Understanding More Than the Ancients

     “Great men are not always wise; neither do the aged understand judgement.”  This was Elihu’s keen observation, having listened to Job and his three friends try to fathom God’s purposes in the case of Job’s suffering.  These men were not the only ones in history who have dedicated their thinking to this and other issues.  Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Hume, and Sartre are but a handful of representatives of the deep thinkers of human history.  Their inquiries were profound, continual, and searching.  Over much of what they concluded we can boldly write “Great men are not always wise. . . . “

     By contrast, the person who understand the Word of God, with the heart to obey it, has more true wisdom than a host of ancient thinkers who do not.  Here is the reason that statement is true.  We cannot attempt to define reality without reference to the God who is the Ultimate Reality and who determines all other reality.  We cannot successfully come to an understanding of the physical universe, and of the world around us, without understanding something of the One Who has created them.  We cannot understand human nature rightly unless we understand the history of humanity, and the plan of God with regard to the race.

     These things only appear in their right perspective in the Scriptures.  The only person who is capable of understanding these Scriptures is one who is regenerate and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That person has an understanding which no unregenerate thinker could ever have, except he received the grace of redemption through Christ.  There, the Psalmist can say without a trace of self-conceit, “I understand more that the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts.”  It is important for the humble saint to understand this in order to be able to successfully avoid the storm of intimidating rhetoric he will encounter to soon as he challenges the “ancients” and their “wisdom.”  One person with God’s wisdom understands more than a host of people without it.