day 1460-1461

“wisdom and exceedingly great understanding …” (1 Kings 4:29c, NKJV)

A last, and often overlooked aspect of spiritual sight that could be framed as a spiritual sense is the concept understanding. Although it’s correlate is strictly speaking not physical sight, it is a very important way in which it can be considered. One of the entries under the lemma in Dictionary.com defines it as “penetrating mental vision or discernment; faculty of seeing into inner character or underlying truth”. Merriam-Webster defines it as “the power or act of seeing into a situation: penetration; the act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively”.

Let’s first explore the way this term appears in Scripture, as it will assist us in obtaining this endangered spiritual sense. Solomon notes that we should cry out for understanding (Prov. 2:3), that we should listen so we can become acquainted with understanding (Prov. 4:1); in fact – verse 7 makes it clear in aphoristic terms: “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.”

In the New Testament Paul foregrounds this spiritual sense. In Col. 1:9 he strongly urges: “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding …” To gain knowledge of God’s will you need to require “enlightened eyes of the understanding” (Eph. 1:18). Thus Paul’s prayer in 2 Tim. 2:7b is “may the Lord give you understanding in all things”. In The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible, understanding is presented pictorially as a picture of a tent and a sprouting seed, “and represents continuity as the seed continues the next generation. The combined meaning of these letters mean ‘the continuing of the house’.” This Hebrew word that is used for understanding, bı̂ynâh, has an absolutely enormous impact, much wider than the person who gains the understanding – it builds a house [see Prov. 24:3-4: “Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” Later in this study of the sevenfold Spirit of God we will see that wisdom, the mind and knowledge are all attributes of understanding, but also of one another. In John 14:2-3 Jesus also referred to this house as the place that He prepares for us in the spiritual realm. This is the house with which “we are clothed … from heaven” (2 Cor. 5:1-2)]. But it does not just build a house, it establishes a generation! This understanding is utterly necessary for descendants, physically and spiritually, to continue to exist! Selah.

What an amazing gift of grace Solomon received: “And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore.” (1 Kings 4:29). Like everything else in the Bible this too is not a random detail. The sand on the seashore is also a reference to Abraham’s descendants: “For You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’” (Gen. 32:12). But within the apokalupsis (revelation) of true identity in Christ it is also a space in which there can be prophesied about the position of the descendants in this cosmic war that is being consummated. Just after the events where the Dragon tried to destroy the Bride with false teaching, as it is recorded in Rev. 12, Rev. 13:1 begins with this wonderful sentence: Then I stood on the sand of the sea.” When this happens, he SEES the most wondrous revelations in the spiritual realm.

This spiritual sense is especially also noticed by unbelievers. Huram, the builder of the temple of Solomon, that is presented within the lore of Freemasonry as Hiram-Abib, is a central figure in this antichrist organization, and is seen as an equal to Jesus Christ. He says the following remarkable words in 2 Chr. 2:12: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, for He has given King David a wise son, endowed with prudence and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal house for himself!” The Bible Knowledge Commentary presents the following perspective: “Hiram’s acknowledgment of the Lord (Yahweh), the God of Israel, as the Creator of heaven and earth (2 Chr. 2:12) was just a formal courtesy and tells nothing of his own personal faith.” This may be true, but Rom. 14:11 is the key factor that points out the relevance of this confession for what it is in reality: “For it is written: ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’” Huram has already bowed!

So the ungodly reign of the king of Persia also reports on Daniel: “There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him; and King Nebuchadnezzar your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers.” (Dan. 5:11). These people are in no way able to discern the true spirit of Daniel, and thus they afford to him the highest worth they are familiar with in their limited frame of reference: the spirit of the holy gods. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm.” (Dan. 1:20). This spiritual sense also renders the believer a son of Issachar, with “understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chr. 12:32), or as the ERRB translates it: the ability of “discernment of the times.”

The question then remains: How does one obtain this understanding (Dan. 9:22)? In 1 Chr. 22:12 David prays this key prayer about Solomon: “Only may the Lord give you wisdom and understanding, and give you charge concerning Israel, that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.” Understanding is not just gained; it comes from God (James 1:17); it is a requirement for ruling as king; and it is dependent on following the law. The latter, in the new covenant terms in the Old Covenant (!) simply means: “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic. 6:8). Prov. 3:3-4 emphasizes the same truth: “Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.” One gains understanding through one’s godly nature (2 Pet. 1:4)! Along with understanding, which interestingly enough can also increase (Prov. 1:5; 9:9), God also provides wisdom and knowledge (Dan. 2:21).

But understanding as product of a spiritual sense still has one last mystery we need to consider. Its important origin is nestled in God’s question to Job (38:4): “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.” God is not being resentful. The same type of question is for instance found in Isa. 40:14: “With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?” God is encouraging us to search for the mystery that was hidden before the foundations of the earth were laid! In Eph. 3:4 Paul then reveals that “my knowledge in the mystery of Christ,” and in Col. 2:2 Paul prays that believers’ “hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Job (11:6) knew that “the secrets of wisdom” [= Christ – 1 Cor. 1:24] doubles the understanding! Therefore, the personified Wisdom proclaims in Prov. 8:14: “I am understanding,” and it can then be understood that he opens the book of Proverbs (1:2) with the phrase “to perceive the words of understanding.” Here word is the Hebrew ‘êmer, or: your rhema word!

 

  • Selah: Understand how your rhema identity unfolds “the full assurance of understanding”.
  • Read: 37-42.
  • Memorise: 40:14 above (What beautiful synchronicity!)