"The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old.  Proverbs 8:22

We are about to enter one of the coolest passages of Scripture in all the Bible.  For the next 10 verses we will be allowed to have an interview of sorts with wisdom.  Several times we have seen wisdom personified so that we might learn more about wisdom.  This time we are allowed into the very intimate counsel of God - before and during creation itself.

Wisdom first tells us, "Jehovah possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old."  So the first thing we learn is that wisdom is a possession of God.  He did not have to learn it or be taught wisdom by someone greater because there is no one greater.  He is absolute and the ultimate over everything and everyone.  The word "possessed" is the Hebrew word "qanah" which in this context means to create or to bring forth.  Thus we see that before creation ever was - God created wisdom. 

This brings me to an interesting thought.  I hope you will tolerate me getting a little weird here, and yet I think this exercise may benefit all of us.  God doesn't have wisdom - He IS wisdom.  There was no need for a knowledge of wisdom up until God created the world, because all there was before this was the eternal fellowship of the Godhead.  Being eternal and infinite - they knew all and had known it for all time.  To try to express it to anyone would be foolish for they all knew from all time all there was to know and all that will ever be known.  But God was about to create the world - and was going to reveal Himself through and to His creation. 

We read the following in Psalm 19:1-4, "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.  Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge.  There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard.  Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world."  Since the heavens and the world was the creation of God - since the moment of their origin at His Word they have been telling of God's glory.  Morning, noon, and night they do not cease to shout out His praises.  Each new day the speak of God - they pour forth speech - and reveal knowledge of God.  Yet prior to this - there was no need for these things - for the perfect eternal fellowship of the Godhead knew them perfectly. 

With the creation of the earth, God was about to begin revealing Himself first through His creation - and then, with the creation of man - to His creation.  This required a way to know God - a knowledge about God that was not inherent within His infinite knowing of Himself.  Therefore God created wisdom.  Wisdom is seeing God and knowing Him.  Wisdom is learning to see all of life as God sees it.  Wisdom comes from God - and if grasped correctly - leads us back to Him.  So, before God ever revealed Himself through and to His creation - He first had to create or bring forth a way of comprehending Himself to what He was about to create.  I know that this is a little wild to consider - but I believe in the end, it only causes us to think higher thoughts of God Himself - and to worship Him for Who He is. 

Over the next several days we will take a look at the creation of wisdom - and how wisdom was with God as the earth was created.  During our look at these 10 verses in Proverbs we will also have cause to consider how the creation itself is actually infused with the wisdom of God as well.  Join us . . . it should be quite a journey!

For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, And He watches all his paths. Proverbs 5:21

As was said yesterday, this is the main reason why the father is taking the time to counsel his son on the issues of moral and sexual sanity.  Our ways are before the eyes of the Lord - or said another way - GOD SEES ALL THINGS. 

This has to do with the very nature of God.  God is Spirit - and therefore can be all places at all times.  This truth has to do with God's omnipresence and omniscience.  God's omnipresence means that God is everywhere.  There is not a place in the entire universe where God is not present.  In Psalm 139 David wrote of this when he said,

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.  If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.  (Psalm 139:7-10)

The idea of God's omnipresence is communicated when David tells Solomon that the eyes of Jehovah are on the ways of men.  God watches our paths.  David knew this because he thought no one was looking when he committed adultery with Bathsheba.  God was looking - and he watched David's path into sexual sin.  The day came when God sent one of His prophets, Nathan, to David to confront him openly about what David thought he had done secretly. 

The other doctrine that we see here is that of God's omniscience.  God knows all things.  He knows when we sin - and he knows when two people have agreed to get together and commit adultery.  There is nothing that we can hide from Him - because He is God!  His power and His might are unparalleled - but so is His presence and knowledge.  There is NO limit to either of these things.  Therefore, it is wise for us to remember this about Him - and act accordingly.  This means understanding and knowing His Word, which reveals to us His heart on moral and sexual matters. 

Here is a verse that should help to guide us when it comes to the matter of moral and sexual sanity.  Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about the need for each one of them to possess their own vessel in Ssanctification and honor.  Here the vessel is themselves - and especially their sexuality.  Here is what Paul said,

For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.  For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.  1 Thessalonians 4:2-6

God desires to sanctify us - and part of that sanctification is helping us to maintain moral and sexual sanity!  We are to carry ourselves and our sexuality in "sanctification and honor" rather than in "lustful passion."  When Paul later says that we should not "transgress and defraud his brother in the matter," what he is speaking of is adultery.  The brother we transgress and defraud is the one whose wife with whom we've had adultery.  Paul then gives us a promise in regard to this - that God will be the avenger in this matter. 

