April 7

From: Continual Burnt Offering: Daily Meditations By: Henry Allan Ironside

Proverbs 8:22‑23,29‑31

“The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.... When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment: when He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him; rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and My delights were with the sons of men”―Prov. 8:22, 23, 29-31²²The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. ²³I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. (Proverbs 8:22‑23)
²⁹When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: ³⁰Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; ³¹Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8:29‑31).

IT is easy to see in Wisdom, as personified in Prov. 8, our blessed Lord Jesus, the eternal Wisdom and Word of God, who was one with the Father from all eternity, and participated with Him in the creation of the universe. How precious to read that His “delights were with the sons of men.” He foresaw all that they would be guilty of, yet loved them still. Creation was in order to redemption: It is a mystery far too great for our poor minds to take in, but it tells of a love that is infinite and eternal.

“Ere God had built the mountains,

Or raised the fruitful hills;

Before He filled the fountains

That feed the running rills;

In Thee, from everlasting,

The wonderful I Am

Found pleasures never wasting,

And Wisdom is Thy name.

And couldst Thou he delighted

With creatures such as we,

Who, when we saw Thee, slighted

And nailed Thee to a tree?