The Wisdom of God: Letting His Truth and Goodness Direct Your Steps is a compilation of sermons/writings from theologian A.W Tozer.
It would be easy to take this as a list of directions (as the subtitle implies), but if you read it mainly to deepen your understanding of God and His Wisdom, than it becomes a really insightful and worth-while read.
“Jesus Christ was the incarnation of this wisdom of God.” p.35
“We must get away from this idea that salvation is simply saying you believe in Jesus as your Savior. We must come to the place of understanding that Christianity is a result of divine wisdom flowing into a person’s life.” p43
“This strange, yet beautiful, gracious, loving, charitable, pure thing that God wants to pour out on you, this wisdom of God is contrary to the wisdom of man. The wisdom of God is a mystery, a hidden wisdom ordained before the world began for His glory. This wisdom is Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”p52
My perfectionistic personality makes me want to read for the do’s and don’ts. Because I want to be wise. And good. And all the things. But what I really need is to rest into God’s quieter, pre-existing wisdom. With this mentality, that all wisdom is through God, it becomes less an action and more just a natural state in our lives as Christians. I want to rest in God as all-wise. I want to pull away from the wisdom (rules, really) that says do-this-not-that and find the deeper wisdom that tells a bigger story about Jesus, and creation, our faulty wisdom, and the perfect wisdom of God.
“I believe that when God created the heaven, the earth, and all thing that are therein, He expressed wisdom, but not all of His wisdom, because creation is limited and His wisdom is unlimited. I will say that everything He did in creation was done with a perfection of wisdom.” – A.W Tozer, The Wisdom of God (p.181)
Read that quote over a few times: “[God] expressed wisdom, but not all of his wisdom, because creation is limited.”
I find that idea very satisfying for a soul caught in an imperfect, but perfectly created world.
What do you think?
One caveat: In chapter 21 Tozer discusses the “strange woman” from Proverbs 2:16. Tozer read the verse very literally in that there is a strange woman (not a man, mind you) who is going to try to lead you astray (Circe figure, much?). What? His century is showing. My argument is that I have never heard the “Wisdom is Calling” woman in other verses in Proverbs taught as an actual woman. For example I’ve never heard anyone say/preach: “there is a woman who will lead you to wisdom.” The “wisdom is calling” woman in proverbs is a metaphor for wisdom. Shouldn’t we then read this other woman is a metaphor for foolishness? It could just as easily a man or something gender neutral that can cause us to sin. But maybe I’m just a feminist.
Ok, I am.
Anyway. Overall: it was alright. As sermons turned into a book, it felt a little patched together, there was no flow between chapters. And then there was that one chapter near the end that made me want to rant a little. But overall it was interesting, thought-provoking, and really good to consider the foundation of God’s wisdom and what that means for our lives.
What do you think of the idea that God expressed wisdom, but not all of it, when he created the world?
Bonus Book:
I read The Pursuit of God by A.W Tozer and that was a fantastic book! So go there first if you’re just after the author, not the subject.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for an honest review. Also: post contains amazon affiliate links. )
Erika Shirk 