where wisdom originates

And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.

1 Kings 4:29-30

Any human capacity for thought, creativity, engineering, explanation, or discovery comes from the hand of God. The human mind is His creation, first made in His image, for His glory. This is seen clearly in the life of Solomon, genius level king of Israel whose wisdom was the greatest in the world in his day. All that Solomon accomplished was because God gave him those gifts.

And the same is true in human achievement today. Wisdom and knowledge are God’s gifts to humanity. The achievements humanity makes in science, engineering, literature, medicine, or manufacturing... all of them originate in what God gave us in our individual creation. In a sense, God gets the credit for every Nobel prize. And it is a good thing that humans have such remarkable intellects. It should point us to the Greatest Intelligence in our Creator. It is a common grace of God that we can achieve much with our minds.

I’m glad I live in an age where human ingenuity mastering technology has done so much. But it really is a two-edged sword. For sinful pride usually gives all the credit to the people who achieve, and ignores the God Who enabled them to do so. Grateful praise for what we have done must go to the God Who gave us the minds of achievement.