Isaiah 29:14
“Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.” (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 29:11-16 and 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Let’s tackle a tough Scripture today. Yesterday we examined Isaiah 29:13 where God took His people to task for simply going through the ritualistic motions yet their hearts remaining far from God. They had to be told how to worship God because they had no desire to seek Him for themselves.
In verse 14, God begins with “Therefore.” Because His people were in this relational desert with Him, therefore, He’s going to do something about it:
“Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish” (vs. 14).
One more time, God is going to amaze the people with an abundance of miracles. These miracles will be so amazing that even the wisest and smartest people will have no explanation for them. In other words, God is going to send Jesus to humble us so that we will give him our heart.
Paul gives an explanation of Isaiah 29:14 in his first letter to the church in Corinth and it’s in his opening argument. Paul opens his letter to them by calling them out for being divided among themselves. They’re supposed to be spreading the Gospel and being the hands and feet of Jesus yet they are bogged down with petty quarrels amongst themselves. It seems they’ve got some disagreements over the intellectual pieces of the Gospel and it’s creating division. After all, Corinth was a very intellectual city and the smartest people garnered the most attention.
So Paul quotes Isaiah 29:14 to them and translates it for them. Paul says that the meaning of Isaiah 29:14 is this: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18).
Paul is simply saying here that people aren’t going to follow us because they think Christianity is intellectually advanced. It’s the opposite. To the world, the message of the cross is foolish. Paul uses the Hebrew word mōria for “foolish” which comes from the word móros that we translate into English as “moron.” The world thinks that we are morons for following a dead man that we claim had to die but actually was raised from the dead and now we get to live with God for all eternity. To the world, this is not intelligent, it’s moronic.
But here’s the twist and the hidden message of Isaiah 29:14: In order to receive salvation, we must become a moron first. The worldly wisdom of the wise must perish in order to see the wisdom of God. The intellectual knowledge of the genius must vanish in order to see the knowledge of God.
And you know why this must happen if you’ve been with me for the last six months. It’s because of John chapter 1: “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1:3-4). Everything that exists has Jesus woven into it. Everything! “Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24).
Jesus is wisdom. Jesus is power. Jesus is life. Jesus is light. These aren’t characteristics that describe Jesus. Jesus is the great I AM. You can’t be wise without Jesus. You can’t be intelligent without Jesus. Not truly wise or truly intelligent anyway. If you’re trying to hang onto your worldly reputation or your human wisdom and be a follower of Christ at the same time, it won’t work. They are oil and water. They’re not compatible.
“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30). Jesus is wisdom, righteousness, holiness and our redemption. If we humble ourselves before God, we will see the light. The Scriptures will open up to us and we will see the wisdom of God. And his name is Jesus.
If we humble ourselves, we will see Jesus woven through all of history and even Creation itself. We will also see Jesus in everything we think and do today. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10). We become wise when we recognize that we are not saved by anything other than the gift of the cross. “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus.”
Christ in the Old Testament 
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