The Strength of Wisdom

If you lay hold of wisdom, you will soon become a product of its training. Your life and being will be like God’s law, whose mere presence binds the profane and consigns them to that bondage in which they rightly belong. The flesh feels condemned in the presence of wisdom, and none of its clever tricks can escape wisdom’s penetrating look. For the same reason, people call wisdom bond­age, and folly liberty, because in its folly the flesh can be lord without feeling the constraints of wisdom.

Joseph was sold in Egypt as a slave. “His feet were hurt with fet­ters, his neck was put in a collar of iron.” Psalm 105:18. The wisdom of God dealt with Joseph and qualified him for his great calling. True, it was man that hurt him with fetters and put a col­lar of iron on his neck, but this was done in order that he might be tried and thus prepared for the time later in life when he would put others in chains and fetters.

In prison, Joseph was tormented until God’s Word came and proved his innocence. Then the king sent and released him; the “ruler of the peoples” set him free. Joseph was made lord of Pha­raoh’s house and ruler over all of his possessions. Joseph could bind Pharaoh’s princes at his pleasure and teach his elders wis­dom. (Psalm 105:20-22.) Pharaoh had princes under him. It was difficult for him to control them, because his elders lacked the nec­essary wisdom to advise Pharaoh in such a way that he could si­lence his subordinate princes. But in Joseph he had a man who could bind the princes of Pharaoh according to Pharaoh’s will, a man who also had enough understanding to teach Pharaoh’s elders wisdom.

Wisdom works exactly the same way in the new covenant. The Apostle Paul writes, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” 2 Corinthians 10:4.

Most religious groups these days are led by people who are not very spiritual. Therefore these religious leaders feel obliged to maintain their dignity with strongholds and vain imaginations. If someone with God’s wisdom and God’s power were to cast down their strongholds and demolish their thought-castles, he would be asked to leave their assembly. That is their only hope. That’s why Jesus also says, “They will put you out of the synagogues.”

But Paul destroyed arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and he took every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5.) By wisdom he displayed the same power that Joseph displayed toward the princes of Pharaoh. But not every leader of a synagogue and not every elder of a church is willing to put his neck in a collar of iron. “No! Away with wisdom,” they say. “Away with those who preach it—outside the camp with them!” Indeed, “let us go forth to him outside the camp, and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.” Hebrews 13:13-14.

Jesus suffered outside the gate, yet He was the wisdom of God and the Lord of glory. Either wisdom rules, or it is rejected. If you are one of wisdom’s children, you too will either be accepted or re­jected. If you are accepted, you will transform those who accept you according to the wisdom you possess. But if you are rejected, foolishness will continue to reign within the strongholds and proud ob­stacles of those who reject you, until the day when everything is laid bare before the face of Christ.