This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.
This also comes from the Lord of hosts to close lessons from farming, that He Himself instructs the one who plows and plants and threshes, giving discretion to use fitting methods for different soils and seeds and tasks. He is wonderful in counsel and excellent and perfect in working, with wisdom and skill fully able to accomplish what He wills. The same wisdom that teaches the farmer gives reasoning powers and all right inventions and skill and strength for health, crafts, trades, agriculture, commerce, and science, and it is found by the diligent who seek it as hidden treasure. He opens the way and makes labor fruitful for those who trust and obey Him and seek His counsel and learn from Him daily, so success depends on humble union with Him rather than on natural ability or scholarship. He carries out His purposes through the cooperation of human and divine agencies, honoring people as workers together with Him in everyday pursuits and in sacred work for His glory.
Wisdom for Practical Labor
This also comes forth from the Lord of hosts as the close of lessons drawn from farming, for He Himself instructs the one who plows and drives oxen, plants and sows seed, handles crops and threshes. He teaches discretion in working the soil in the very best manner, to choose fitting methods for different soils, seeds and tasks, preparing the ground, sowing different seeds, and threshing different crops according to their needs. Practical skill and sound judgment in such labor are therefore not separate from divine instruction, but come from the Lord whose counsel is wonderful and whose working is excellent.
The same wisdom that teaches the farmer gives men and women reasoning powers to study the best way to keep the body in health and to employ their physical machinery rightly. All right inventions and improvements, with all knowledge, skill and strength for medicine and crafts, trades and agriculture, commerce and science, are gifts of that divine wisdom entrusted to people, including medical knowledge and ability to help the suffering. This wisdom is found by the diligent who seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasure, as God desires to guide minds so work may be done well.
The God who taught Adam and Eve in Eden how to tend the garden still instructs men and women today. That instruction is learned when teachers and students and ministers labor together in gardens and fields, taking lessons from nature as Christ did to illustrate Bible truth. Agricultural labor under this instruction educates the mind and offers lessons that help teach spiritual truth and train the mind for spiritual work. It gives more healthful spiritual experience, with stronger minds and purer hearts to interpret eternal mysteries, and in every phase of this labor educates the mind to work for the saving of souls.
Wonderful Counsel, Excellent Working
The verse reveals the Lord of hosts as wonderful in counsel and excellent, perfect and mighty in working, whose wisdom, actions and skill are perfect and fully able to accomplish what He wills. He carries out His purposes through the cooperation of human and divine agencies, seen and unseen, and those who unite with Him in trust can accomplish what He wills despite obstacles. Success in His work depends on humble trust and dependence upon Him rather than on natural ability, genius, eloquence, scholarship or self-confidence. His wonderful counsel and excellent working are displayed in establishing the world and stretching out the heavens. His wisdom and skill also guide people in their duties and enable their labor to bear fruit.
His blessing provides for His people even in the wilderness and will never cease, for the earth holds rich provision, so faithful workers can labor hopefully despite apparent failure or delay. He guided Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness as their unseen leader and teacher, working as their personal Redeemer. In delivering them He used nature as His servant to display His power and sovereign control over nature and every power that sought to oppress them, teaching that He alone is God.
Jesus is mighty in counsel. People are to learn from Him. The Holy Spirit is to be trusted to guide continually into truth.
Trust and Cooperation with God
This also comes from the Lord of hosts to open the way forward for those who trust and obey Him, teaching the one who plows and sows and giving instruction and skill for practical work. His wisdom and skill guide men in their duties and make their labor bear fruit. All right inventions and improvements come from Him, with all knowledge of the body and skill in healing, and all skill and strength for medicine, crafts, trades, agriculture, commerce, and science, given as divine wisdom to relieve suffering and to be used wisely to help others and serve His work. He desires to guide the mind so the work may be done well, and He expects workers to seek His counsel, allow Him to guide their minds, and learn from Him daily.
Success in His work rests on union with Him in humble trust rather than on natural ability, scholarship, or self-confidence, for united with Him men can accomplish what He wills. It does not depend on genius, eloquence, or scholarship, but on humble dependence upon God, who is mighty to carry out His purposes despite obstacles. Even workers with little schooling and low standing can through confidence in God succeed, including in winning souls for Christ, as His wisdom and power guide those who learn from Him daily.
He carries out His purposes through human and divine agencies, seen and unseen, honoring men as workers together with Him. This cooperation belongs both to everyday pursuits and to sacred work for His glory, in every kind of practical and intellectual labor done under His guidance. He is with His workers through these agents to accomplish His own designs.
He must therefore be welcomed into council meetings and committee deliberations as the life and soul of all that is true and good and enduring, followed with implicit childlike faith in His Word and a teachable, submissive spirit, with discernment to know when He comes and to perceive Him in the assembly. Where He is not welcomed another spirit is present to suggest unwise plans, and without discernment men cannot see through the plausible arguments presented but move according to unjust and unwise principles. When those connected with His grand work make their works correspond to their profession, living out religion with an eye single to His glory and shining as lights without noise or friction, His work will be carried forward to His glory and none of His workers need fail. Since His blessing provides for His people even in the wilderness and will never cease, for the earth holds rich provision, faithful workers can labor hopefully despite apparent failure or delay.
