Proverbs Chapter 8
Proverbs
Chapter 8
1. Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? Now we listen to the call of heavenly wisdom, to the voice of the Son of God. We assume the speaker to be personal—essential wisdom. This description could not without unnatural force apply to an attribute. It sets out his personal existence (verses 24, 30). It sets out his personal characteristics: He is appointed from eternity for a distinct office (verse 23); he was the efficient cause in the work of creation (verses 27-30); he has sound judgment (verse 14), which being an attribute itself could not be the property of an attribute; he has strength (verse 14), an independent quality, not a property of wisdom; he has personal authority (verses 15-16); he leads into the ways of truth (verses 19-20); he enables people to inherit God's gifts (verse 21). This passage also sets out his personal affections: hatred (verse 13), love (verse 17), joy (verses 30-31). He also gives personal promises (verse 21). He also commands obedience as a matter of life and death (verses 32-36). Whether Solomon fully understood his own words may be an open question (compare 1 Peter 1:10-11). But receiving the words as from God, weighing their natural meaning, and comparing them with other Scriptures, we are certain that they describe not an attribute but a person—eternal, omniscient, in the most endearing relationship to man, the Creator, Mediator, and Savior.
Careless soul, will your divine call be ignored when the allurements of sin and vanity have the power to arrest your ear? "Imagination cannot form to itself a more exquisite and affecting piece of scenery than that exhibited by Solomon in the Book of Proverbs. In his seventh chapter he introduces the world by its meretricious blandishments alluring the unwary to the chambers of destruction. In the succeeding chapter, by way of perfect contrast, appears in the beauty and majesty of holiness the Son of the Father, the true and eternal Wisdom of God, with all the tender love and affectionate concern of a parent, inviting men to the substantial joys and enduring pleasures of immortality in the house of salvation" (Bishop Home).
2. Can ignorance be pleaded? Does not wisdom call out? (verse 1). Her cry is not in the middle of the night or on the street corners, but on the heights along the way, where the paths meet.
3. She cries out beside the gates leading into the city. Has she not followed you to your places of business, of pleasure, and of sin?
4. Does she not raise [her] voice to all mankind in the Bible, in the family, in the preached Word? The loudness and the perseverance of the voice is that of an earnest friend who warns of danger. For would she have cried so loud or continued for so long if she had not loved your soul, if she had not known the wrath that was hanging over you, the hell that was before you?
5. The great Teacher calls the simple and the foolish to gain understanding.
6. And where else can they hear such worthy things? They are worthy of the attention of princes, as they are about our Lord's glorious person, his everlasting covenant, his rich and sovereign love to sinners (verses 12-31).
7. Often the truth of God, by the tradition of men or the subtlety of the father of lies, becomes virtually a principle of error (Galatians 1:7-9). No wonder wisdom says, My lips detest wickedness.
8. Scriptural difficulties belong not to the Book itself, but to man's blind and corrupt heart.
9. The carnal mind cannot understand the Bible, any more than the blind can see the midday light of the sun. But "it is easy to all who have a desire for it and who are not blinded by the prince of this world" (Reformers' Notes). "What wonder if the unlettered and despised Christian knows more of the mysteries of heaven than the naturalists, though both wise and learned. Christ admits the believer into his heart, and Christ is in the heart of the Father" (Leighton). Wisdom not only opens up the truth but opens men's hearts to receive it. There will be, indeed, great truths they cannot understand. But they will grasp important, saving truths. Here "the wisest Solomon may fetch jewels for ornament, and the poorest Lazarus bread for life" (Bishop Reynolds).
10. Come then, sinner, sit with one of old, at the feet of your divine Teacher. "Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold."
11. Enrich yourself with his satisfying and enduring treasures. For nothing you desire can compare with her. Will not God's children daily draw more abundantly from these treasures? Oh, let those treasures not be, like the pomp of this world, just looked on, but actively sought after and increasingly enjoyed.
12. "I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion." How adorable is the Being here before us!
