Hosea and Isaiah delivered powerful messages about the misconduct of the Israelites and the impending judgment of God upon them.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!” (Hosea 4.6).
“My people go into exile for lack of knowledge” (Isaiah 5.13).
When we say they lacked knowledge, we mean that they did not perceive what God is about in His world. They didn’t understand His establishment of justice, righteousness, and love.
The Book of Proverbs asserts that when we receive God’s wisdom, it will incorporate the knowledge of God with the understanding of His righteousness and judgment.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path. (Proverbs 2.9)
What Makes God Truly God
When God’s wisdom illuminates righteousness and justice to us, it uncovers an essential aspect of what makes God truly God.
What makes God truly God is not His immense power. Isaiah said this about the nature of God.
But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness. (Isaiah 5.16)
Isaiah begins his speech about the incredible nature of God using the phrase, “Lord of Hosts.” This means He is the King of all kings, the Lord of all lords, absolutely and totally powerful over all.
What exalts God is not His immense power, but His justice and righteousness.
In its original meaning, the word “holy” refers to God who is totally other. God stands outside of creation. He is wholly other than humans, and thus, he is holy.
What the Hebrews discovered was that this holy God was also moral. He was self-denying, choosing a just and upright life.
The wisdom of God illuminates His nature. Humans can know God through His wisdom. As we know Him, we apprehend two aspects of His essential nature: justice and righteousness.
Wisdom and Behavior
We need God’s wisdom. Without it, we will not be able to understand His essential nature. The knowledge of God will be absent from our lives, and so will justice and righteousness.
One of the attitudes that led people away from the knowledge of God in Isaiah’s day was an unceasing desire to have more.
Covetousness severely limited their ability to know God and what exalted him: justice and righteousness.
Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is room for no one,
and you are left to live alone
in the midst of the land! (Isaiah 5.8)
Isaiah noted the obsession people have with pleasure. God is not a Grinch who wants to remove all pleasure from our lives. However, Isaiah identifies a serious problem.
Humans have an issue when the pursuit of pleasure becomes so all-absorbing that their spiritual sensitivity is diminished.
Woe to those who rise early in the morning
in pursuit of strong drink,
who linger in the evening
to be inflamed by wine,
But who do not regard the deeds of the Lord
or see the work of his hands! (Isaiah 5.11-12)
When pleasure becomes the number one thing in a person’s life, passion for God, His truth, and His ways is squeezed out.
Wisdom’s Appeal
We live in a world where bigger and better along with self-pleasure seem to dominate all of the information we receive.
Lady Wisdom enters our world, appealing to us to resist the influences that bombard us, so we can hear her wisdom.
Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.
At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
“Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you.” (Proverbs 1.20, 21, 23)
If we hear Lady Wisdom speaking, we will understand the nature of God. We will exalt Him for His character. We will pursue things that interest Him: justice and righteousness.
If we fall under the spell of the world’s systems’ values, we will unfortunately hear the words of Isaiah spoken about us: “You have perished for lack of knowledge.”
Knowledge of what? We have missed the opportunity to know God through experience. We have not appropriated His righteousness and justice in our lives.
YouTube Video
Rudy Ross, Whispering Danny, and I discuss this passage from Proverbs on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 