"Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech. Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border? For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him." Isaiah 28: 23 - 26
The Crossway ESV Study Bible's commentary says the following about this passage of scripture: "God's dealings with his people, though 'strange' (v. 21) are wise. Like a farmer, God knows that the upheaval of plowing has its appointed season and purpose (vv. 23 - 26), and that the refining of harvested grain must take into account the desired outcome (vv. 27 - 28). Even so, God uses all the methods of perfect wisdom in working with his people (v. 29). He can be trusted in everything"
Everything means everything. All things.
Our ability to breathe, to create, to move, even to think is a product of His being. Nothing, we as mankind have done is ever original. At the most basic level, we are the mimics of a greater Being who is the source of all creation, of everything.
We create from the same Spirit that spoke the world into being. We use our hands to mold and shape our own 'worlds', in the same way God used His very breath to paint the portrait of the universe.
Our thoughts run to innovate and improve, and to come up with ground-breaking ideas. But yet there is One who weaves through our lives in His 'perfect wisdom', instructing us and teaching us.
Therefore, our efforts to create a perfect world are at best insufficient, and require that we be taught by the One who takes into account the 'desired outcome', and the way in which the outcome will become the reality of our lives.
And He chooses to deal with us completely in absolute 'perfect wisdom'.
So, like the farmer who plants in sequence and plants crop in their proper places, as he is taught, our lives can be the field of fruitfulness and yielding that resemble this beautiful learning act between the Father and the farmer.
All the farmer requires is a heart of learning, a heart of obedience, of rest.
If we are willing, we also can be taught. Because God has already chosen to deal with us in 'perfect wisdom', ours is to learn to recognize it and receive it.
This means we hold on loosely to all we know, holding our own wisdom and knowledge as lacking. We approach our lives as ones that are insufficient in themselves and are needing to be instructed by the capable One who delights in instructing.
We need to choose to learn.
To embody the life of a student requires submission; a recognition that God knows much more than we do, and that He can do far greater than we can do for ourselves. It requires an acknowledgement that He ultimately owns all of wisdom, and that we are only stewards of it.
I have found it very freeing to know that it doesn't begin with me, nor does it end with me, but rather my life is rooted in the middle of a process of life and seasons that I do not have to labor to keep running.
But rather, my job is to learn how to live right within them.
So, like you, my response to this 'perfection' is to sit down, pull out my journal and write down what I hear. To sit and observe majesty at work, and to do all I have been taught with all vigor and diligence.
What if God's method of perfect wisdom in working with us was our listening ear and our obedience?
So, Listen. Learn. Be quiet.
"This also comes from the LORD of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom" Isaiah 28: 29
\ Takunda
Comments