CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY OF PROVERBS
Message Eight
The Multifarious Wisdom of God
Scripture Reading: Prov. 1:2; 8:1-31; 9:10; Rom. 11:33; 1 Cor. 1:24, 30; Col. 2:2-3; Eph. 3:10
I. The book of Proverbs stresses wisdom that we receive from God through contacting God—1:2; 2:10; 4:5; 9:10; 11:2b; 14:33a:
A. The subject of Proverbs is living a godly life by God's wisdom—3:13-18; 8:11.
B. The central thought of Proverbs is that we should seek after wisdom so that we may live a godly life on earth that is acceptable to God—2:1-9.
C. Wisdom comes from God: "Jehovah gives wisdom; ? From His mouth come knowledge and understanding"—v. 6.
D. Wisdom is more valuable and better than gold, silver, and corals, and is more desirable than anything else—3:14-15; 8:11, 19.
E. In certain portions of Proverbs the wisdom of God is personified—1:20; 3:19; 4:5-9; 8:1-36:
1. This personification of God's wisdom is a reference to the second of the Divine Trinity, who became wisdom from God to all the New Testament believers—Matt. 11:19; Col. 2:3; 1 Cor. 1:24, 30.
2. "Jehovah by wisdom founded the earth"—Prov. 3:19a:
a. This One by whom Jehovah founded the earth and established the heavens is Christ, who is the wisdom of God—1 Cor. 1:24.
b. Wisdom, as the master workman of God's creation of all things, is God's delight—Prov. 8:30.
c. God's creation of all things is through Christ, who is wisdom and God's delight—3:19; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:2.
II. Romans 11:33a speaks of God's wisdom: "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!":
A. It is important to see the difference between wisdom and knowledge—v. 33:
1. Wisdom is for planning and purposing—Eph. 1:9; 3:11.
2. Wisdom is seen in the initiation of something, as indicated by Romans 11:36: "Out from Him and through Him and to Him are all things."
3. God is the unique Initiator: "One God, the Father, out from whom are all things"—1 Cor. 8:6a:
a. God has initiated many things, not by His knowledge but by His wisdom—Prov. 3:19; 8:12, 22-31.
b. When God comes in to apply what He has initiated, He displays His knowledge.
B. The wisdom of God is "God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages for our glory"—1 Cor. 2:7:
1. As God's center and as our portion for our enjoyment, Christ is God's wisdom in a mystery that is deep and profound—Rom. 11:33.
2. Within God there is wisdom in a mystery; this wisdom has been hidden and predestined before the ages for our glory—1 Cor. 2:7.
C. "To the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen"—Rom. 16:27:
1. In the local churches throughout the earth, we all give glory to the only wise God.
2. The wise God has given Jesus Christ to us according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept in silence in the times of the ages, who also is the One who has saved us, regenerated us, and through His divine dispensing is continually renewing and transforming us, and who will eventually glorify us and conform us to the image of God's firstborn Son, bringing us into glory—v. 25; 3:24-25; 5:10; 8:16, 23, 29; 12:1-2.
III. Christ is the wisdom of God—1 Cor. 1:24:
A. In the New Testament the personified wisdom of God is Christ as its reality—Prov. 8:1, 12; 9:1; Luke 2:40, 52; 7:35; Matt. 11:19:
1. The wisdom of Christ's deity was revealed in proportion to the measure of His bodily growth—Col. 2:2-3; Luke 2:40, 52.
2. Matthew 11:19b indicates that wisdom is Christ:
a. Whatever Christ did was done by the wisdom of God, which is Christ Himself—1 Cor. 1:24.
b. This wisdom was justified, vindicated, by His wise works, His wise deeds.
3. In Luke 7:35 the Lord Jesus said, "Wisdom is justified by all her children":
a. Those who believe in Christ are the children of wisdom, those who justify Christ and His deeds and who follow Him as their wisdom.
b. Christ's work is to produce us as the children of wisdom caring for the life of wisdom.
B. In Christ "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden"—Col. 2:3:
1. God is the unique source of wisdom and knowledge:
a. We need to trace wisdom and knowledge to their true source in God—1 Cor. 8:6.
b. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ, who is the mystery of God—Col. 2:2-3.
2. The fact that wisdom and knowledge are embodied in Christ is proved by His spoken words, especially those recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and John:
a. The Lord's words recorded in these two books contain the highest philosophy.
b. The concept in the Lord's words is deep and profound.