Prudence is usually only thought to be a moral quality. Here we see that it is an attribute of deity. The humanity of our beloved Lord was filled with this perfection (Isaiah 11:2). With what divine acuteness of wisdom did he possess knowledge and discretion and so put his enemies to shame (Matthew 9:4-8; 22:15-46)!
13. "To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech." Such is the holiness of divine wisdom. She lives with prudence, but she cannot live with evil. Therefore, to fear the Lord, which is her very nature, is to hate evil. Thus regarding pride in all its forms, arrogance of spirit, evil behavior and perverse speech, the wisdom of God declares without reserve, "I hate them." A proud disciple of a lowly Savior—how offensive is this contradiction to our Master! What a stumbling-block this is to the world.
14. "Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have understanding and power." This counsel is not, as with man, the fruit of deliberation but divine intuition. It is not that it flows from God, but that he is himself the essence, the fountainhead. It is not that he has understanding to order and govern the world. Rather, he is understanding. All is in him. Everything is derived from him.
15. He proclaims himself to be the source of power and authority, no less than of counsel and judgment. "King of kings and lord of lords" was the mysterious name written on his robe (Revelation 19:16). Yet his crown does not displace the regal diadem from the brow of earthly rulers, nor is the scepter to fall from their hands. These symbols of power are to be held, but in subordination to his own.
"By me kings reign." This happens not only by permission but by appointment. They bear his name and are stamped with his authority (Exodus 22:28; Psalm 82:6; John 10:35).
16. "By me princes govern, and all nobles who rule on earth." Scripture lays down a truth that offends men: There is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God. Rulers are ministers of God, not servants of the people (Romans 13:1-6). And all things, all power in heaven and on earth, were delivered to our Lord by his Father (Matthew 11:27; 28:18).
17. "I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me." Now look at the grace of this divine Person toward those who love him. By nature nobody is interested in God's grace (Romans 8:7). But his free grace first implants love in their hearts and then cheers them with the assurance of his own love (1 John 4:19; John 14:21). We love because we are drawn to God (Jeremiah 31:3).
We seek, not by the impulse from within, but by the grace from above, and seeking we find (Isaiah 45:19; Jeremiah 29:13; Matthew 7:7-8).
18. What a treasure seekers find! This fading world offers a poor portion. But those who seek find the riches and honor of eternity. That is why these riches are described as enduring wealth and prosperity.
19. Is not this fruit... better than fine gold? It surpasses choice silver.
20. When our way is blocked, how valuable is Wisdom's counsel, which leads to the way of righteousness.
The sober-minded Christian is equally remote from formal service and enthusiastic delusion. The intelligent and spiritually-minded churchman is both separate from exclusiveness or idolatry on the one side, and from indiscriminate Christianity on the other. He values highly his scriptural ordinances, but he does not mistake them for the substance of the Gospel, and he does not substitute self-induced effervescence in their place. This is the Via Media, Christian duty, consistency, and fruitfulness.
21. Even now from his royal bounty does Wisdom make their treasuries full. But an even more joyful day is yet to come when the redeemed will unite in their testimony that one Christ has abundantly filled us all!
22. Only a perverse mind can suppose an attribute here. So glorious are the rays of the eternal supreme deity, his distinct personality, his essential unity, that the mysterious, ever-blessed Being now undoubtedly stands before us. To receive his own revelation of himself is our great privilege.
How clear is his essential unity with the Father. "The Lord brought me forth," for he was present with him in the heart of the deity. Every movement of the divine mind was infinitely known, every purpose of divine counsel eternally present and fully developed. The mode of his existence in the Godhead (and this is all that is revealed of this inscrutable subject) is generation. He was brought... forth, the only begotten Son, a term that it is much safer to adore than to expound, expressing, as it does, what is unsearchable. "Take care," says an old expositor, "that in this generation we invent nothing temporal, carnal, or human. But rather let us worship this generation, beholding it by faith; and let us take heed from searching further than Scripture teaches us. Otherwise we should deserve to be blinded and punished for our great curiosity."
