Wisdom can be a slippery word to define these days. I suspect that most Americans would equate wisdom with intelligence or sagacity. More practically, wisdom might be defined as the ability to make “good” choices. Most of the time when I say that I made a “wise” choice, this is all I really mean: It was a good one, viz., it brought about the results I sought.
Along this line of thinking, wisdom is more or less morally neutral. What constitutes “wise” or “unwise” is largely subjective. I could say that I was wise in lying to the police officer about my expired registration, because it spared me the displeasure of a ticket. Biblically speaking, however, I’d be wrong. Packer corrects this perception of wisdom in the 9th chapter of Knowing God, defining wisdom as “the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means for attaining it.” It is “the practical side of moral goodness” (p.90). Biblical wisdom, Packer notes, is not morally neutral.
God’s wisdom, unlike ours, is perfect, and not limited by a lack of foresight, intelligence, or moral goodness. His choices are always the best means of realizing his perfect will. Packer is quick to point out what the ultimate aim of this perfect will is. This is a crucial point, given our tendency to think that any act of God which brings about personal unhappiness or discomfort is not good (i.e., unwise). God’s ultimate aim is his glory (p.92):
[God’s] ultimate objective is to bring [humankind] to a state in which he is all in all to them, and he and they rejoice continually in the knowledge of each other’s love – people rejoicing in the saving love God, set upon them from all eternity, and God rejoicing the responsive love of people, drawn out of them by grace through the gospel. This will be God’s glory, and our glory to, in every sense which that weighty word can bear.
Packer lets the Bible illustrate God’s wisdom in action, through a few brief surveys of the lives of Abraham, Jacob and Joseph. This is Packer’s springboard to the important point that our own lives can take odd twists and turns, including hardships, that God is working towards his very good ends. Writes Packer, “We may be frankly bewildered at things that happen to us, but God knows exactly what he is doing, and what he is after, in his handling of our affairs” (p.98).
I once heard Tim Keller remark that our own “books” have not been written yet. In the case of Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, we can look back at the story of their lives and see how God worked his great plans through them. But when Joseph was locked up in Egypt, he didn’t have that perspective. Nor do we, as we face trials and odd turns of circumstance. What we do have, is the blessed assurance of God’s perfect wisdom. Our grief, confusion, or pain, then, can always be framed with trust. We may not know what the reasons are, but we do know what they are not: Our suffering is not because God doesn’t care, because he’s made a mistake, because he’s forgotten, overlooked, or miscalculated. God is perfectly wise, and therefore perfectly trustworthy through any circumstance.
As much as I’d love to close this post on the note above, I can never escape the fact that great theological propositions are often cold-comfort when we’re smack in the middle of a trial. Most of us have had the experience of a well-meaning friend reciting Rom.8:28 to us when we’re in such a place, and most of us have had to nod politely (at best). Belief in God’s wisdom doesn’t necessarily ease the pain, nor (I would argue) is it meant to. What it does do is give us hope. It is the light at the end of the tunnel. Without it, all suffering and confusion is ultimately unbearable. We may hurt and weep, but we needn’t despair. A bright future awaits all of God’s children, and we can count on it.