The other day I was reading this passage in Mark 9:17–18: “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.” After reading the story several times, I began to marvel at our generation’s ignorance. If you asked most people they would say the people of that time were unsophisticated and primitive by today’s standards. Yet this man could see something that we cannot see. Most of us aren’t even willing to talk about this today — how evil spirits can inhabit a person. The whole concept makes me wonder how much more they knew that we don’t.
When I think about that concept, the “8 Wonders of the Ancient World” come to mind. “How did they do that?” is a question many of today’s scholars still struggle to answer. When you consider the ancient’s knowledge of astronomy and how their understanding directed the Persians to Christ’s birth with the specifics of his birth’s purpose, you have to be amazed. All scientists can do today is tell you what’s going on rather than what its significance is, as the wise men did. Have we gotten so deep into the “information age” that all we have is knowledge with very little accompanying wisdom and understanding to govern it? How is it that we have learned so much and understand so little?
To be honest with you, I think knowledge is one of those things mankind has accumulated faster than he has the ability to use with wisdom and understanding. When you consider the accumulated knowledge of the people in Noah’s time (Enoch 8) before the flood, the burning of the Alexandrian library before the 1st Century, and other similar events, you can see God’s hand in limiting man’s knowledge because of his lack of ability to use it properly. Couple that thought with a verse like Colossians 1:9 which says: “For this reason . . . we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” It seems God prefers we understand what is going on because peace can then accompany the knowledge. After all, isn’t it the “peace that transcends all understanding” (Philippians 4:7) that brings us contentment in all things and essentially what we are all searching for? Perhaps the past ages’ understanding balances out our society’s knowledge, thereby making us all “without excuse” and His treatment “fair and balanced.”
It seems as if all societies seek special knowledge so they can “capitalize” on the information. God wants us to understand why things are happening the way they do so our hearts see with the eternal paradigm of love. Solomon’s request was not for knowledge but for wisdom. Data do not produce empathy or truth. Empathy is what draws others to you. Paul put it well in Philemon 1:6 when he said: “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” As we are conformed to His likeness, we gain His mind. As we gain His mind we gain His wisdom, understanding, and empathy for intercession. With that comes the natural attraction of others to us so we might give them what they lack – eternity.
Love,
Dad