After the Lord Jesus had spoken to His disciples the parable of the "unjust steward," He said to them, "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light" (Luke 16:8). The natural man, if he is wise, looks ahead, and provides for the future; and how often do we see this, although there is not the divine wisdom that provides for eternity. With divine wisdom, the Christian should not only see that his soul is saved, but he should use whatever God has given him in view of the coming day. All that we have belongs to God, and we should use what belongs to our Master in view of the day of His kingdom and glory.
When the Lord appeared to Solomon in Gibeon, He asked him what He would give him, and he asked that God would give him an "understanding heart" so that he might be able to judge aright, and discern between good and had (1 Kings 3:5-9). This was pleasing to the Lord, who said to Solomon "I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee" (verse 12).
In 1 Kings 4:29-33 we learn something more of the wisdom that God gave to Solomon, for it excelled "the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt." The east has long been famed for its wisdom, as was also Egypt, but the wisdom given to Solomon surpassed all. Famous names are mentioned, among which is probably that of Ethan the Ezrahite, the writer of Psalm 89, and Heman, whose name follows, may have been the writer of Psalm 88.
The fame of Solomon spread all around, and he spake "three thousand proverbs," and no doubt vie have some of these in his book of that name. He was evidently well versed in forestry, botany, zoology, ornithology, entomology and ichthyology, "and there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom" (1 Kings 4:34).
Although Solomon's wisdom was divinely given, it was natural wisdom, wisdom that was required to rule his kingdom well, to enquire into the realm of nature, and to be displayed before men in all that he accomplished and discovered We see his wisdom displayed in his discovery of the true mother of the living child in 1 Kings 3:16-27, in the "hard questions" that he answered for the queen of Sheba, and in the display of his glory that brought from that royal visitor the words, "It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom … and behold the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard" (1 Kings 10:1-7).
Solomon was a type of the Lord Jesus, as quoted at the end of Hebrews 1:5, and also of the Lord as the Prince of Peace. Moreover, we cannot fail to see in the natural wisdom of Solomon a picture of the divine wisdom that is seen in its perfection in the Son of God. In the latter part of Psalm 45 we can discern the Lord Jesus as the true Solomon, as also in Psalm 72; and the visit of the Queen of Sheba also serves to illustrate the surpassing wisdom of the Son of God.
The book of Proverbs, written by Solomon, is given to us by inspiration of God, and while much is spoken of natural wisdom, it is evident that divine wisdom is also before the Spirit of God. In chapter 8 wisdom is personified first of all as one that cries to men, "Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth … all the words of my mouth are in righteousness … for wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it … riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold … I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures" (Prov. 8:1-21). How very evidently do these verses speak to us of the wisdom that comes from God.
Wisdom is again personified from Prov. 8:22, but in a very different way. It is now the Spirit of Christ speaking, unveiling before our adoring hearts the secrets of eternity. There are secrets of God that were not hidden in the Old Testament, and that could only be revealed when Christ had taken His place as Man in heaven, but here we have one of the divine secrets that have been hidden for us in the Old Testament Scriptures.
As Wisdom we see Christ as the Man of God's eternal counsels, the One through whom all His purpose would he effected, a Man in the purpose of God before He became Man, the only-begotten Son who ever dwelt, and dwells, in the bosom of the Father. Possessed by God in the beginning of His way, and set up in the beginning, from eternity, He is the One in whom all God's thoughts are seen, and through whom they will be accomplished. The earth, which was to be the platform on which all God's will was to he brought into evidence, where His Son would come as Man to reveal Him and all His thoughts for the blessing of men, is before Him, and He rejoices in its habitable part where He would find His pleasure in the men God would give Him out of the world.The Wisdom of the World
Without wisdom the men of this world could not manage the affairs of the world, but with all their wisdom they are baffled with the problems with which they are confronted, and things in this world, in spite of all the experience men have had, are going from bad to worse. God, in His wisdom, has devised a means for dealing with all the problems of this world, and His Son, whom men crucified and slew, is the One who will yet come forth from heaven to put this world right. Salvation for the world, and for every individual in this world, can only be found in Him whom the world rejected, and still rejects.
