Daily Devotional | Human Learning vs. God's Wisdom

Elisha and his servant woke up one morning to find their city surrounded by an impressive enemy army (2 Kings 6:15–17). “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” cried the servant. “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then the Lord opened the man’s eyes. He saw a supernatural army of “horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” They were perfectly safe in God’s hands!

What our ordinary human sight can perceive is quite different from what God sees. In the same way, human learning is quite different from God’s wisdom. The lesson here is not to avoid all human learning—Solomon didn’t—but to learn in submission to the Creator.

The truths of general revelation are available to all, so unbelievers are capable of certain kinds of knowledge. Merely human learning, though, is corrupted by sin and tends to find itself in opposition to God. That’s why He “overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense” (v. 25). Human knowledge by itself is prideful and mistaken—leaving God out of the picture is a major error! Such learning doesn’t surrender to the Lord, so it must be overthrown or proven wrong.

Our human expectations are often overturned or reversed. In the Exodus, for example, God caused an enslaved race to bring a world superpower to its knees. Jesus taught that the last shall be first, and He Himself was the rejected stone who became the Cornerstone (Luke 13:30; 20:17).

Why must human learning submit to the Lord? Because He created us as individuals and the world as a whole (v. 24). He is all-powerful, completely truthful, and knows the future (vv. 25–26). And He is the sovereign Ruler over nature and nations (vv. 27–28).

>> Our human learning can only take us so far. We need godly learning! Everything we learn or achieve must be submitted to God whose knowledge far surpasses anything we could ever achieve.

Pray with Us

Tales like Frankenstein warn us of the danger of pursuing knowledge without restraint. We value knowledge because it consists of the things You have revealed. May knowledge draw us closer to You, God of truth.

BY Brad Baurain

Dr. Bradley Baurain is Professor and Program Head of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Moody Bible Institute. Bradley has the unique privilege of holding a degree from four different universities (including Moody). He is the author of On Waiting Well. Bradley taught in China, Vietnam, the United States, and Canada. Bradley and his wife, Julia, have four children and reside in Northwest Indiana.