05/12/2024
๐๐ ๐๐๐ฆ๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฅ๐ ๐จ๐ ๐
๐จ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ
๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ป๐๐โ
O come, O Wisdom from on high,
Who ordered all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show
And teach us in its ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
โThat was a silly mistake!โ โHow could I have been so dumb?โ โStupid is what stupid does.โ Each of these phrases captures what we all know to be true once weโve spent about half an hour in the real world: humans are not always the brightest! Yes, we have electric cars and send people into space. But from putting aluminum foil in the microwave to stealing candy from our teacherโs prize jar, we all make incredibly foolish missteps in life โ even older people who should know better by now.
We need someone to show us our folly and lead us on a wiser path of life. The second stanza of โO Come, O Come, Emmanuelโ provides a beautiful reminder that Jesus Christ has done just that.
๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐ข๐ ๐ก
One of Godโs greatest gifts is enabling people to have great wisdom, which is not simply knowing facts and figures (2+1=3) but making sound judgments about life (โa threefold cord is not quickly broken,โ Ecclesiastes 4:12). Numerous people in the Bible had great wisdom, but the most famous was Israelโs King Solomon, who lived in the 900s BC and attracted people from all around the world to come hear his wise words (Matthew 12:42). But even he acted foolishly at the end of his life, showing us that the wisest person on earth is not perfect.
So who is? The only truly and fully wise one is God in heaven above; he is infinite in wisdom and never makes a mistake. All wisdom comes from God himself, who is enthroned in heaven above all creation (see Proverbs 21:30; Job 15:8; 28:12, 20).
Therefore, the New Testament stuns us with the revelation that โChrist Jesus . . . became to us wisdom from Godโ (1 Corinthians 1:30) and, indeed, is โthe wisdom of Godโ in bodily form (1 Corinthians 1:24). In fact, the Gospels record Jesus teaching this idea in two distinct ways that help clarify it. In one Gospel, he says, โthe Wisdom of Godโ will send forth prophets and apostles (Luke 11:49), while in another he says, โI am sendingโ them (Matthew 23:34). In other words, Jesus puts himself in the shoes of the Wisdom of God who has come from heaven down to earth (John 3:31).
๐๐ก๐จ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฒ
The second line of this stanza makes an interesting claim about wisdom: it created or โorderedโ all things in heaven and on earth. The hymn writer draws this idea from the Old Testament, which teaches that God made all things wisely โ not like a small child haphazardly smashing together Legos but like a master craftsman making something beautiful. The book of Proverbs in particular pictures Godโs โWisdomโ giving a speech (a poetic device called โpersonificationโ) about equipping kings to rule and so forth. Near the end of the speech, Wisdom states, โThe Lord possessed me at the beginning of his workโ (Proverbs 8:22). When God created all things in Genesis 1, Wisdom was right there with him. By wisdom, then, God ordered all things with great care โ or โmightily,โ as the song goes.
So, if Jesus is Wisdom, as mentioned above, then does that mean he was there in the beginning too? This is where the New Testament gives us a jaw-dropping yes. The book of Hebrews states that God has spoken to us by his Son, โthrough whom also he created the worldโ (Hebrews 1:2). Paul writes of Jesus that โby him all things were created, in heaven and on earthโ (Colossians 1:16). Most vividly, the apostle John states, โIn the beginning was the Wordโ โ using Word as another term to describe Jesus, like Wisdom โ and that โall things were made through himโ (John 1:1, 3).
The math is simple: the Old Testament teaches that Godโs Wisdom is key to creating all things, and the New Testament teaches that Jesus is that Wisdom, so it makes sense that the New Testament also teaches that Jesus is key to creating all things!
๐๐จ ๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ก ๐จ๐ ๐๐ง๐จ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ก๐จ๐ฐ
Yet Jesus does not stop at being the embodiment of Wisdom. He came down to earth at the first Christmas to teach us how to be wise too. If you pay attention to his life recorded in the four Gospels, youโll notice that he was always teaching. It didnโt matter if the crowd was big or small. Sometimes he taught hundreds by the seashore (Mark 4) or on a mountain (Matthew 5โ7) or in the countryside (Matthew 14:13โ21); other times he taught his disciples privately (John 13โ17) or even one on one, like the woman at the well (John 4:7โ30).
Everywhere he went, he shared divine wisdom. He teaches us about his Father and his Spirit, about the way of salvation, about heaven and the final judgment, about how to love one another, and much more. The people repeatedly marveled at his teaching because it was better than even the smartest people they knew, present or past (Matthew 7:29; Luke 11:31).
Godโs Son knows that humans, left to ourselves, cannot help but live in folly because we constantly turn from him and make a mess of things (Romans 1:21โ23). So he stoops down to show us the right path. He instructs us about money, parenting, working in the world, caring for neighbors, dealing with people who donโt like us, and much more. All the fullness of Godโs wisdom dwells in Jesus bodily (Colossians 2:9).
During Advent, then, we remember with great joy that Jesus came to a world of folly to show us how to live with wisdom from God. When we follow his paths โ when we listen to his teaching โ we gradually become more and more like him, the true Wise One from on high.
By: Dr. Greg Lanier | Desiring God Ministries
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