Are There Any Wise People Besides Us?
Listen to my instruction and be wise. Don’t ignore it. Proverbs 8:33 NLT Is there a chance God tried to share His wisdom with us, but we rejected it because we didn’t like the vessels He used?
Sure Isaiah 8:20 tells us if they speak not according to the law there is no light in them, but we need to be careful we don’t misunderstand and misapply this. Isaiah was speaking specifically about spiritualism, and was making the point that when people contradict the Scripture there is no light in their contradiction.
Whatever men may speak that is not in harmony with that Word has “no light” in it. -Nichol, Francis D.: The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Volume 4. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1978; 2002, S. 144
Isaiah was not telling us that if someone was not a Jew that there was nothing that could be learned from them. As a matter of fact, when Jesus was born, Gentile kings came looking for Him while the “church leaders” were ignorant of His advent. Here is what Ellen White, co-founder of the Adventist Church had to say.
These learned teachers would not stoop to be instructed by those whom they termed heathen. It could not be, they said, that God had passed them by, to communicate with ignorant shepherds or uncircumcised Gentiles. They determined to show their contempt for the reports that were exciting King Herod and all Jerusalem. They would not even go to Bethlehem to see whether these things were so. And they led the people to regard the interest in Jesus as a fanatical excitement. Here began the rejection of Christ by the priests and rabbis. From this point their pride and stubbornness grew into a settled hatred of the Saviour. While God was opening the door to the Gentiles, the Jewish leaders were closing the door to themselves. –Desire of Ages, Pages 62-63
Have we tuned out a message from God because we were prejudiced against the person God used, and felt our theology was superior to theirs?
And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. Acts 17:11 NLT
In United States elections we can vote for different individuals on the ballot for each office, or we can just just check one box and vote straight Republican or straight Democrat. If I vote straight for one party I don’t have to do any research on the candidates. Do we do this in the church? Instead of searching the Bible for ourselves, do we just subscribe to whatever church we belong to, or what our local pastor teaches? Instead of searching the Bible to see if what was said is true, do we just go by who said it? Do I believe that if my church said it, then it must be right, and if another church said it, then it must be wrong? If we do, we are making the same mistake the church leaders made in Christ’s day! The Jews were God’s chosen people, but the Gentiles had a few things to teach them about Jesus. The Bereans did not accept or reject what Paul taught based on what they thought about him, but based on whether or not his teaching agreed with Scripture.
I am a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. My church has a message about sanctification, not found in many other churches. However, one day I went to a Methodist church to hear a friend sing in her choir. After the choir sang, a black woman stood up to preach.* She spoke on Ephesians, and how the first half of Ephesians is about justification and us in Christ. The second half of Ephesians, she explained is about sanctification and Christ in us. She went on to preach the most powerful sermon I have ever heard on sanctification. I have “borrowed” her sermon numerous times, and received comments about what a wonderful “Adventist” sermon it was. The people did not know that I got this wonderful “Adventist” sermon from a black Methodist woman! (I add the exclamation mark, not because it surprised me that God used a black Methodist woman, but it will surprise some who are prejudiced by one or more of the three adjectives.)
I sat there in that Methodist church on a Sunday, feasting on every word she spoke, not concerning myself with whether she was black or white, male or female, Adventist or Methodist, but like the Bereans I only cared if what she was saying was Biblical and it was.
Only listening to certain people with “approved labels” is not wise. It is prejudiced. Wisdom is listening to what is being said instead of who is saying it.
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