This also comes from the Lord of hosts to close lessons from farming, that He Himself instructs the one who plows and plants and threshes, giving discretion to use fitting methods for different soils and seeds and tasks. He is wonderful in counsel and excellent and perfect in working, with wisdom and skill fully able to accomplish what He wills. The same wisdom that teaches the farmer gives reasoning powers and all right inventions and skill and strength for health, crafts, trades, agriculture, commerce, and science, and it is found by the diligent who seek it as hidden treasure. He opens the way and makes labor fruitful for those who trust and obey Him and seek His counsel and learn from Him daily, so success depends on humble union with Him rather than on natural ability or scholarship. He carries out His purposes through the cooperation of human and divine agencies, honoring people as workers together with Him in everyday pursuits and in sacred work for His glory.
Wisdom for Practical Labor
This also comes forth from the Lord of hosts as the close of lessons drawn from farming, for He Himself instructs the one who plows and drives oxen, plants and sows seed, handles crops and threshes. He teaches discretion in working the soil in the very best manner, to choose fitting methods for different soils, seeds and tasks, preparing the ground, sowing different seeds, and threshing different crops according to their needs. Practical skill and sound judgment in such labor are therefore not separate from divine instruction, but come from the Lord whose counsel is wonderful and whose working is excellent.
The same wisdom that teaches the farmer gives men and women reasoning powers to study the best way to keep the body in health and to employ their physical machinery rightly. All right inventions and improvements, with all knowledge, skill and strength for medicine and crafts, trades and agriculture, commerce and science, are gifts of that divine wisdom entrusted to people, including medical knowledge and ability to help the suffering. This wisdom is found by the diligent who seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasure, as God desires to guide minds so work may be done well.
The God who taught Adam and Eve in Eden how to tend the garden still instructs men and women today. That instruction is learned when teachers and students and ministers labor together in gardens and fields, taking lessons from nature as Christ did to illustrate Bible truth. Agricultural labor under this instruction educates the mind and offers lessons that help teach spiritual truth and train the mind for spiritual work. It gives more healthful spiritual experience, with stronger minds and purer hearts to interpret eternal mysteries, and in every phase of this labor educates the mind to work for the saving of souls.
Wonderful Counsel, Excellent Working
The verse reveals the Lord of hosts as wonderful in counsel and excellent, perfect and mighty in working, whose wisdom, actions and skill are perfect and fully able to accomplish what He wills. He carries out His purposes through the cooperation of human and divine agencies, seen and unseen, and those who unite with Him in trust can accomplish what He wills despite obstacles. Success in His work depends on humble trust and dependence upon Him rather than on natural ability, genius, eloquence, scholarship or self-confidence. His wonderful counsel and excellent working are displayed in establishing the world and stretching out the heavens. His wisdom and skill also guide people in their duties and enable their labor to bear fruit.
His blessing provides for His people even in the wilderness and will never cease, for the earth holds rich provision, so faithful workers can labor hopefully despite apparent failure or delay. He guided Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness as their unseen leader and teacher, working as their personal Redeemer. In delivering them He used nature as His servant to display His power and sovereign control over nature and every power that sought to oppress them, teaching that He alone is God.
Jesus is mighty in counsel. People are to learn from Him. The Holy Spirit is to be trusted to guide continually into truth.
Trust and Cooperation with God
This also comes from the Lord of hosts to open the way forward for those who trust and obey Him, teaching the one who plows and sows and giving instruction and skill for practical work. His wisdom and skill guide men in their duties and make their labor bear fruit. All right inventions and improvements come from Him, with all knowledge of the body and skill in healing, and all skill and strength for medicine, crafts, trades, agriculture, commerce, and science, given as divine wisdom to relieve suffering and to be used wisely to help others and serve His work. He desires to guide the mind so the work may be done well, and He expects workers to seek His counsel, allow Him to guide their minds, and learn from Him daily.
Success in His work rests on union with Him in humble trust rather than on natural ability, scholarship, or self-confidence, for united with Him men can accomplish what He wills. It does not depend on genius, eloquence, or scholarship, but on humble dependence upon God, who is mighty to carry out His purposes despite obstacles. Even workers with little schooling and low standing can through confidence in God succeed, including in winning souls for Christ, as His wisdom and power guide those who learn from Him daily.
He carries out His purposes through human and divine agencies, seen and unseen, honoring men as workers together with Him. This cooperation belongs both to everyday pursuits and to sacred work for His glory, in every kind of practical and intellectual labor done under His guidance. He is with His workers through these agents to accomplish His own designs.
He must therefore be welcomed into council meetings and committee deliberations as the life and soul of all that is true and good and enduring, followed with implicit childlike faith in His Word and a teachable, submissive spirit, with discernment to know when He comes and to perceive Him in the assembly. Where He is not welcomed another spirit is present to suggest unwise plans, and without discernment men cannot see through the plausible arguments presented but move according to unjust and unwise principles. When those connected with His grand work make their works correspond to their profession, living out religion with an eye single to His glory and shining as lights without noise or friction, His work will be carried forward to His glory and none of His workers need fail. Since His blessing provides for His people even in the wilderness and will never cease, for the earth holds rich provision, faithful workers can labor hopefully despite apparent failure or delay.