Open Both of God’s Books
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By John Piper
About Creation
Part of the series Message Excerpt
Wisdom in His Word, Wisdom in His World
Audio Transcript
We are committed to helping you pursue wisdom not only in the word of God, but in the world of God. Proverbs 6:6: “Go to the ant . . .” — this is serious. “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.”
One of the main reasons that we believe in a liberal arts education, where you read lots and lots of stuff outside the Bible, is because the Bible tells us to. The Bible tells us there are dimensions of wisdom to be found in the assiduous, penetrating, critical, biblical observation of the world — not only in the Bible.
If somebody says, “Whoa, whoa! You’re drifting away from the Bible by reading books outside the Bible,” our answer is: “We’re obeying the Bible to look at ants.” You can look at ants in the ground. You can look at ants in a biology book. There are lots of ways to look at ants or a thousand other things that God Almighty, in his infinite wisdom, has put in this world not to be ignored.
So, the great books that show these great things — oh my, what you can learn from the world: its folly, its shrewdness, its calamities, its wonders. It would be dishonoring to its Maker, who is all-wise, to ignore it when he has told you, “Go there and get wise.”
