The Elusiveness of Knowledge–Part Two
Does it make any sense that knowledge is so easily gained and lost and that not everyone comes to have the same knowledge at any given time—especially about the Bible. Why should it be this way? Why wouldn’t God make all knowledge, including what we find in the Bible, available at the same time to everyone in the world? Jerusalem, under the reigns of King David and King Solomon, had become a center for commerce and learning as the capital of a regional empire in the Middle East. Consequently, in Solomon’s day there were people who could navigate the seas, build marvelous buildings, paint, sculpt, go to war, explain the path of the stars, mine the earth and fetch exotic creatures from far away lands, and do many, many other things. These people were responsible for teaching King Solomon about how to do things, and the things that they did and the knowledge that they had existed before Solomon. Yet, it was from this body of knowledge that Solomon began to acquire his own knowledge and formulate the wisdom that he attained, which also included the then known Scripture, including the writings of his father David. The book of Ecclesiastes—attributed to Solomon—is an example of experiential learning and the knowledge gained from that experience and experimentation, and how that acquired knowledge was valued against the Scripture. By his learning Solomon became an instructor of the people in acquirable wisdom and knowledge as it is written in Ecclesiastes that he “taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs” (Pro. 12:9). Showing us that Solomon had “sought” to acquire knowledge and wisdom, which led him to sum the matter of his quest by stating that we should, “fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecc. 12:13). Something that Solomon had surmised by juxtaposing his experimentation against the information of what was to be found in Scripture. Thus, we may reasonably conclude then that when the Queen of Sheba came to test Solomon with hard questions, she was perhaps challenging Solomon’s gift of discernment regarding the acquirable knowledge and wisdom that he gathered from all those who preceded him, including his father David. If we have surmised correctly, this tells us that there is a difference between the acquirable knowledge and wisdom that Solomon came to possess, and the revealed knowledge that comes from God. We have to remember that Solomon was certainly aware of the writings of Moses, and the wisdom and knowledge that it contained, which included what God had revealed to Moses. We also need to recall that it was Solomon who had asked God for the ability to “discern between good and bad” for the purpose of judging the people correctly, and so he sought that knowledge and wisdom and taught it in the form of proverbs to the people of Israel (I Kg. 3:9). It was this gift of discernment that gave Solomon his reputation for wisdom. The record of which is in the Bible. We have it in possession today. Yet, still, even though we have such knowledge and wisdom from Solomon we see that few can use the Scripture to explain God’s way of life, and the purpose for our existence, and what it is that God has planned for all humankind. Notably, then, we should also keep in mind that Solomon did not ask God how to explain the genetic framework of life, or how light waves work, or how he might travel into outer space, and so on. Even wise King Solomon would marvel at today’s advancements in technology, and in the enormous amount of existing information waiting to be turned into knowledge. So, then, what does all this mean for a book such as the Bible? Well, we might think that here is a book that if more people had knowledge of, and an understanding of its meaning and purpose, there would be fewer troubles in the world—before Solomon’s time and after. In actuality, however, it has been, and continues to be, just the opposite even to this day. Having the Bible is one thing and understanding its place in the world of knowledge is another, for we see that the Bible has been the basis for many a superstitious belief, and it has even been used to condone war, incite racial tension, and exploit the poor. It has also been used—at times—to interfere with a growing body of knowledge about this world. This, of course, is not the purpose of the Bible, but throughout its development and canonization it has been a book frequently misused for the benefit of the user. Even in our modern day, we find conflict between people’s interpretation of Scripture and what some people have discovered in the world of science. For example, through various interpretations of Scripture, some believe Jerusalem is the center of the earth, and some have concluded that the earth is only 6,000 years old. Interestingly, in some cases the Bible would have helped people in their understanding of the earth and its wonders. Now, people might think that such issues would not be addressed in the Bible, and that would be an incorrect view of Scripture. In centuries past, as people began to explore the earth, we find that early on many believed the earth to be flat and some thought the earth was even rectangular in shape, or that the stars were fixed in the sky. However, it is interesting to see that Isaiah wrote something that would incline us to believe the earth was understood to be round in the days of the kings of Israel. Notice what Isaiah wrote in his prophecy: “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes