The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men (I Corinthians 1:25)
Can God be foolish? Yes, to the little minds His acts may appear foolish. Yet with a closer look the foolishness of God’s Master Plan for the perishing world is wiser than what men think “My thoughts”, God says, “are not like yours, and my ways are different from yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are My ways and thoughts above yours” (Isaiah 55 8,9)
HIS CREATION AND HIS RECREATION
In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. The second verse in the first book of the Bible says that the earth was in a chaotic condition. Satan, the fallen angel, had controlled the then world and God destroyed the imperfect world through a flood and the earth became “formless and desolate” The raging ocean covered everything and the power of God was moving over the water (Genesis 1:1,2).
The Recreation
Restoring the earth to a second habitable state was the wise decision of God. The whole picture of the recreation act of God and the restoration of the earth and its second habitation with the present civilized men and women, and the creation of light and fresh water and land bodies, animals, and plants 6000 years ago are well recorded in the first chapter of the Holy Bible.
God in His wisdom created the first man and woman in His own image. He blessed Adam and Eye and gave them authority over all His creation to look after He placed them in the garden of Eden and had a close relationship with them and allowed them to eat all the fruits in the garden “except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree, if you do, you will die the same day” (Genesis 2:17). They did eat persuaded by Satan, the fallen angel, and had their spiritual death
THE FALL OF MAN
By their disobedience, the first couple lost all their glory and close relationship with God and the image of God. Their marriage then moved from the sacred union with God towards the subhuman level and in course of time gravitated towards desire, lust, power rebellion, and disobedience to moral codes
Testing Faithfulness
Why did not God permit them to eat every fruit in the garden? Throughout history, God has been testing people for their faithfulness to Him and their obedience. The couple were endowed with faculties of mind, heart, soul, and spirit and were expected to exercise their choice and will carefully. They failed. They succumbed to the will of Satan who tempted them to commit the sin of disobedience and seduced them with lies, you will not die. God knows that when you eat it you will be like God”, said the evil serpent (Genesis 3:4,5).
God punished the serpent. Why did He not destroy Satan straightaway? God in His wisdom kept both the good and evil so that people with their wisdom could use their intelligence to make the right choice and be faithful to their creator God and shun all the evil forces released by Satan. The choice is ours. We are expected to use our willpower carefully. We are either for the Creator God or against Him. There is no way in between Adam and Eve lost their glorious image of God by disobedience and not exercising their will and choice We as descendants of the ancient couple have inherited their nature
THE GREAT FLOOD AGAIN
As the population increased the wickedness of people too increased, God regretted having created human beings and said, “I will wipe out these people I have created” (Genesis 6:5). This resulted in another great flood as punishment for disobedience God however was pleased with one righteous man Noah and made him prepare a huge boat to preserve his family and the life of birds and animals. People laughed at Noah when he told of the coming flood, but Noah was faithful to the word of God and obeyed God’s command, and saved his family
Repopulating
God was starting again repopulating the world from one righteous man’s family. But the generations that followed ignored God again and began to make their own gods and idols to worship. They were so proud that they decided to construct a huge tower to keep people safe from future floods. God punished them for their arrogance and idol worship and made their project a failure and “mixed up the language of all the people, and from there (Babylon) He scattered them all over the earth” (Genesis 11:9)
THE MASTER PLAN TO SAVE THE WORLD
God did not give up. He called a seventy-five-year-old man from Babylon in 1921 B.C. and told him, “I will bless you and make your name famous so that you will be a blessing. And through you I will bless all the nations” (Genesis 12:2,3). Abraham, the old man, and his old wife Sarah came to Palestine obeying God and believing in His promises though they had no children
The couple lived in faith and had to wait for another twenty-five years to get their son Isaac. Why did God select an old couple to bless the whole world? Though we cannot question the acts of God we could analyze the reasons for God selecting people to
accomplish what He wanted God to look at the hearts of the people and found Abraham faithful to the Creator God in the midst of idolatry in Babylon. It is faith that God takes into account in order to put a man right with Himself, and not the works Abraham became the spiritual father of the Jews Muslims, and Christians all over the world because of his faith and obedience.
The Redemption
When the descendants of Abraham settled down in Egypt during the time of a great famine they were treated like slaves by Pharaoh God called a reluctant shepherd to bring them back to Palestine, the land of milk and honey. Moses was a shepherd eighty years old and when God asked him to bring his people out of Egypt, Moses was unwilling and said, “I am nobody. How can I go to the King and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3.11). “I have never been a good speaker. I am a poor speaker, slow and hesitant” (Exodus 4:10).
Why did God select a man who could not speak with confidence and who was reluctant and not at all willing to accomplish the great task? God proved to Him that it was He who empowers people with power and showed him how he could attempt great things with God with him. The emphasis in the story of the deliverance of the people from Egypt is the “Hand of God”. Their redemption is a symbolic picture and sign of redemption of all sinners from Satan’s powers by Jesus who was sent by God to sacrifice His life on the cross for the salvation of the entire world.
