Day 7: Spirit of Knowledge

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
Genesis 2:17

Knowledge is different than wisdom. Perhaps the easiest way of defining the difference is that while both are nouns, knowledge is something you have, wisdom is using it in a proper way. Which also needs knowledge, which comes from wise decisions so…ok, there really isn’t an easy way to explain it. 

But for us we seek knowledge. At least we NEED to be seeking it. When God had Hosea write his book of prophesy-and really a sad tale to have to not only write but live through-He starts, in chapter 4 to accuse Israel of harlotry, and one of the first things He does is point out that there is no longer any knowledge of God in the land. Such a sad commentary on the very people He chose, led out of bondage, gave much to, promised much to and for them just to forget Him. Not only to forget Him, but to stumble right toward destruction because of it.

Knowledge of the Lord is very much wrapped up in His precepts. Solomon, in his writings of the Proverbs has many verses on knowledge, but the one that stands out is at the beginning of his collection in the first chapter, the 7th verse and sets the tone for the whole of his treatise: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: fools despise wisdom and instruction. He actually repeat the phrase ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge’ a number of places. So the wisest man who ever lived seemed to think that knowledge of the Lord is the key to life. 

While we often thing of wisdom and knowledge as the same thing, Paul will write in 1 Corinthians 12:8 ‘For one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit’. So there IS a difference, and…well…it seems to be one of those situations where we KNOW they are different, RECOGNIZE the difference but just can’t quite put it into words. Habakkuk will tell of a time when the ‘…earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord’. Right before that, though Paul warns of a time when people will continue to grow in knowledge-but not seemingly able to recognize WHERE this knowledge comes from nor what to do with it!

The preacher in Ecclesiastes spends a large portion of his treatise explaining that while knowledge and wisdom are good and important, without God they are nothing. And to have knowledge of God? That’s an easy one. Jesus Himself tells us that in the 14th chapter of John: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known the Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him. ‘

Daniel 2:21
He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;”