“I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!” (Eccl 1:12-13NIV)
Who, in our opening text, said that he devoted himself to studying? It was Solomon. And why did he, of all people, need to study? At least, from what we see in Scriptures, God gave him wisdom, insight and a breadth of understanding that was beyond measure. What, then, did he need to study for? Was he not supposed to know everything by default?
Well, even though Solomon was unusually blessed by God with wisdom, insight and understanding, these things are not the same as knowledge. Indeed, wisdom, insight and understanding are needed to properly apply knowledge and make it profitable. But without knowledge all of them are still useless. That is because knowledge is the substance they work with.
How, then, do we gain knowledge? Knowledge, of course, is also a gift from God. But to say the fact, it is not really knowledge that is God’s gift; rather, it is the ability to know things or acquire knowledge that is God’s gift. In other words, when we say that God has given someone knowledge, what we actually mean is that God has given the person the ability to know things, to know all that he can know. If the person, then, will know all that he needs to know and that he can know, he will need to study. That means the person will need to apply his mind to know things and how they work.
Yes, God is able to make people know things supernaturally, that is, without having to study or learn them. But it is not in every situation that God reveals things to people supernaturally. In many cases, He does not. Why? It is because He has already given each of us the ability to study and learn to know things, to one degree or the other. And He expects us to employ this ability to the full.
If we, then, are employing it, He will not hesitate to reveal those things we can only know supernaturally to us, especially if we will ask Him. But if we will not employ the ability He has given to us to learn and know what we don’t need supernatural knowledge for, why should we expect Him to trust us with supernatural knowledge?
So, for the wisdom, insight, understanding and the ability to know things that that God gave to Solomon to shine, he would need to apply himself to studying everything he considered useful to him in life. Otherwise, nothing would become of these gifts that God had given to Him. And did he apply himself to studying or not? He did. In fact, he went as far as studying about plant life and animal life in order to stand out as a king of kings and as a man that was worth listening to by the whole world. (Cf. 1Kings 4:29-34)
Look also at our Lord Jesus Christ. Was it everything that He relied on supernatural knowledge to know? No! If He did that, there were a lot of things He would not know at all. But like other children, He too had to learn all kinds of things that would make Him fit for life. Then, in order to be able to live by the word of God and also handle it correctly with the wisdom of God in Him, He had to give Himself to studying it. And judging from the way He handled it, He surely studied it more than the religious leaders of the people.
In like manner, if we too will see God’s gifts of wisdom, insight, understanding and knowledge at work in tremendous ways in our lives, we must devote ourselves to studying His word, to studying life and to studying everything that is useful to succeeding in whatever field of life we have chosen to operate in. So, don’t run away from studying. Don’t be lazy in studying. It is one great way to activate God’s gifts of wisdom, insight and understanding that are already in you. Otherwise, you may end up small, useless or insignificant in life.
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