DON’T LIMIT WISDOM TO YOURSELF
"Have you heard the counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? " (Job 15:8)
Do not keep wisdom to yourself. Do you think there is no wisdom besides yours? Have you got and engrossed all knowledge from others and reserved it for yourself alone, so that no one must intermeddle without a license obtained from you? You claim to have a monopoly on wisdom. He has "with him wisdom and strength; he has counsel and understanding" (Job 12:13). All wisdom comes from the LORD, and so do common sense and understanding. "For the Lord gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding" (Proverbs 2:6)
If God can retrieve wisdom from the wise, he can also refuse to diffuse it to others. When you receive the secrets of God, they must be communicated to others. Do not keep them to yourself. It is the highest strain of pride for a man to keep wisdom to himself. God has not given all wisdom to one person or certain people, though he has trusted some with more gifts than others.
"For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts." (Malachi 2:7). No God's minister should keep wisdom to themselves. Do not exalt yourself above the holy writ, above what is written from the immediate dictates of God's spirit.
It is a great sin to impose upon men or put oneself in the place of the Almighty God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). Do not show yourself as God and bind up all men’s tongues and judgments unto the rule of their apprehensions (2 Corinthians 1:24). Some Christians speak and act as if all knowledge and truth were centered on them, or as if everybody lived in darkness and couldn’t see any light; "And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know." (1 Corinthians 8:2). God can reveal His secrets to babes and sucklings while keeping them hidden from the wise and prudent, who confine all wisdom to themselves. "Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength, because of your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger" (Psalm 8:2).
The babes and sucklings, who are low, humble, and meek, are the objects of this bounty, and God sends the proud far off. Those who are far from God can never get near wisdom.
"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6).
He takes all their wisdom from them and gives it to those with a humble heart.
To God be the glory.
James Dina (james@mountzionblog.org)
23rd July 2020
https://mountzionblog.org/dont-limit-wisdom-to-yourself/
Reference: An Exposition with Practical Observation on the Book of Job (Joseph Caryl).
