September 4th, 2025
by Brent Corbin
by Brent Corbin
How much do you know?
As we squeeze the last bits of summer from the sun and ramp up for the fall and its attendant school year rhythms of ministry, I have been thinking a lot about the relationship between wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence. I realize that may make me sound like the biggest nerd you’ve ever met (I may well deserve the title), but I can assure you there are reasons for my epistemological exercise:
- This summer, I led an elective class at many of our High School Summer Conferences for recently graduated seniors in which we looked at various passages in Job, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs—all part of the “wisdom literature” of the Old Testament. It was refreshing and wonderful to consider the timeless nature of God’s Word and the wisdom found therein, even as we applied it to contemporary, modern-day issues.
- Our four daughters have all recently returned to school and are in the midst of their own educational endeavors, with the two oldest among them studying for and taking several of the college entrance exams (SAT, ACT, PSAT). Their efforts in school, as well as the scores on these tests, will give us an objective indication as to their level of knowledge or intelligence (or at least whether or not they are good test-takers!).
- I have become intensely curious about Artificial Intelligence, and specifically its prevalence among and impact on teenagers. How are they using it? What are the possible good uses of it? How about the bad uses? (Hint: there are many.) How is it shaping them, and more specifically, how is it depriving them of the face-to-face interactions that humans so desperately need at this age for developmental purposes? And perhaps most importantly, how is this technology shaping them spiritually—is it possible that it can be a help, or is it only a harm?
It is the task of God’s people in every age to have discernment as it relates to “knowing the times.” In an otherwise orderly listing of divisions within King David’s army, there were 200 chiefs from among the tribe of Issachar who were noted as being “men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chron. 12:32). Jesus Himself, in one of those rarely boring interactions with the Pharisees and Sadducees, rebukes them for having a sort of “secretive knowledge” of the sky while remaining ignorant of the vastly more important spiritual “signs of the times” (Matt. 16:3). Later in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus expends considerable effort with His disciples, seeking to teach them how to discern and know more about His coming kingdom (ch. 24ff).
But amidst all of my own thinking about this topic, I am brought back to this simple truth from Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”
Oh—to fear the Lord! And not just know things about Him—such that we might pass an exam or attain some level of prestige—but to know Him. In all of His beauty and fullness. In all of His saving love and kindness. In His wondrous pursuit of us. Yes, us—in all of our disordered desires and personal pursuits of lesser lovers.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
There is nothing artificial about that. To know it is to be known by the Source of knowledge Himself.
All for Jesus,
Brent Corbin
Executive Director
But amidst all of my own thinking about this topic, I am brought back to this simple truth from Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”
Oh—to fear the Lord! And not just know things about Him—such that we might pass an exam or attain some level of prestige—but to know Him. In all of His beauty and fullness. In all of His saving love and kindness. In His wondrous pursuit of us. Yes, us—in all of our disordered desires and personal pursuits of lesser lovers.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
There is nothing artificial about that. To know it is to be known by the Source of knowledge Himself.
All for Jesus,
Brent Corbin
Executive Director
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