“Now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:10 NKJ).
This word manifold is very interesting. It is the word used in the Septuagint to describe Joseph’s coat of many colors.
Designer fabrics in Bible days were usually made of one solid tint. Joseph’s coat of many (manifold) colors was a radical departure from the custom of that day.
The verse we are looking at here assures that God’s wisdom has a great deal of variety to it. Human methodologies tend to become structured. Whenever spontaneity does occur, our tendency is to imitate it, syndicate it, franchise it, and capitalize off of it until it becomes one of our set traditions.
Not so with God.
It is through His Church that His much-varied and multicolored wisdom is to be displayed to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
During the first two centuries of its existence, the Church displayed one shade or special tint of God’s wisdom. The Reformation showed forth another hue. Wesley and his revivals demonstrated another facet of wisdom. Restoration movements and renewal groups all display hues, tints, and shades of divine wisdom.
In the ending of the Church Age, there will be yet new demonstrations of divine wisdom. This means that all the shades and hues of God’s manifold wisdom have not yet been exhausted. In the days ahead we will be seeing new expressions of divine wisdom never before displayed. Be ready for new dimensions of God’s multicolored and much varied wisdom.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers