Wisdom Fleeting, Wisdom Found!

Genesis 3:6 ESV
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

I like superhero movies.   I like the fantasy behind them.  I guess its kind of a release of the inner kid in me, but whatever it is I like them.  The one out of all of the latest ones I like best is Avengers.  I like the fact that despite legend they downplay Thor and Loki's alleged godship.  I like the fact that there is a reference to God.  Captain America tells Natasha Romanoff "Theres only 1 God ma'am and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."  Referring to the way Thor is dressed.   Then later the Hulk grabs Loki by the ankle and slams him violently back and forth leaving him helpless in a crumpled pile on the floor after Loki claims he is a god.  As he walks out the Hulk says his only line in the movie "puney god".   Awesome playdown.  But the thing in this movie I want to talk about is actually a speech made by Loki here it is, he has just commanded a crowd of people to kneel before him and made the ground shake to demonstrate his power:

Loki: Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.

While Loki is lieing to force people to follow him he does the one thing all adept liers do to make thier lies believable.   He adds some truth to it.

While I do not agree with Loki that it is our natural state or that we crave subjugation.   I do agree that what we see as a bright lure of freedom often diminishes our life's joy in a mad scramble for power, and identity.

Isn't that what happened at the garden in Genesis 3.  She saw that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.  She thought that eating the fruit would make her wise.  In reality all it did was give her knowledge of good and evil.   Exactly what God created it to do. She desired wisdom and got knowledge.   Knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom has knowledge in it, but knowledge alone does not make one wise.  Just for the record, man in large still isn't wise.  If we believe God is who He says He is then this verse explains how to obtain wisdom:

Psalms 37:30‭-‬31 ESV
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.  The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.

You must be righteous.  The only way to become righteous is to accept Christ. Are there people outside of Christ that are wise?  That's the big question.  From what I've seen over the last nearly 50 years that I have been acquiring knowledge of my environment I have seen many things that look wise, but to my experience any symbolence of wisdom outside of faith in Christ is fleeting.   You see, it is the faith in Christ that is the wisdom.  To believe in the one who has all wisdom and will answer your call is the strongest source of wisdom.  Simple once you think about it.  Isn't it?  I believe God has kept it simple because man has proven over and over again that he can't handle complicated.

Romans 3:23‭-‬26 ESV
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The ironic piece of this is that Adam and Eve were more wise before the fall than after.  There is knowledge in wisdom but not necessarily all knowledge.  They were wiser without that knowledge hence God said don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

When Eve ate that Apple she was saying, the knowledge you didn't give me is the knowledge I want. I want to decide what good and evil is for myself.  Your decisions aren't good enough for me, I want the freedom to decide away from you.  I want the power, I want that identity.

Loki finished his speech with this:
You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.

He's right.

Genesis 1 tells us that we were created by God. 

Genesis 1:26 ESV
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Colossians 1 says this about Jesus:

COL 1:16 ESV
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Ephesians says:

Ephesians 1:9‭-‬10 ESV
making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Romans says this:

Romans 14:11 ESV
for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

While we have dominion we were made to be ruled.  The difference is that our ruler is the One True God.  We will bow or kneel before King Jesus.  

I'm starting now.  How about you?

It should be noted that I can't watch the movie again because God's word tells me to flee sexual immortality and this movie is laced with it.  But that is another blog entirely.