Sabbath Meditation #18 – The Wisdom of God

By Kelly McDonald, Jr.

“25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength… 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (I Cor. 1:25, 27).

“13 We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things” (I Cor. 2:13).

“18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile” (I Cor. 3:18-20, NIV).

In I Cor. 3:18-19, Paul wrote about the “wisdom of this age”. The wisdom of this age did not start until Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened…” (Genesis 3:6-7)

The wisdom of this age is summarized by the desire to do what is pleasing to one’s own eyes. This attitude ignores God’s instruction on a given subject in the same way as Adam and Eve. Among His instructions to them was the command to abstain from the one tree. They disobeyed because they thought they could gain wisdom separate from God’s revealed instructions to them. They wanted to be like God.

Consider that the Sabbath was revealed in Genesis 2:1-3 before the wisdom of this age began. It was before mankind chose what looked pleasing to self instead of trusting that God knew what was best for them.

The wisdom of this age tries to convince us that we should work seven days so that we can produce as much as possible. Our human mind may think it is foolish to rest. The Romans used to mock the Jewish people for keeping the Sabbath. They thought it was a sign of laziness.

Even if you can convince a person to rest one day a week, the wisdom of this age will try to convince them that any day in a week is good enough. To the human mind, the idea that we need to rest on a specific day is foolishness.

Remember the words of Paul; the foolishness of man is the Wisdom of God.

We cannot use human, carnal reasoning to explain away or negate the Sabbath. Why? An Eternal Being established the Sabbath and its existence is eternally connected to Him. Therefore, a created being cannot rationalize it away.

Remember the ultimate problem from the Garden – humans did not trust what God said. We trusted in what we saw. Anytime we work, we can see the works of our hands. We tend to trust in that first and foremost. While one cannot see the Sabbath rest with our human eyes, we can experience it and see its results. However, it requires that we trust Him first.

There is only one day in a week that can allow us to rest in a way that is best for us – Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. It will bring about the most of our work production during the other six days of the week. The world has forgotten that proper rest brings about proper production.

I have been honoring the Sabbath for over 12 years. I can definitively say that my production during the rest of the week has increased more and more over the years. I can produce more now than I ever did before honoring His Seventh Day.

One of the great lessons learned in this meditation is that God’s Wisdom is sometimes contained in the simplest things of life. If the whole of humanity understood His Wisdom in the Sabbath, then the entire world would be transformed.

When God’s Kingdom is fully established on earth, this will happen. Until then, God’s Sabbath seems foolish to so many – but it is the Wisdom of God.

Selah.

Kelly McDonald, JR.

BSA President www.biblesabbath.org