Know the Designer
Wisdom is speaking in Proverbs 8:22-31:
“The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world.
“I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
“Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.”
When I’m playing a video game or watching a movie, part of me is always aware that everything in the story was created by someone (or a team of someones). The writer, the director, the actors -- they have decided together who the people are, where they will go, what they will do, how the story will turn out. What difference does it make? Well, in a really involved video game, getting inside the head of the people who wrote the code helps you figure out how to beat the game. In a movie, keeping up with what the director is up helps you figure out what he’s trying to say.
In this week’s passage, Wisdom delivers some huge news: She was there “in the beginning.” God used her as a “craftsman” when He was designing and implementing all of creation. The very universe we live in was designed based on God’s wisdom.
What difference does it make? Wisdom is telling us that the better we get to know God, the more of His wisdom we acquire, the better we’ll understand the world around us. In other words, if you want to figure out how life works, Wisdom can tell you. She saw the blueprints before construction even began.
People who reject God’s wisdom (fools) are missing out on the ancient source for understanding all of life from the ground up. They’d rather just observe the world around them and come to their own conclusions. A guy named Galileo said that those two things go hand-in-hand for a full understanding of real life.
Most people remember Galileo for his run-in with the Catholic church over his scientific discoveries regarding the theory that the earth revolves around the sun. While it’s true that the church pressured Galileo into suppressing his own ideas, most people don’t realize the famous scientist was a Christian committed to the truthfulness of the Bible. He didn’t feel any of his discoveries contradicted Scripture. He said: “God is known by nature in his works, and by doctrine in his revealed word.”
Get to know the mind of God through the Bible, and get to know Him better through observing His Wisdom-fueled craftsmanship in nature. That’s the path to figuring out both the big picture and how to work the controls of your own life today.
“The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs abounding with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world.
“I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
“Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.”
When I’m playing a video game or watching a movie, part of me is always aware that everything in the story was created by someone (or a team of someones). The writer, the director, the actors -- they have decided together who the people are, where they will go, what they will do, how the story will turn out. What difference does it make? Well, in a really involved video game, getting inside the head of the people who wrote the code helps you figure out how to beat the game. In a movie, keeping up with what the director is up helps you figure out what he’s trying to say.
In this week’s passage, Wisdom delivers some huge news: She was there “in the beginning.” God used her as a “craftsman” when He was designing and implementing all of creation. The very universe we live in was designed based on God’s wisdom.
What difference does it make? Wisdom is telling us that the better we get to know God, the more of His wisdom we acquire, the better we’ll understand the world around us. In other words, if you want to figure out how life works, Wisdom can tell you. She saw the blueprints before construction even began.
People who reject God’s wisdom (fools) are missing out on the ancient source for understanding all of life from the ground up. They’d rather just observe the world around them and come to their own conclusions. A guy named Galileo said that those two things go hand-in-hand for a full understanding of real life.
Most people remember Galileo for his run-in with the Catholic church over his scientific discoveries regarding the theory that the earth revolves around the sun. While it’s true that the church pressured Galileo into suppressing his own ideas, most people don’t realize the famous scientist was a Christian committed to the truthfulness of the Bible. He didn’t feel any of his discoveries contradicted Scripture. He said: “God is known by nature in his works, and by doctrine in his revealed word.”
Get to know the mind of God through the Bible, and get to know Him better through observing His Wisdom-fueled craftsmanship in nature. That’s the path to figuring out both the big picture and how to work the controls of your own life today.
1 Comments:
that was really, really, good teaching!!! thank you for taking all this time to post it on the web every week!
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