3. Since wisdom and knowledge are stored up in Christ as a treasure, we cannot have wisdom and knowledge unless we have Christ—Col. 1:27; 3:4, 10-11.
4. If we exercise our being to contact the Lord, Christ as the lifegiving Spirit will saturate our spirit and our mind, and we will have in our experience the wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Christ—2:3.
IV. As believers, we are in Christ, and Christ has become the wisdom from God to us—1 Cor. 1:30:
A. What we believers, as the new creation, are and have is of God, not of ourselves—Rom. 11:36.
B. As our wisdom, Christ is all-inclusive, becoming wisdom to us from God in righteousness, sanctification, and redemption—1 Cor. 1:30:
1. By Christ as our righteousness, we have been justified by God so that we might be reborn in our spirit to receive the divine life—Rom. 5:18.
2. By Christ as our sanctification, we are being sanctified in our soul, that is, transformed in our mind, emotion, and will with His divine life—6:19, 22; 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18.
3. Christ as our redemption is for the redemption of our body, by which we will be transfigured in our body with His divine life to have His glorious likeness—Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:21.
C. To us from God in 1 Corinthians 1:30 refers to something present, practical, and experiential in the way of transmission:
1. For Christ to become wisdom to us from God indicates that there is a transmission of Christ as wisdom from God to us for our daily experience—v. 30.
2. Christ as wisdom should unceasingly flow from God to us to be our present and practical wisdom in our experience.
3. If we remain with the Lord to receive His dispensing (John 15:4-5), He will be transmitted into us as the wisdom to handle various problems and matters.
4. If we are one with the Lord and receive His dispensing, we will experience and enjoy Him as our wisdom day by day and hour by hour—1 Cor. 6:17; 1:30.
V. Through the church the multifarious wisdom of God will be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies—Eph. 3:10:
A. The rulers and authorities are the angelic rulers and authorities, both good and evil.
B. Ephesians 3:10 especially refers to the evil ones—Satan and his angels:
1. Satan has his kingdom, his angels, and his sphere of rule—Matt. 12:26; 25:41; Eph. 6:12:
a. Satan's sphere of rule is in the air and on the earth—2:2; 1 John 5:19.
b. The book of Daniel indicates that all nations on earth are under the rule of Satan in the air—10:13.
2. Through the church God will make His wisdom known not mainly to human beings but to those rebellious angels who are the followers of God's enemy—Rev. 12:7.
C. Even the rebellion of Satan is within the realm of God's wisdom—Isa. 14:12-14:
1. If it were not for Satan's rebellion, God's wisdom could not be made known in a full way.
2. Satan has created many opportunities for God's wisdom to be manifested in a multifarious way, that is, in various ways and aspects and from many angles—Eph. 3:10.
3. Eventually, Satan, God's enemy, will be subdued and will come to know God's multifarious wisdom—v. 10.
D. When God's chosen and redeemed people partake of and enjoy the riches of Christ, these riches constitute them the church, through which God's multifarious wisdom is made known to the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenlies—vv. 8-10:
1. The day is coming when, through the church, Satan and his angels will be put to shame.
2. They will realize that everything they have done has given God the opportunity to manifest His wisdom.
VI. The New Jerusalem, as the ultimate consummation of the church, will be full of wisdom—Rev. 1:11; 21:2, 9-11; 22:16:
A. The New Jerusalem is designed and constructed by God, the Architect and Builder of "the city which has the foundations"—Heb. 11:10:
1. This indicates that God is a skilled Designer and top Craftsman.
2. As such an Architect and Builder, God certainly has not designed and built a physical city—Rev. 21:9-11.
3. To say that the New Jerusalem is a physical city depreciates God's wisdom and belittles Him as the eternal, wise Architect—Heb. 11:10.
4. God has designed and built a spiritual entity for His corporate expression—Rev. 21:9-11.
5. In His wisdom God constructs the New Jerusalem by dispensing Himself as the Architect and Builder into our being—Heb. 11:10; 2 Cor. 13:14; Rev. 21:2; 22:1-2.
B. If we realize that the New Jerusalem is a sign that signifies spiritual and divine things, we will begin to see the wisdom of God in this city—1:1; 21:9-11.
C. God is a wise Architect and Builder who designs and builds such a city to be the full manifestation of His multifarious wisdom—Eph. 3:10; Rev. 21:2, 9-11.