Original: October 26, 2007
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 1Corinthians 1:25
For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you. 2 Corinthians 13:4
Preview
Years ago I wrote a small book of short stories about my first Black Lab, Jesse affectionately titled, “Jesse: Chronicles of a Bird Dog and Best Friend”. It was never published and is a book about a best friend that lived and died what seems like a lifetime ago. One of those stories involved a duck hunt in the Back Bay of Morro Bay, California with my cousin Darby. Darby was just starting his hunting career as we took his flat bottom boat duck hunting.
In Morro Bay, the outgoing tides cause ducks in the “no shooting zone” of the Estuary to get up and fly to the Back Bay where hunting is allowed. Knowing this, duck hunters hunt “The Bay” on the outgoing tide. The dilemma revolves around choosing the perfect time for departure. If a hunter waits just five minutes too long they take the risk of being stranded on the mud flats which is the ultimate in humiliation in the hillbilly hunters network of Morro Bay (Remember my recent entry of pushing our duck boat through the mud).
Darby and I were just learning the Bay and were admitted “greenhorns” when it came to duck hunting so when the Green Heads and Green Wings began to fly, these young and zealous greenhorns ignored the tides until we had several ducks lying dead and high and dry on the mud flats. Darby, being the ingenious one of the two of us found two drift wood planks and decided he could get to the downed birds by using the planks as mud skis, crawling out on his hands and knees to the downed waterfowl. I told you we were green horns! Nervous about his foolish appearance and worried that he might get trapped in the mud, thus forcing me to now die with him, victims of the Back Bay silt, I distinctly remember yelling, “Leave the ducks and get back here before you get stuck.”
Now Darby, although he was a greenhorn to duck hunting was no Greenhorn to the Back Bay mud as he grew up in the bay as a surfer and the owner of the only deep sea fishing business in town. He knows the bay and the tides and shot back in rapid Darby fashion, “Do not be afraid of something you know nothing about.”
Long story short, in ten minutes of mud skiing Darby had all the ducks in the boat, we pushed the boat (again through the mud) into a channel, and were back at the dock with a lesson learned.
However, the moral for me was that ignorance can often times make truth appear ridiculous, ludicrous and even foolish. Then I thought about Jesus.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. (1Corinthians 1:25)
Max Lucado writes that the angels were silent when God told them his plan of salvation for the world. It must have sounded ridiculous that the God of the universe and creator of all things was actually going to become a man in order to save his beloved creation; a creation that would eventually kill him for it!
When I read of the “weakness of God” found in 1 Corinthians 1:25 I have to confess that I was momentarily stuck in the mud. How can God be weak, flawed or imperfect on any level? Then I realized this verse is simply pointing my barrel to 2 Corinthians 13:4 that says, “For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him to serve you.”
You see, God’s “weakness” was found in the human form He took in the person of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:3-10). In the midst of human weakness he never waivered, never sinned (Hebrews 4:15), His death becoming an atoning sacrifice for all men for all time (Hebrews 10:12).
All of Heaven must have laughed in ignorance at God’s plan but I ask you, “Who’s laughing now?”
