Measuring Wisdom

by: Mark Fackler

Perhaps the biggest reason God’s plan for the world is so often misunderstood is that it employs a strategy totally contrary to accepted economic and political wisdom. The world’s wisdom teaches that the rich have the greatest prospect of getting richer and the poor the greatest likelihood of remaining so. Power flows to power.

God’s plan reverses all that. From people of no account — the lame and cast-offs (vv. 6-7) — God will fashion a strong nation. From the jaws of imperial power (“Babylon,” v. 10), God will effect a rescue. None of this makes political sense.

This plan of God to redeem Israel is also a picture of the bigger plan to redeem the world through Jesus Christ. From backwater Galilee will come a rabbi accused of blasphemy by his own religious leaders. He’s crucified by the Romans. Then he rises from the dead. What an unlikely plan, that God’s salvation should come through this one in this way.

God’s mission to the world will be carried out by people who are not well-placed, well-groomed, or well-armed. They tell the world about Christ, and eventually millions and millions believe. How odd a plan from a wonderful God.