To the wise of this world there is nothing so foolish as the preaching of the cross, in which they are told that the salvation of God for men is in Him whom they crucified. With all its wisdom, the world has not been able to bring to men the knowledge of God. We cannot obtain the knowledge of God from the world's religion, from its philosophy, or from its sciences. We do not find the knowledge of God in the world's writers, in its sages, or in its thinkers. How very true were the words of the blessed Son of God, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee" (John 17:25). Only in the Son of God is the knowledge of God to be found, and only in Him is there salvation for any man.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:22 that "the Greeks seek after wisdom," but in the cross, in which the wisdom of God is to be seen, they only see foolishness. Nothing can be more foolish to the wise of this world than to tell them that the only way of salvation is faith in the crucified Son of God. Yet it is through the cross that God has procured in Christ blessing for men. The wisdom of God devised the plan that has made salvation available to men by trusting Him who died on the cross for our sins. Man's wisdom, not even the wisdom of a Solomon, could have devised such a plan; when the wise of this world have it brought before them in the Gospel, they account it as foolishness.
If in the cross we see the wisdom of God in Christ, we also find Christ as wisdom for us in the place He now occupies as risen from the dead and glorified at God's right hand, for the Scripture says, "Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom" (1 Cor. 1:30). Whether for us individually, or as the assembly of God, Christ is our wisdom, the One who will resolve all the problems of His own, and bring them through all their trials and difficulties. When the saints are confronted with exercises and things that perplex, they have Christ to whom to turn. We do not seek the wisdom or resources of the world, but find all we need in Christ.
There was nothing in Paul's preaching, neither in its substance nor in its presentation, that appealed to man's wisdom, but it was "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Cor. 2:3-4). The wisdom that Paul valued, and spoke of, was a wisdom of which the world and its great men knew nothing, and of it he spoke to those who were matured in the things of God. It was wisdom that God hid from the men of this world, and for His own in the secret revelations of the Gospel. The very words that conveyed to His saints the deep secrets of His heart hid them from the men of this world. They were mysteries that belonged to eternity and they revealed, when communicated, that God had purposed to bring into glory those who believed in Christ. All these purposes centred in the "Lord of glory," whom the princes of this world crucified, and in so treating God's Christ they manifested that they were ignorant of God's wisdom.
God in His wisdom has provided the very richest blessings for those that love Him, and they are things that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart of man conceived. They are heavenly and spiritual blessings, not unfolded here, for the Corinthians were not in a state to receive them, but they are brought before us in the Epistle to the Ephesians. The Spirit of God gave them to His servants by revelation, and they have come to us on the page of Scripture by divine inspiration, the Spirit of God giving the very words in which to write them for our learning.
To the saints at Colosse, who were in danger of being spoiled "through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world," the Apostle Paul wrote of "the mystery of God … in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:1-9). None of the treasures of wisdom are to be found in man's world, however much he may boast about what he has acquired by his thinking and discoveries, all the treasures of wisdom belong to the realm of divine wisdom, and all are revealed for us in the secret of God, whether we view this great secret in relation to all that God is as seen in Jesus, or as connected with what is to be seen of His divine wisdom in Christ and the church.
In the riches of God's grace He has forgiven all our sins, and in that same grace "He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known to us the mystery of His will," which tells us of the place that Christ is about to occupy in the coming ages (Eph. 1:7-10), and as our souls are affected by this great truth, so shall we be enriched with the divine wisdom it enfolds. To enter into the secrets of God is to acquire the divine wisdom they hide for us, whether it be "the hidden wisdom" of 1 Corinthians 2:7, "the wisdom of God in a mystery," or "the mystery of God … in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:2-3), or "the mystery of His will" in which God has abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence (Eph. 1:8-9).
From 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 we learn that the saints at Corinth were not able, on account of their carnal state, to enter into the hidden wisdom of which the Apostle had been speaking, but in Ephesians 1 we have the unfolding of the wonderful secrets of God's eternal purpose. Having made known these amazing secrets of God, the Apostle prays for the saints, desiring "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" (verse 17).
Every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has the divine nature which gives him the capacity for the reception of the truth, and each believer has the Holy Spirit who is the power for receiving the truth, but it is possible to be like the Corinthians. in a carnal state that hinders the receiving of the truth that God has given us. What we need to receive the truth is a true spiritual state, "the spirit of wisdom and revelation" in the full knowledge of God.