God’s Word for You
1 Corinthians 1:19 The wisdom of the wise
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, November 1, 2022
19 For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the intelligence of the intelligent I will hide.”
Paul quotes a passage from Isaiah (29:14) to show God’s relationship to human wisdom and intelligence with clear, simple words that even a brilliant person might be able to understand. Certainly the humble can understand it clearly enough.
God is glorified by working as he does, through the lowly, the small, the despised. He does this first of all to teach us humility. If he worked through great wisdom and intelligence, those who have flashes of insight, wisdom or brilliance would become proud and vain on account of their own minds; their great ability to reason. But one gift does not supersede all other gifts, unless that gift is faith. “A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor” (Proverbs 29:23). A great businessman should not think that his savvy will benefit his soul. Nor should the great politician, or soldier, or philosopher. “Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are the rulers in all your towns?” (Hosea 13:10). “The strong will not muster their strength, and the warrior will not save his life” (Amos 2:14). “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human traditions and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8).
God works through the lowly also to teach us to trust in him. God prizes only the gift of faith in us. He gives other gifts so that the world will benefit from what we do. But if God prized one gift over all others, how would we all feel if that skill were milking goats, or cooking a roast, or painting houses? I am adequate but not great at all of these, and many people have never attempted one or two of them. Or what if the one thing needed was the skill of making cloth, felt, ink, or working in bronze? The brilliant, the wise, and the intelligent must consider these things when they think about their own gifts and abilities. It is not worldly wisdom that matters at all in the kingdom of God, but faith. The desire to gain wisdom led Eve into the first sin, since she “saw that the fruit was desirable for gaining wisdom” (Genesis 3:6). It is God who gives wisdom (Job 38:36); it is not man who achieves it. “You teach me wisdom in the inmost place” (Psalm 51:6, 105:22). True wisdom is to fear and trust in God above all things (Micah 6:9; Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7).
God also works through the lowly out of compassion for the lowly and the widow and the orphan. “The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety” (Proverbs 5:11). “The Lord watches over the aliens. The fatherless and the widow he sustains, but he turns aside the way of the wicked” (Psalm 146:9). His desire, his holy will, is that everyone would come to faith in him and trust in him, and those who have their good things removed from them in his lifetime are especially watched over by God in his mercy. The soul of Abraham in heaven told the rich man in hell: “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in misery” (Luke 16:25).
So when intelligence, wisdom, business sense, or even skill at milking goats is held up as if it should be glorified, God will crush it in order to show us that glory belongs to him alone. He is God, and we cannot have any other gods (Exodus 20:3). The man who dares to place anything within himself above God, or above God’s word, will be forever lost and condemned. In the days following the death of Jair, one of the Judges, Israel fell into idolatry, and the Lord’s judgment was this: “You have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!” (Judges 10:13-14). This is a blast of truth because it is perfectly right and just. Anyone who turns away from God turns away from everything God offers and gives. Trust in God for everything, whatever gift or skill you have. Thank God for it, and use it to his glory, but do not forget: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men [apart from Christ] through which we must be saved.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.