INSPIRATIONAL; Sorrow, Grief and Wisdom
True wisdom and its result
"For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." - Ecclesiastes 1:18What a strange thing to say! Wisdom and knowledge produce what? Grief and sorrow. Interesting... Can you think of another famous verse in the Bible that speaks about grief and sorrow? Or rather about a man of grief and sorrow?
As you study the Bible, pray that God, through the Holy Spirit, would bring to your mind other relevant verses. Also using computer software or a concordance you can search for similar verses. This is a method of Bible study. While pondering this, the following verse came to mind:
"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." -Isaiah 53:3That great man! The greatest among us, yet the servant of all. Jesus was a man of what? Sorrow, and grief.
Now reason with me. If sorrow and grief is the result of true wisdom and knowledge, what was the wisdom and knowledge Jesus had that resulted in His sorrow and grief"?
Fast-forward from the days of Isaiah, to the end of Christ's ministry. I can imagine with much sorrow and grief he cries:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!" - Matthew 23:37Perhaps Jesus was on a hill overlooking the city of Jerusalem as he spoke these words. As He looked over the beloved city, He wasn't mourning for the bricks and mortar of Jerusalem, but for the people!
What wisdom and knowledge caused His great grief and sorrow? It was a knowledge that people were rejecting Him! Here He was, the king of heaven who had given His life to save people from death, and the vast majority would die! Yes, die within the reach of help. This knowledge, this understanding, this reality brought great grief and sorrow to the heart of the Son of God.
Note these words:
"Christ was the prince of sufferers; but His suffering was from a sense of the malignity of sin, a knowledge that through familiarity with evil, man had become blinded to its enormity. Christ saw how deep is the hold of sin upon the human heart, how few would be willing to break from its power. He knew that without help from God, humanity must perish, and He saw multitudes perishing within reach of abundant help." A - Ellen White, The Desire of Ages, p 752True knowledge, true wisdom is an understanding of reality; to grasp the reality of eternity and of the true value of a human soul. Christ understood these things more than any of us, and to Him they brought grief and sorrow. Why? Because He saw people, yes people dying, and His heart went out to them.
Why should it be any different for us? Shouldn't we be touched with sorrow as we see a world dying within reach of help? Or have we been so blinded by sin that we would rather think about our own comforts and needs with little thought of the thousands perishing around us?
This sorrow and grief does not crush our spirit and turn is into depressed people, No! Rather it drives us, with a powerful motivation, to minister to the needs of man, to bring salvation to perishing souls. Yes, it means that we will be serious and sober, with a deep inner-peace. There is little to laugh and joke about in the plan of salvation.
So dear reader, my prayer is for our hearts to be softened, and for our eyes to be opened, that we may be touched with the same grief and sorrow of our leader, Jesus Christ. And in turn give our lives in service for humanity.
-Source Onlythebible.com by Emmanuel Higgins
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