“To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” Is it? Well, Bertrand Russell believed so.
Russell was one of the great philosophers of last century, a prolific writer who worked well into his 90’s. Like many philosophers, he was on a quest to know that ended with not knowing at all. He was a genius and had a fire burning within to understand the nature of knowledge itself. How do we know anything for certain?
For much of his life, Russell studied and wrote, accepted and then abandoned one philosophical system after another. Few have been his intellectual equal, and yet, he eventually conceded that his quest for certainty had been a failure. He came to believe that we’ll never know who’s right about anything or if anyone’s right about anything at all.
It’s a sad story. Fear can paralyze progress, as Russell believed, but there’s one fear that gives a foundation for progress—the fear of God. No amount of brilliance will find answers to life’s hardest questions without believing in the God who spoke it all into existence.
Life only makes sense when we humble ourselves before the Lord (Prov 1:7, 9:10-11, 31:30). Paul and many first-century Christians wrestled with God’s plans for Israel. Joseph and Job are more personal examples, two faithful believers in situations that hardly made sense. It’s tempting to question God’s goodness when life doesn’t make sense, but Proverbs encourages us to humble ourselves. This is true wisdom.
Paul, On Israel
The irony of Israel is that it’s both young and ancient. Modern Israel was established in 1948, but the people have ties to the land going back to Abraham twenty centuries before the time of Christ. God chose Abraham out of Ur, led him and his family to Canaan, and made a covenant. He promised to make Abraham’s descendants into (1) a nation, (2) bless the world through them, and (3) give them the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:3-7).
Yet, not much happened at first. In fact, Abraham and Sarah laughed at God (Gen 17:17, 18:12). They were well beyond the age of having children, but then 25 years later, a child was born (Gen 21:5).
Isaiah 55:8-9—“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
For the next 500 years, God developed Abraham’s descendants into a nation. He gave them the land of Canaan in the 14th century B.C., and the outworking of His plan continued. Little did Abraham know or understand, but he came to take God at His word and act upon it.
God was at work creating a people who would represent Him to the world and the world to Him. Israel was to become His own “kingdom of priests” (Ex 19:6). And yet, the pages of redemptive history became blotted with everything but.
You never see Israel rise to represent the Lord to any nation. Rather, a Jonah-like contempt for the world grows. Worse, Israel split into two nations, and by the 6th century B.C. neither of these existed. Did God fail? It probably seemed so, but He was still at work. When the time was right, it was from Abraham that God’s great blessing for mankind was finally born.
Christianity started with Jewish believers who viewed Jesus as their long-awaited messiah. Most Jews rejected Him and that puzzled those early Jewish converts who received Him. “What about God’s covenant to Abraham?” Abraham’s descendants hadn’t been a nation in nearly 600 years, the Romans possessed their land, and they rejected the great blessing that was to come through them—the messiah. So, how should we understand this? What does it all mean? It seemed to those early Jewish Christians that God had failed to do as He said He would do. Had He?
Romans 9-11 is Paul’s response where He rejoices in God’s wisdom. The Lord had an overarching plan that no one could have guessed. He knew His people would turn away, that they would lose their national status, and would even reject their own messiah. He wasn’t surprised, but had orchestrated all things and was at work causing the highest good in all of it.
Gentiles are being saved through Israel’s messiah? Of course! God originally intended that Israel would represent Him to the entire world. Israel failed, but God’s plans never do. Yet, Paul wondered if Israel would ever turn to her messiah. Answer: Absolutely (Rom 11:26, Zech 12:10).
Lost in thought meditating upon God’s plans, Paul could say no more. He just ends his thoughts with this crescendo…
Romans 11:33-36—Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
God’s ways are inexplicable, but they always align with His character and result in the greatest praise from His people. His wisdom is set to leave us astonished that we might praise Him for His goodness.
He has a higher plan, and it helps to remember this when life doesn’t make much sense. What’s the beginning of wisdom? Not standing in critique of the Lord, but humbly bowing in reverence before Him. It is trusting that in the end, from an eternal standpoint, He actually has a good purpose. It is believing that His ways are better than ours, His knowledge and understand beyond comprehension. Paul realized this afresh and praised God.
Joseph, On Life
Who has known the mind of the Lord? Joseph certainly didn’t. He was a youth when God gave him a couple dreams of future greatness (Gen 37). His family didn’t respond kindly to the news, and coupled with his father’s favoritism, filled his brothers will jealousy. Joseph’s brother’s hated him and sold him into slavery to get rid of him once and for all.
An Egyptian officer purchased Joseph and grew to trust him over the affairs of his household. Genesis 39 reminds us four times that God hadn’t abandoned Joseph—the Lord was still with him. Yet, right as we begin to think things are improving, Joseph is wrongly accused and imprisoned for the next two years. Surely that wasn’t part of God’s plan… or was it?
Joseph was imprisoned with Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and chief baker. Having rightly foretold their fate, the cupbearer eventually told Pharaoh about Joseph. When the young Hebrew explained Pharaoh’s dream and gave him wise counsel, Pharaoh appointed him to his royal court. He managed Egypt’s national grain supply for the next seven years to prepare for the famine that Joseph had foretold.
As for Joseph’s original dreams, God’s means were coming into focus. A great famine did strike, and Egypt sold grain like never before to all her neighbors. God used Joseph to prosper Egypt, and he used the famine to drive Joseph’s brothers to buy grain from none other than Joseph (Gen 41-44).
Genesis 50:12—“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
It’s one of the most touching accounts in the Bible. Joseph hadn’t seen his brothers in years, and they no longer recognized him. After testing them, he reveals his identity, forgives and even blesses them. Joseph believed that God’s wisdom would somehow use the evil done against him to accomplish good. He couldn’t see it for many years, but in the end, God produced something very good.
A Word from Job
Job was a righteous man who suffered greatly and spoke wrongly of God in the midst of it. God, however, responded. The Lord confronted him, and Job could only say, “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:3).
There’s so much that we don’t know or see in the midst of any trial, but we do know the character of God. His Word tells us He’s all-knowing, entirely sovereign, and ever at work achieving the highest good for His people and the greatest glory unto His Name (Rom 8:28).
Wisdom begins and ends by humbly submitting to the all-wise God, and sometimes that’s such an act of faith. We see so dimly, don’t we? One day the depth of God’s wisdom will become more visible. Those who know Him will praise Him forever for having worked so wisely in their lives each and every day.