“Who has assigned Him His way, or who has said, ‘You have done wrong’?” Job 36:23

All Wisdom

God smacked me between the eyes with His glory the other day.

I mean no disrespect. But there I was, reading along in His Word, when suddenly a sentence I read came to life. It had depth of meaning, where before there were just words. I couldn’t leave it alone; I had to pursue it, because I was being drawn to His Presence. I never want to miss that.

First, I read, “If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season…” (Jeremiah 33:20). A few verses later, I read, “If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth…” (verse 25).

What previously seemed so simplistic (God made the Day and the Night), now, by the moving of His Holy Spirit in me, suddenly seemed a great privilege to know deeply: before the Beginning began, God had perfect wisdom. No change would ever be needed for any of His ordinances. (Ordinances are authoritative rules or laws, or commands or laws ordained by deity.) Day and night would continue with no further discussion needed, and if day and night ever stop being, then all His covenants and promises come to a screeching halt.

God’s ordinances are things like the sun ruling over the day and moon ruling over the night, seedtime and harvest, the seasons, gravity, the ocean tides—things that have a particular, set order to them. God sees to it that they never stop functioning exactly as He intended at the Beginning.

As humans, how often do we set things in motion, only to learn and change and make adjustments so it all works better? We spend our whole lives learning what we don’t know.

Not so with God! He cannot learn, for He knows all things. He has perfect wisdom, setting up all ordinances from the Beginning with absolute precision. What did He ever create, stand back to look at it, and say “Oops!” (No, not even you.)

An artist may have to re-paint a portion of a landscape. A writer must be willing to edit. A seamstress must rip out mistakes and begin again. Athletes and musicians must practice until they get it right. A student must endure her teacher’s red pen.

With God there is no oops, no repainting of the landscape (unless you count the Flood as a do-over), no editing. He never makes mistakes, never has to “try, try again,” never practices, and never needs to make any corrections. All that He made was “good” in the first place. Whether or not in our limited understanding we think what He made is good, He nevertheless declares it to be so.

Our Father, You have shown us Your majesty and glory. Give us eyes to see ever more often that You are perfect in all Your ways. Amen.