Oh the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! Romans 11:33
Sometimes it is surprising how many people don’t understand the difference between knowledge and wisdom. The difference has been explained in many ways, including the one about knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit rather than a vegetable while wisdom is not putting the tomato in a fruit salad. Others explain that wisdom is the proper use of knowledge. Yet others will say that people who have a great amount of knowledge may not necessarily have much wisdom, while people with great wisdom do not require much knowledge. It is clear that the two words do not mean or refer to the same thing. In general, we recognize knowledge to be the accumulation of information. This is something that we all have; you wouldn’t be able to read this message today if you had not accumulated the information to learn to read, to open up the message, and to sit down and appreciate it. Wisdom, on the other hand, involves the ability to make good decisions based on the information you have. Wisdom would allow you to decide whether to put into practice the things that you learn from messages such as this. It is not possible for you and me to accumulate all of the available knowledge, or to have perfect wisdom. But our text tells us that God’s knowledge and wisdom are perfect and infinite.
Although experts tell us that we do not use a tenth of our brains, it is not possible for us to cram all information into those brains even if we could use them all. Consider those things that are beyond our power to understand, and that the most intelligent people in the world are unable to grasp. As scientists probe deeper into the atomic levels of matter to determine how it is formed and holds together, God continues to hold every atom, every quark, every Higgs boson (if there really is one) together by the word of His power. As man’s telescopes explore the uncharted reaches of space to determine the extent and sum of it all, God is intimately aware of every star and planet and asteroid and miniscule space particle out there. There is nothing God does not know, including our thoughts and attitudes at this very moment.
With His perfect wisdom, God has never made a mistake, nor can He. Man’s wisdom is often a joke, including the one about having to cancel the Christmas pageant in your town this year because the organizers couldn’t find three wise men. We often use our finite reasoning ability to question God’s purposes, but He Who knows the beginning from the end and Who dwells in eternity beyond the realm of time and space and matter is using His wisdom to complete a perfect program.
The more we come to understand the infinite knowledge and wisdom of God, the less we estimate our own. Would it not be wisdom, then, to submit ourselves entirely into God’s hands to allow Him to use us as He sees fit? He will do so according to His infinite knowledge, wisdom, and love. – Jim MacIntosh