during bible study last wednesday, a question arose about Ephesians 3:10 which i will now give to you containing the verse before and the verse after. in reality it's Ephesians 3:8-11:

Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me:to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

the part some got stumped on was the bolded verse 11. the part that stumped some was the word "manifold." and the fact that it was followed by the word "wisdom" didn't help them at all.
now, i'm not saying i have it right, but i'm going to try to talk this out. see if i can't turn this into a lesson some how...we'll see.

we'll start with the word manifold. we're not going to break out good ol webster, because good ol Webster didn't exactly have God in mind when he wrote all his definitions. and i think the end-note in my bible gives a pretty good definition, or thesauric word, if you will. (i know thesauric isn't a word. ;)) and who knows, maybe they used Webster? lol
manifold - variegated or multifaceted
still some pretty big words.
multi=many, faceted=has facets.
what's a facet? an aspect or side of something.
let's take the very good example that my bible gives - a diamond.

there's a diamond. and it's facets. take a good look, now. it will change...

in Ephesians 3:10, Paul is talking about God releasing his wisdom in his church.
God wants us to know what he does. He rejoices every time we read our bible, pray to him for answers, seek knowledge from Him. God wants to give us his wisdom. but not just His plain ol-every day consience wisdom.
God was giving the people his multi-faceted wisdom!
so what was God supposed to do? He could change His perfect and beautiful diamond back into a big ol hunk of ugly carbon just so we wouldn't have to work so hard at becoming like-minded with Him.(i know, carbon doesn't come in hunks. you get my drift.)
He wasn't going to change his perfect diamond. He had a better idea.
instead He created a different kind of diamond. ones that could absorb and reflect back to Him the perfect and splendid light of wisdom that His diamond produced.
those other diamonds...that's you and me.

isn't it true that not everyone can learn the same way? some learn through doing, some through listening, some through watching...
God made it so the many sides of His wisdom would be revealed in the many talents of his people. He gave His church gifts(facets)* that they were to use to reflect the many-facets of his diamond.

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