The HIerarchy of Knowledge

UV 1547/10000 The Hierarchy of Knowledge
Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like.
2 Chronicles 1 v 12

The Bible is called with purpose as “The Book” with a meaning and purpose. In no other book a word spoken to some person in the past will or can come alive for the current or contemporary reader. Though this uni-verse is spoken to Solomon as God is pleased with his prayer for wisdom rather than the goodies of this world: riches, honour, victory over enemies, longevity. Th Lord tells him that as he asked only for wisdom, He is pleased to grant him in addition riches, wealth, honour and each of these in such measure that it will outweigh that of any other king before or after him. Solomon even today is regarded as the wisest and wealthiest of kings of mankind. But the amazing thing is that this is not just a historic promise to a king but holds true for any believer even today. Solomon had the heart of a servant king. This is the reason he sought wisdom to serve his people better. Our motivation to get wisdom should not be our own well being, wealth, fame or honour but to serve His people better, to lead better as servant-kings. Solomon himself strayed from this path by marrying far too women of diverse cultures and being influenced by them. But the Son of God Jesus proved Himself to be the ultimate Servant-King, the personification of spiritual wisdom though it might seem foolishness to the worldly.

Knowledge is the leader’s edge or it is what give s him advantage. The hierarchy of knowledge is such that misinformation is at the base. The first step leading out of the pit of misinformation is data, followed by information, followed by knowledge, insight, understanding and finally, wisdom. The higher one’s leadership responsibility, the more one should operate out of the higher rungs of knowledge but the reality is that most leaders operate out of a mix of the first three levels only. It is indeed an irony that man first erred in the pursuit and desire for knowledge and continues to do so in pursuing all kinds of knowledge. These pursuits are like paths of red herrings that lead us away from true wisdom. Knowledge, insight, understanding and wisdom are of different types. There is considerable overlap between these categories. But wisdom that is the equivalent of the infra range of the light spectrum is the most valuable. Wisdom is of two types: worldly wisdom that helps one get ahead of the competition in this world and spiritual wisdom that is pure, peaceable, gentle, humble. It is not wisdom of this world or the wisdom of mankind but the wisdom of God. It is the wisdom that is hidden in the Word of God and is revealed by the Holy Spirit when we devote ourselves to its study and meditation thereon. The path to spiritual wisdom does not mean that we should progress step by step from misinformation to information to knowledge to understanding to worldly wisdom and then onto spiritual wisdom. We can take an elevator ride bypassing all these steps straight to spiritual wisdom and we will also be rich in knowledge and understanding.

The fear of God or respect and reverence expressed in faith and love of God acknowledges that the source of all true wisdom is God Himself. Wisdom is knowing and aligning oneself with the will of God. The Word reveals the will of God. He does not reveal all of it at once. He reveals it to us as we need it- line by line, precept by precept. We need to derive a principle from each verse and turn that into an act of obedience and eventually into a practice or a habit. Once we operate out of godly wisdom, the Lord who is the giver of good gifts to His children has no hesitation in granting riches, honour, long life in addition to the blessing of wisdom. Obtaining the spiritual wisdom of Jesus is the first step of being greatly blessed but it is not the end of our blessings but the beginning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning not just of wisdom but of wealth, honour and long life leading onto eternal life.



Prateep V Philip