Week 4: Romans 11:33-36

Romans 11:33-36: “Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has given Him counsel? Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?’ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

1. How deep are the riches, wisdom, and knowledge of God!  They are bottomless things that never dry up, wells from the depths of creation and from God Himself.  He is infinitely rich, having at His disposal and use anything He desires and owning all there is.  He is infinitely wise, able to make the best possible choice and options available for His will, never making a wrong choice even when we cannot see the reasons.  He is infinitely knowledgeable, filled with the understanding of everything.  This is our God.
2. His judgments are unsearchable.  God’s thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8), they are so infinitely higher than ours that it’s impossible for us to search out understanding from His choices.  Who are we to question why God made the sky blue?  His reasoning is sound and seems odd because we’re so far below Him that it’s pathetic.  
3. His ways are inscrutable.  Inscrutable means unable to understand or comprehend.  Just as His thoughts are well above ours, we cannot hope to understand Him.  We can only trust in His promises and His Word.
1. No one has known the mind of the Lord and no one can give Him counsel.  This refrain echoes the depth of God’s knowledge & wisdom.  It is comforting to think that there is no one above our God.
2. God is indebted to no one (evidenced by the next verse).  He does not owe us anything, and every breath we have is a gift of His creation.  The chief gift is salvation and the cross, the ultimate gift of His only Son, and it’s a gift so that no one can boast but instead thank God for His providence.  
4. From Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  God created everything, and it was all made by His hands or by His direction.  He set the mechanics of the universe in order.  He placed the sun in our sky.  He put the breath in our lungs.  He is the only Creator, and everyone owes their worship and praise to Him alone forever.

These verses are Paul's declaration of how awesome God.  I like to incorporate them into my prayers, for God is still bottomless, limitless, insurmountable, inscrutable, and mind-blowing.  Just when we think we understand something about God, a whole new facet opens up and astounds us all over again.


To God be the glory forever, indeed!