WHAT relief it is to the soul to turn from contemplation of the folly and sin against which the young man is warned in the previous chapter, to meditate now upon Wisdom’s ways, especially when the anointed eye discerns under this name the Uncreated Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God! For though the feminine form is used throughout, it is nevertheless clear that in the latter part of the chapter it is He who is before us.
Wisdom is first presented as one seeking to draw the simple from paths of error to the temple of knowledge and understanding.
1 Doth not Wisdom cry?
And Understanding put forth her voice?
2 She standeth in the top of high places,
By the way, in the places of the paths.
3 She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city,
At the coming in at the entrances.
Not for men to seek her does Wisdom wait. With yearning heart she takes her stand in the marts of commerce, the paths of pleasure, the courts of judgment, and the schools of learning. Anywhere and everywhere that men are to be found, there is she—her cry and entreaty sounding above all the bustle of life. (See chapter 1:20-23).
4 Unto you, O men, I call;
And my voice is to the sons of man.
5 O ye simple, understand prudence:
And, ye fools, be of an understanding heart.
6 Hear, for I will speak of excellent things;
And the opening of my lips shall be right things.
7 For my mouth shall speak truth;
And lawlessness is an abomination to my lips.
As Wisdom incarnate is to be found in our Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word, so are the instructions of Wisdom to be found in the written Word. It is by means of that precious volume which “holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” that the only true and lasting wisdom and knowledge are to be found. “Right things” and “truth” alone are there recorded. Even when the sins of men and women are sharply delineated in all their grossness and hideousness, it is that we may thereby be admonished.
Man may cavil; infidelity may sneer; pseudo-scholarship may reject; but He who cannot lie has declared “the Scripture cannot be broken.” There alone is perfect wisdom found. Unhappy the man who turns from it to the vagaries of the human mind!
8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness;
There is nothing twisted or perverse in them.
9 They are all plain to him that understandeth,
And right to them that find knowledge.
This is faith’s answer to the caviler who prates of contradictions and errors in the inspired word of God. Modesty alone might suggest the thought that the fault might be in the reader—not in the Word. But man’s vanity and pride will not brook such a conclusion.
Yet so it shall soon be proven to be; for “not one jot or one tittle” (the smallest letter, or vowel point) “shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.” How soon difficulties vanish when faith is in exercise! Seemingly insuperable objections are swept away in a moment when the light of heaven shines into the soul and on the page of Scripture. Jesus, in resurrection, opened both the Scriptures and the understanding of the two with whom He walked to Emmaus. It is this double enlightenment that causes difficulties to vanish like mist before the rays of the sun. “They are all plain to him that under standeth,” for “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.”
10 Receive my instruction, and not silver,
And knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 For wisdom is better than rubies;
And all things that can be desired are not to be compared to it.
Alone in the sacred Scriptures, in our times so relentlessly assailed by supercilious egotists and unspiritual divines, is this treasure to be found. The best writings of the best men are not to be compared with it, for here we turn from all the reasonings of man’s heart to the very breathings of God. In the 28th chapter of Job we have the account of the patriarch’s search for wisdom. All the precious metals and jewels of earth are not to be compared to it, “for the price of wisdom is above rubies.” He finds it when he turns from everything on or under the earth to God Himself.
12 I Wisdom dwell with Prudence,
And find out knowledge of witty inventions.
As noted above, wisdom here is looked at as an essential part of Deity; further down, as Him who has been now revealed as the Wisdom of God, the Eternal Son.
13 The fear of Jehovah is to hate evil:
Pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the mouth of perversions do I hate.
It is thus wisdom is manifest. It is the very character of God—that character all told out in Christ. Evil, pride, folly; all are hateful to Him who is light, and cannot abide the darkness.
14 Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom:
I am understanding; I have strength.
15 By me kings reign,
And princes decree justice,
16 By me princes rule, and nobles,
Even all the judges of the earth.
It is not that rulers always act according to understanding, but that none rule at all save by the appointment of infinite wisdom. “The Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men, and He giveth them unto whomsoever He will.” This gives perfect rest to the man of faith in the midst of all the changing political scenes of earth. Let the form of the government be what it may; the chief magistrate be of whatever character he will; faith can bow in obedience, owning that “the powers that be are ordained of God.”
17 I love them that love me;
And those that seek me early shall find me.
