Knowledge and Wisdom
“If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful
than you can possibly imagine.” —Ben Kenobi
Herod and Vader are maggot-filled men. They are the living dead. Christ and Kenobi are willing to die. They become the dead living.
One factor the Bible matrix continually brings out in its various occurrences throughout Scripture is the transformation of knowledge into wisdom — through death. In some profound way, knowledge is singular but wisdom is plural.
The Lord gives Adam the knowledge of the Law, and Adam is expected to obey and become wise. We can see, in his failure to confess his sin, that he was no wiser than before.
Moses silently receives the Law on Sinai, then is tested as Israel’s leader in the wilderness. When we get to Deuteronomy, Moses sits enthroned as wisdom incarnate. It is knowledge digested, bringing death to self, and then being resurrected as wisdom. After Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He gave the Sermon on the Mount. The male head falls into the ground and dies and the harvested (female) body is sophia, witnessing on street corners.
Men go to Bible college and they know it all. Then the Lord brings a marriage difficulty, a sick child, poverty, bereavement, betrayal, church schism, unemployment, a failed career or some temptation, and Gandalf the Grey is torn apart. God, why are you smashing up everything you built me for? Because I am frankincense, or garlic at the very least. Like these and olives and grapes, I was made to be crushed.[1] And novices are terrible leaders.
Pentecost is the wilderness. It is the Lampstand, the eyes of God watching over us. Trumpets is the wisdom of Deuteronomy. It is the Incense Altar. We have been offered, torn apart, set on fire, and now ascend as holy smoke, a fragrant, mature wisdom that finally commands the respect of God’s armies. We are broken so we can fill others. God makes us into a Promised Land others can inherit. They see our testimony and fear, the beginning of their own wisdom.
Someone wise said we will have trials in one of three areas: marriage, health or finances. [2] This year I have had all three. I’m not complaining. I’m finally starting to stink less and be health to others instead of a canker. The Law kills precisely so that the Spirit can bring life, and resurrection is always plural.
Fighting death makes you death incarnate. Vader learned this lesson in the end. He threw down his idol and submitted to ascension as smoke. He finally joined the rank of the heavenly elders as a bowl of incense, a father of light.
“Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?” 1 Corinthians 6:7
“He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6
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[1] See Toby Sumpter’s much better take on this here, and also Omega Males and True Gravity.
[2] If we are soft-hearted, every marriage (or friendship) trial is an opportunity for greater unity – for greater service.