God sees and knows all - and as a result we should be wise and fear Him by turning from sin - especially sexual sin.  This is not just a warning from a parent who is a little overprotective of his or her child.  It is God, knowing our frame and our weakness - and warning us about how sexual sin can take us captive and destroy our lives.  But I believe at the root of this admonition is not just a negative warning - but a positive one as well.  If we know that our ways are before Jehovah - and that He is watching our paths - we can turn to Him in time of temptation.  We can cry out to Him for deliverance and for strength to stand.  We can know, as Scripture tells us, that no temptation that has overcome us is not common to man - but God will provide with it a way of escape so that we may endure.  He is there - and when faced with serious sexual temptation we need to turn to Him, listen to Him, and in the process shut out the voice of the devil.  He truly is there - not waiting to smack us upside the head - but waiting to meet us and strengthen us so that we may stand - and having done everything - to remain standing!

By His knowledge the deeps were broken up And the skies drip with dew.
Proverbs 3:20

What does God breaking up the deeps and having the sky drip with dew have to do with walking in wisdom?  These comments from Proverbs 3:20 are a part of two verses that speak of God creating the world.  But they are also a larger part of an argument from the writer of Proverbs as to why we should look to God for His wisdom.  His argument is that if God can do these marvelous things through the creation - then we should know that He is more than able to meet any need that we wil ever face.

We read first here that by God's knowledge the deeps were broken up.  The only other place a phrase like this makes sense is in Genesis 7:11 where we read that during the flood the fountains of the great deep bursted open.  Later in Genesis 8:w we read that these "foundtains of the deep" were closed.  The only other time in Scripture the "deep" is mentioned in this way is as a description of Israel walking through the Red Sea during the Exodus.  It was by the wisdom of God that the Lord broke open these places where water was stored in the oceans.  Some wonder where all the water came from that caused the earth to flood during the time of Noah - and evidently it came from rain and from huge undergroud reservoirs of water that were released when these deeps were broken up.  Today, we are just beginning to be able to do deep-water drilling in the oceans.  but the thought of going to the deepest parts of the oceans - and releasing huge reservoirs of water are beyond us still.  But God, by His knowledge, broke them up and released all that water. 

God then turns from the massive in the realms of water, to the very small.  It is also by God's wisdom that the skys drip dew.  The dew is a fascinating thing to understand.  This process happens each night as cold meets hot in the atmosphere - and the result is the condensation of water into dew.  We can predict when dew will happen - but the wisdom that produced the process whereby dew happens is astounding.  It would take generating the entire atmosphere and weather systems that function like clockwork around our globe.  When you consider for a moment that God has dew forming pretty much 24 hours a day - every day we live - you begin to see the magnitude of having dew drip from the skies.   

What God is trying to get us to grasp is that He is incredibly smart - actually infinitely smart - really, He is the originator of all knowledge of all things - there is nothing He did not know, nor is there anything that He will ever NOT know.  Therefore, we would be wise if we turned to the God Who can break open the deeps, as well as cause the skies to drip with dew.  If Almighty God can do these things by His wisdom, do you not think He can handle whatever problem we are currently trying to solve without it?

"For my husband is not at home, He has gone on a long journey; He has taken a bag of money with him, At the full moon he will come home." Proverbs 7:19-20

Once the adulteress has caught the fool in the trap of his own ungodly sexual desires - she then informs him of his soon-to-be-committed adultery.  At this point, the man is so entrapped, that he is no longer considering sin - but the ability to not get caught. 

She says to him that her husband is not at home - but is gone on a long journey.  Evidently her marriage means nothing to her.  Long gone are the words of her covenant to God - or any real love for her husband.  Instead she is interested in her next sexual escapade or conquest.  Her words betray her husband - and also betray that she cares nothing for her own spiritual condition, or that of her sexual prey.  Her focus is on neither of them getting caught - in this world.  In verse 19 she even knows the approximate time he is coming home.  Therefore she can sin unfettered until that time.  She even uses her treachery to lure the fool in closer.  She is utterly blind to the fact that God sees all this - and they are caught - NOW!

