βIn Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledgeβ (Colossians 2:3).
Everyone knows that when God told Solomon He would give him whatever he asked (II Chron. 1:7), Israelβs king asked for βwisdom and knowledgeβ (II Chron. 1:10). However, in the parallel passage in I Kings 3, this account says that Solomon asked God for βan understanding heart to judge Thy peopleβ (I Kings 3:9). Far from a contradiction, the variance in these parallel accounts is Godβs way of giving us a fuller understanding of that for which Solomon asked, and a definition of wisdom and knowledge. Anyone possessing these two virtues would by definition have an understanding heart to judge or rule Godβs people. When Solomon was given this, he became a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, βin Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,β i.e., an understanding heart rich in its ability to judge Godβs people.
But those who acknowledge the Mystery that Paul mentions in the previous verse (Col. 2:2) know that God has an earthly people (Israel) and a heavenly people (the Body of Christ). It was βthe glory of Godβ that He was able to βconcealβ the Mystery for 4,000 years (Prov. 25:2) in the βunsearchableβ heart of the King of kings, βthe heaven for height, and the earth for depthβ (Prov. 25:3). Thus Paul speaks of βthe depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God,β and declares βhow unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding outβ (Rom. 11:33) when he says he wants us to understand the mystery of Israelβs blindness (Rom. 11:25), and how Godβs plan to rule His earthly people would undergo a postponement that has now lasted 2,000 years. But when he speaks of the Mystery in Ephesians 3, he prays that we might understand the βdepth and heightβ of it (Eph. 3:18). That is, he is praying that we might also understand that God has a plan to rule His heavenly people, the Body of Christ (Eph. 3:1-17), in βthe heaven for height.β
Thus in Godβs plan to rule His people Israel on earth we find some of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and in His plan to rule His heavenly people, the Body of Christ, in the heavens, we also find some of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, but unless we acknowledge both we do not understand βall the treasures of wisdom and knowledgeβ that are hid in the Lord Jesus Christ. source