Conquest by Faith
God selected another eighty-year-old man Joshua to get rid of the Canaanite idol worshippers who had occupied the land given to the Israelites. God assured Joshua, “Remember that I have commanded you to be determined and confident. Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord God, am with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).
Fall of Jericho
To conquer the mighty fortress of Jericho, God told Joshua “You and your soldiers are to march around the city once a day for six days. Seven priests, each carrying a trumpet are to go in front of the Covenant Box. On the seventh day, you and your soldiers are to march around the city seven times while the priests blow the trumpets. Then they are to sound one long note. As soon as you hear it, all the men are to give a loud shout, and the city walls collapse. Then the whole army will go straight into the city” (Joshua 6:3-5).
How foolish it may look to us to bring down the huge, tall, and broad walls of Jericho by just shouting at it! Yet Joshua had the faith and obeyed God’s command and believed that the walls will collapse. The “Hand of God” was there again.
SELECTING A KING FOR THE PEOPLE
When the tribes settled down in Israel, they pleaded for a king to protect them. God gave them a seventeen-year-old shepherd boy whose only qualification was a clean heart. God empowered the boy with His power and spirit and made him the King.
The young lad David had to face first the Philistian hero Goliath, three meters tall, fully armed from head to foot. David challenged him unarmed with only a catapult and five smooth stones. David was so confident and said, “I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of Israelite armies. The Lord does not need swords or spears to save His people. He is victorious in battle. And He will put all of you in our power” (I Samuel 17:45, 47).
David defeated and killed Goliath with a catapult and a stone! God gave him victories over his enemies and wisdom to rule wisely and understanding to compose psalms of praise God promised that a great Saviour would come through David’s descendants who would redeem all the people from their sins by His sacrifice on the cross
THE BACKSLIDING PEOPLE
Israel’s besetting sin was idolatry and the decay of the nation after King David both politically and spiritually was due to the people who turned away from the Creator and worshipped their own created idols
Throughout the turbulent history of Israel, God was faithful to His people, sending them prophets after prophets to call them back to repent and turn to Him. He never gave up His chosen people
When people failed to listen to the warnings of the prophets, God punished them for 70 years when they were kept as slaves in Babylon. It was in 506 B.C. that the Babylonians began their conquest of Jerusalem, deported many of the people and finally destroyed the city and their Temple in 587 B. C.
Following their restoration to their land after 70 years the people experienced trials and reproach, but God saw them through. Their sin was costly and a costly remedy was required. God should punish them for their arrogance and disobedience, but God’s love and mercy never fail. Hence the final plan for saving people from death was through Jesus Christ who offered Himself for the sins of the people and to guarantee eternal life.
THE WISDOM OF GOD
Every act of God may look foolish in the eyes of people who perish. His act of destroying the world through a flood saving one righteous family, inviting the old couple to bless the whole world, selecting a reluctant leader to bring His people back from Egypt, anointing a young shepherd as the king of Israel, punishing the rebellious people, all these acts seem foolish for people who do not understand the expectations of the Holy God who wanted the people to “Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy”
His Master Plan
God fully understands the human weakness in depending on their own wisdom and selecting their own gods and disobeying and rebelling against God’s plans. God so loved the world that He decided to offer Himself as a sacrifice to wipe away all our wickedness by His sacrifice on the cross. Anyone who believes in His only begotten Son Jesus Christ who was sent for this purpose of giving salvation to the world is saved and has eternal life.
Is it not foolish to look for salvation on a wooden beam when people in their own wisdom run around to different pilgrim centers, dip themselves in every holy river every year, and do penance of varied types to save themselves? It is exactly this foolish act that God ordained that anyone who believes in the sacrifice offered on the cross is saved forever. There is no condemnation for them and no need for seeking salvation elsewhere every year.
The Secret Wisdom
This secret wisdom is not available for the worldly-wise God in His wisdom made it impossible for the proud and the worldly-wise to know the secret.
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the scholars”, said God (Isaiah 29:14).
The secret wisdom of God is revealed only to the humble, obedient, and faithful people. For the worldly-wise the message of the cross is foolish, but God “decided to save those who believe” (I Corinthians 1:21). The only message of wisdom God wants to reveal is “Christ crucified, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God”.
For the Matured people
This message of God’s wisdom is given to those who are spiritually mature. “It is God’s secret wisdom, which is hidden from mankind, but which is already chosen for our glory even before the world was made” (1 Corinthians 2:7). God purposely chose what the world looks down on and despises, and thinks foolish, in order to destroy what the world thinks is wise. The cross that God chose grants the believers the freedom from the devil, from sins and death, and offers them life eternal. The wise understand this secret
God made the cross of Jesus our wisdom. Only trusting in the salvation offered by the cross we become holy in the sight of God.