No less clear is his eternal existence. He was in the beginning. He was "the first of his works." He was "destined and advanced to be the Wisdom and Power of the Father, Light and Life, and all in all, both in the creation and the redemption of the world" (Henry).
23-29. Connected with his eternity was his agency in the work of creation. "I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began" (verse 23). The whole detail of the creative work is here laid out. Thus uncreated wisdom displayed in clear and undoubted glory "the divinity and eternity of Wisdom, meaning thereby the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ our Savior" {Reformers' Notes).
30. Next he describes his unspeakable blessedness in communion with his Father. "I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence." He was in the heart of his Father as he delighted in his presence. So God is "willing that by the Son we should approach him, in the Son we should honor and adore him, and honor the Son as himself" (Scott).
31. But the wonder of wonders remains that he who was his Father's infinite delight and was infinitely delighting in him should find his delight from all eternity in mankind. How wonderful that he should, as it were, long to be with us, rejoicing in his whole world. On this foundation is our confidence, rest, and security.
32. "Now then, my sons, listen to me." It is no mean and undeserving person who is calling. It is none other than the Wisdom of God, the source of all light and knowledge (verses 12-14), the King of kings (verses 15-16), the loving rewarder of his children (verse 17), the rich portion and unfailing guide of his people (verses 18-19).
Look at him once again in his divine glory as the only-begotten Son of God (verses 22, 24), the Mediator in the everlasting councils of redemption (verse 23), the almighty Creator of the world (verses 27-30), the adorable Friend of sinners (verse 31). How should his divine majesty and condescending love endear his instruction to us! Yet his promised blessing is only for those who carry out what they hear him say and for those who keep [his] ways with godly fear, constancy, and perseverance, keeping their eye on his ways, their hearts toward them, and their feet in them. Yes, such people will be blessed.
33. "Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it." What a happy moment it is when the cold, dead indifference is gone. For it is an unimaginable delight to take on such a yoke. Oh, my Prince, my Savior, you have founded your dominion on your blood. You rule only so that you may save. Take to yourself the glory and your victory. I am yours, not my own, forever.
34. This is the hearing of faith, the voice of Christ in the inmost man, the impression of his Word on the heart (John 5:25; Revelation 3:20). The effect is untiring diligence and patient expectation, like the priest waiting at the doors of the tabernacle for the assured blessing (Exodus 29:42) or those watching at the temple gates for his return from his holy ministrations (Luke 1:10, 21). This willing and constant attendance on sacred ordinances indicates a healthy appetite for heavenly sustenance. Wisdom's child will always be familiar with wisdom's gates. Listen to the Lord's rebuke: "Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die" (Revelation 3:2). "The places where the Gospel is faithfully preached are 'the gates and posts of the doors of Wisdom,' at which Christ would have his disciples to 'wait daily.' And may not Christians, consistently with other duties, redeem time for this waiting as well as the children of this world find time for their vain amusements, who yet do not neglect their one needful thing? Is not the time spared from attending on a weekday often spent in unprofitable visits or vain discourse? Should not ministers be 'instant in season, and out of season,' in preaching the word, and should not the people be glad of an opportunity of hearing it?" (Scott).
35. "The smiles of God make heaven; and those who obtain the favor of the Lord have a heaven on earth" (G. Lawson). Set this expectation before your eyes in waiting on your God: "I am seeking life for my soul. I will wait at the doorposts, missing no opportunity to receive the means of grace. I shall not wait in vain."
36. If only the sinner, the careless sinner, not the daring and ungodly only, would ponder how his heartless neglect of wisdom harms himself. How cruel he is to himself while he is despising his Savior. Every allurement of sin is the temptation of suicide, soul-murder. When people grab hold of it, it is as if men were in love with damnation. "All who hate me love death." They love what will be their death and push away from them what would be their life. Sinners die because they want to die. So they are left without any excuse.