Blog Eight, September 26, 2025
Nature’s Display of Wisdom
“And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish.” (1 Kings 4:29-33 ESV, emphasis added)
Dr. Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation stated that “Nature displays divine wisdom” in 2005. The biblical description of the wisdom God gave King Solomon provides evidence for the accuracy of Dr. Beisner’s statement – Solomon demonstrated knowledge of trees and plants, as well as beasts, birds, reptiles, and fish. In addition to songs and proverbs, his wisdom spanned botany and zoology. His was not just spiritual wisdom, but scientific knowledge also.
The majority of controversies in the natural realm are over issues related to living things, either the origin of life, whether by evolution or divine command, or environmental issues like energy or global climate change – issues that affect life, culture, and public policy. Science contentions inevitably rest on or near the issue of life.
As a manifestation of some of this divine wisdom, we find the biological, the living – beasts, birds, plants, and fish – testifying to the Creator’s authoritative hand. Job, in one of his discourses, says the following:
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;
or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind. (Job 12:7-10 ESV).
Life remains the last bastion of human understanding. A child of five can spot life; defining life is a lot harder. (Try defining life without using “alive” or “living” or “viable” or “biotic.”) The problem is life is not something we can extract out of a living being and isolate in a test tube. Nature cries out in praise to its Creator. Life and breath have as their source the God of heaven.
Nature resonates with the wisdom of the Creator but possesses no knowledge of its own. Dr. Beisner has also stated that “nature does not know what is best – it does know anything.” So, how do we reconcile the two? Quite simply, displaying wisdom and gathering knowledge are two different things. Knowledge flows out of mankind – we learn from the divine wisdom set in the pristine order of the natural realm, its patterns and mathematical wonder there for us to measure and subdue. Natural law and natural processes, hammered into physical and chemical forms we can comprehend, allow us to craft knowledge and take dominion of Earth, as God commanded.
But this comes with the ingenuity of man, and not the voice of nature which does not know what is best. Humans, residents of Creation, can study the natural realm and its nuances which proclaim the authority and wisdom of the Creator. Divine attributes built into every natural system are there for us to discover.
D. E.