Wisdom sought, as in Solomon’s case, in early youth, delights to reward the seeker. It is important to bear in mind that it is wisdom—and not God as such—that is here referred to. “He,” too, “is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him;” but it would be very faulty to limit His love alone to those who return that love. It is love in activity on the part of Wisdom we have here before us. To the one who loves her she gives the treasures enumerated in the following verses:
18 Riches and honor are with me;
Yea, durable riches and righteousness.
19 My fruit is better than gold; yea, than fine gold;
And my revenue than choice silver.
Unspeakably precious, and beyond all human valuation, are the gifts bestowed by Wisdom with lavish hand upon the diligent seeker, who has learned to love her for her own sake. Apart from her the feet will stray in folly’s paths. She can say
20 I lead in the way of righteousness,
In the midst of the paths of judgment:
21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance;
And I will fill their treasuries.
From this point on, the anointed eye loses sight of all else, and is fixed upon Christ; for He it is who is now presented for the contemplation of our souls. It is Christ as the Uncreated Word, yet the Begotten Son by eternal generation; words admittedly paradoxical, but after all distinctly Scriptural. Some there are who have supposed the term Only-begotten necessarily implied a period, however remote, when the Son was not. This John’s Gospel clearly refutes, for “the same was in the beginning with God.” He was begotten, not in the sense of having beginning of life, but as being of one nature and substance with the Father. Never was there a moment in the past Eternity when He reposed not in the bosom of Infinite Love.
To explain the mystery is impossible, as the apostle himself declares.
“No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” Hence the devout heart can rest and adore where the skeptic seeks in vain for rational explanations of a mystery beyond human ken.
22 Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of His way,
Before His works of old.
23 I was set up from everlasting,
From the beginning, ere ever the earth was.
Far back of the beginning of Genesis 1:11In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1), to that “unbeginning beginning” of John 1:11In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1), does the Spirit here carry us. There, in the past eternity, “when anything that ever had beginning began, the Word was,” and that Word was the eternal Wisdom of God. It is a scene of fellowship to which we are introduced—Jehovah possessed Him. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God;” and love ineffable was the enfolding robe of Deity, for Wisdom was the object of Jehovah’s delight from everlasting.
24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth;
When there were no fountains abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills was I brought forth:
26 While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields,
Nor the beginning of the dust of the habitable world.
The figure of generation, as already noted, implies unity of nature. “God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son.” God’s thoughts are above ours. Our best human language is a poor vehicle indeed for the expression of truths so wondrous. Christ is eternally the Son, yet truly the Begotten.
27 When He established the heavens, I was there:
When He set a circle upon the face of the depth;
28 When He established the skies above;
When He strengthened the fountains of the deep;
29 When He gave to the sea His decree,
That the waters should not pass His commandment;
When He appointed the foundations of the earth;
30 Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him:
And I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him;
31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth;
And my delights were with the sons of men.
Creation is elsewhere ascribed to the Son. “Without Him was not anything made that was made.” “All things were created by Him and for Him, and in Him all things consist.” He is “the first-born of all creation,” superior to all, because by Him the Father brought all things into being. Daily His delight, He shared in that manifestation of power “as one brought up with Him,” “rejoicing always before Him.” But, amazing grace! His delights were with the fallen sons of men. The love of His heart was set upon those who deserved it not. It is not of Adam unfallen He speaks, but of his sons—therefore sinners lost and guilty.
“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.
“When, like a tent to dwell in,
He spread the skies abroad,
And swathed about the swelling
Of Ocean’s mighty flood,
He wrought by weight and measure;
And Thou wast with Him then:
Thyself the Father’s pleasure,
And Thine, the sons of men.
“And couldst Thou be delighted
With creatures such as we,
Who, when we saw Thee, slighted
And nailed Thee to a tree?
Unfathomable wonder!
And mystery divine!
The voice that speaks in thunder
Says, ‘Sinner, I am thine.’” —(Cowper)
32 Now, therefore harken unto Me, O ye sons:
For blessed are they that keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction, and be wise,
And refuse it not.
Upon the declaration of Wisdom’s love for and delight in men is this entreaty based. To refuse instruction and spurn the ways of understanding is to trample on divine affection and to harden the heart against divine grace.
34 Blessed is the man that heareth me,
Watching daily at my doors,
Waiting at the posts of my entrances.
35 For whoso findeth me findeth life,
And shall obtain favor of Jehovah.
36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul:
All they that hate me love death.
How strong the incentives presented to heed the voice of Wisdom! Blessing and life, the loving favor of the Lord, are the portion of those who so do. The one who refuses to listen, sins against his own soul, for he seals his own destruction.