Tuesday, May 7, 2013

When God Laughs! Part 6


Since during the last post I began discussing the negative aspects of knowledge absent wisdom, some have written in and asked the question, ‘then what about the passage where it says My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge? If knowledge in and of itself were not beneficial without wisdom, then what about that verse?’

Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you from being priests for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”

In order to establish whether or not I misspoke when I suggested that knowledge absent wisdom is a dangerous thing, we must first understand the ‘knowledge’ to which God was referring to in Hosea.

As you may have grasped, the knowledge I was referring to was not the knowledge of God, or knowledge of the things of God, but general knowledge about everything from the mating habits of dung beetles, to the cyclical nature of the planet’s warming and cooling mechanism.

It is that kind of knowledge that is dangerous when not coupled with wisdom.

The knowledge Hosea is speaking of is knowledge of God, the will of God, the plan of God, the law of God, and the Word of God.

God is speaking exclusively about His people, and not the world or the godless, or those who do not know Him.

It is His people He takes issue with for not having knowledge of Him and therefore being destroyed, and having forgotten His law, and therefore having to suffer the consequences of having their children likewise forgotten by God.

The best way I can explain what I was referring to, is to take any popular, modern day Pastor, and dissect their ‘sermon’ on any given Sunday. What you will discover, and quickly so, is that there is more psychology, human behavior analysis, and self-help rhetoric, than there is mention of God, Christ, the Gospel, or the cross.

That is the definition of knowledge absent wisdom, for if wisdom were present, their message would be to serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling, and put their trust in Him.

The knowledge of God transcends knowledge of the mundane and day to day, and one who seeks, desires, and hungers for the knowledge of God will inevitably have a foundation of wisdom upon which they can build.

After making his first plea to the intellect, the Holy Spirit’s second plea is to the will of man.

Psalm 2:11, “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.”

It is within man’s ability to either continue in his rebellion, or serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Man chooses submission to the Word and will of God, or submission to his own flesh and desires.

The Holy Spirit pleads with the will of man, instructing us to choose the right path, the narrow path, the path that leads to the Kingdom.

Every man servers one of two kingdoms! We either serve the Kingdom of God, or the kingdom of this world. We either submit ourselves to the light of Christ, or the darkness of sin. Though some might think themselves self-governing, independent masters of their destinies, in reality they too serve one of these two kingdoms.

The end result of submission to the will of God is joy. I know this flies in the face of all the nonsense men have been spewing the past few decades, but it is nevertheless true. The end result of submission to the will of God is joy!

While we’re at it, there’s also joy and fulfillment in the fear of the Lord. Yes, I dared to use the word ‘fear’ and ‘Lord’ in the same sentence.

It is because we do not know the Lord as we ought that the notion of possessing the fear of the Lord is so anathema to us. If we saw God not as a tyrant but a good, loving, and merciful Father, we would understand that the fear of the Lord is a beneficial thing for us.

Once again we come to one of those hard and fast rules that seems to be of the universal variety, and that is liberty without authority becomes anarchy.

This is why the fear of the Lord is necessary for us. God created man in such a way wherein we function optimally not when we rebel but when we submit. So technically, if you want to have your best life now and become a better you, you have no choice but to submit to the authority of God.

Having made his appeal to the intellect of man and to the will of man, the third appeal the Holy Spirit makes is to the heart of man.

Psalm 2:12, “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.”

God’s desire is for us to be reconciled unto Him through His Son Jesus. It is the only way by which man can be reconciled unto God, and no other way exists.

If another way existed, God would have employed it, but because no other existed Jesus had to die upon the cross for your sins and mine.

To ‘kiss the Son’ is to honor, and give reverence to Christ, a reverence He is worthy of and rightly deserves. It is also a demonstration of love and adoration for the One who birthed us through His death and resurrection.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

2 comments:

Barbara said...

To me, knowledge is just random facts and wisdom is facts applied to your life and your understanding of the world. It is when facts are tempered with the emotions and led by the spirit that they turn into something called wisdom.

A computer has facts and maybe knowledge but no wisdom. A computer stores data. Data with a sense of knowing is knowledge. Knowing with a sense of understanding is wisdom.

Wisdom lets you kind of be a prophet in that you can see patterns and predict things based on what you know. It is kind of a key that unlocks the mysteries of the world.

If you live in your sense and have no knowledge, you will be destroyed by your lack of common sense. People with knowledge can survive but not really understand. Wisdom lets you survive and and understand and relate to God on a deeper level. You can kind of share in His secrets a little.

Some things you see with wisdom are depressing and not of this world at all. That makes you need to draw ever closer to God for comfort and security.

marshall warren said...

Michael, to me the knowledge of God, as given to us by His Holy Spirit, brings the assurance that the "law of the Lord is perfect." It gives me the faith that the teachings of Christ and His Apostles in the New Testament is God's absolutely perfect way to live. He tells us how to think, talk, act, dress and conduct our meetings.
Why is it so difficult for Christians to simple read God's Word and accept what it says. No interpretations, no opinions, and no buts. Simply read it and obey it. We don't even have to like what it says or agree with it. Just have the faith to obey it.

Marshall