with all human wisdom and philosophy. We have a tendency to apply worldly wisdom unto spiritual things and cannot see what is truly wrong, our sin. We could read about it in the newspaper Dagen the other day (September 5, 2022) where the author claims that the church should take in more of Eros and less of Logos. He applies all the worldly wisdom he can think of and is arguing: “The repressed always eventually emerges, but then in a coarsened form. Instead of a genuine expression of the erotic, we get pornography.” He takes worldly psychology and applies it to the church’s so called repressive view of sexuality (I cannot see that the Bible has a repressive view of sexuality). He says that “even the uncontrollable eroticism must be affirmed and lived out”.

That is how the world sees it. But the world has already tried that: through the sexual revolution should man and especially women be liberated. Never has man been more bound than today. Never has the world had more problems with pornography than today. We do not need more of Eros, we need more transformed and obedient people, people that subject themselves unto Christ, unto one another. He wants to take back the so-called eroticism from the heathen cult system. Does he really know what kind of “eroticism” that was? Does he want to take back the cultic or sacred prostitution, roman orgies, or what? So, he believes that Christianity has lost something when they abandoned the heathen cultic system, and when they repressed Eros, they got instead of playful sexuality pornography. I do not see it.

This is a classical way to view problems in society, in school, in the family, in marriage. That man just needs more education, more information, more freedom. Never has man had more information, at least in the west, than today. But education, information and freedom will never save man, will never give him a satisfactory sexual life, will never save his marriage or his family. It has been very clear to me today that there is only one way, and that is regeneration and transformation by the Spirit of God. I walked this way many years ago, I thought that the wisdom of this world could give me all the answers to questions I had. I read Freud, Winnicott, Klein–they did not give any answers; then I read Kierkegaard, Frankl, May, Fromm, Heidegger, Camus–they did not give any answers; then I read Foucault, Buber, Social Psychology, Sociology–they did not give any answers. It is very clear that the wisdom of this world is nothing, the only wisdom worth to have been God’s, “For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding” (Prov. 2:6), and Paul says that God “will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Cor. 1:19–20). James is clear, there is a wisdom that is earthly, sensual (unspiritual) and devilish (demonic) (Jas. 3:15). That is the wisdom of this world.

We as Christians should stop using worldly wisdom altogether, it leads nowhere, and if it leads anywhere, it will lead us astray. God has given us all the wisdom that we need in His Word, His Word is sufficient in that way. He will give us wisdom, anyone that lacks wisdom can ask God and He will give it freely. And this following worldly wisdom is friendship with the world, and friendship with the world is enmity with God (Jas. 4:4). But the church is entangled with the world disbelieving God thinking that they need to run the congregation as a profane company trying to lure in them on the outside with worldly pleasures, without understanding that the Gospel is enough, that the Word of God is enough, that the Bible is fully sufficient in all. We should never have to go outside of the Word of God to try to understand the world we are living in. The problem with pornography in the church do not exist because the church abandoned Eros once and was holding fast to Logos, the problem is sin, and people in the church are sinners, some of them are converted sinners, others are unconverted sinners claiming they are Christians, but they have no fruit worthy of the reborn. They need to repent and be transformed.

Everything that is wrong in this world is because of man’s sin, but God has overcome this through His Son Jesus Christ. He can deliver us, He can make us free, Logos (λὀγος), the Word is the deliverer, unto His image shall we be conformed (Rom. 8:29), and we shall not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may approve what is good, the perfect will of the Father (Rom. 12:2). That is how we overcome sin, the world, all of this is done through the Cross of Christ, through our savior, the incarnated Son of God, through the Holy Spirit that regenerates us; to God be all the glory and praise.

All of this does not mean that everything changes in a heartbeat, your sin will be forgiven instantly, that is the promise in the Word of God; other things may take time, the Lord will work in you through His Spirit, through His eternal and living Word, through your obedience, through your prayers and through your true worship of the Father, in that you may be free from all that ere hindered you from living a thankful life before the living God.