Think for a moment of David.  He thought no one saw him lusting for Bathsheba on his rooftop.  He thought that only a few knew of her coming to his chambers - and none of them actually knew if they committed adultery.  Then, when she became pregnant, he thought that no one knew of his treachery of bringing Uriah from the midst of a battle to cover his tracks.  When that did not work, he thought only a few knew of his plan to kill Uriah - and try to legitimize his adultery by marrying his widow after murdering him with an enemy army.  But the fact was David was caught the moment he sinned in his heart.  It was along the way that more people knew - and if you understand the nature of gossip - far more knew than he thought.

Covering our sin does not work.  David said after his sin that he who covers his sins will not prosper.  He spoke of how he suffered when he hid his sin - how the work of the Holy Spirit convicting him and sapping his very strength as he tried to keep things hidden was strong.  Sin will try to deceive us of its very existance in our lives.  It will tell us that we have NOT sinned.  It will tell us that we are FINE.  But all along the way are lies.  The wise man is the one who knows that trying to hide sin is the most foolish act in which a person can engage.  God is omniscient and sovereign - that is absolute fact.  This means that there is nothing we can hide from Him - even for a second.  It also means that all our attempts to maintain our sin are superceded by His sovereignty.  Man may plan his steps - but God ordains his way.  While that does not mean that God makes us sin - it does mean that His discipline WILL prevail when we do - no matter what we think we are doing to stop it.

The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it and is safe. Proverbs 18:10

As we walk through this world there are times when we have to wonder about our safety.  We are in a wicked and ungodly world - and in it there are those who would do us harm because we represent Jesus Christ.  This is true far more in countries where persecution is tolerated and encouraged by the government and by leaders of false religions.  Are we safe in the Lord?

Solomon knew that indeed the godly man IS safe!  He knew it not just because of a theory that he had heard - but because of true stories shared with him by His father, David.  David knew personally that the name of Jehovah was a strong tower because he had faced extremely dangerous situations throughout his life.  He had turned to the Lord again and again when things became very dangerous for him.  He had faced enemies who laid in wait for him outside his home - planning to kill him.  He had faced armies whose desire it was to destroy Israel and enslave its people.  He faced personal threats from people - as well as threats that arose from spiritual realms.  Yet in all this he knew that the name of the Lord is a strong tower - a place of safety into which the righteous can run. 

God's name represents more than just something we call Him - it represents Who He is.  He is Jehovah - the self-existant One who reveals Himself.  But that name is attached to other names - ones that offer promises to us.  He is Jehovah-Jireh, the One who sees and provides for us.  He is Jeohvah-Nissi, the One who is our banner of victory when we face foes.  He is Jehovah-Tsidkenu, the One who is our righteousness when our sins would separate us from God.  He is Jeohvah-M'kaddesh, the One who will sanctify us and deliver us from our innermost battles with sin.  He is Jehovah-Shammah, the One who is present with us - preparing a table for us in the presence of our enemies.  He is Jehovah-Rohi, the One who will be our Shepherd and lead us through our lives.  He is Jehovah-Rophe, the One who will heal us from all our diseases and bring us out of sickness and pain.  He is finally Jehovah-Shalom, the One who will give us peace no matter what is happening in our lives.  Truly His names are a strong tower to which we can run and find shelter in whatever situation we face.  May we be wise and run to Him with all that we face in life - trusting Him to deliver us from all our fears and all our trials.

  Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; Do not destroy his resting place; For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of calamity. Proverbs 24:15-16

There are times when you wonder about the providence of God.  These are times when you look at the wicked - how they strut about on the earth - and how they attack the righteous and seek to destroy them.  Asaph had one of these times in Psalm 73.  He struggled mightily with the prosperity of the wicked and the difficulties and trials of the godly.  Yet in the end, when he considered eternity and the end of the ungodly, David returned to his sanity and found himself worshipping God - and pitying the wicked. 

Here we have a warning given to the wicked - or at least the wicked man who thinks he can destroy the godly.  He is warned not to lie in wait against the dwelling of the righteous.  Here we have someone who is planning to do something destructive.  The word used for "lie in wait" is a single Hebrew word that means to ambush, to lurk, or to lie in ambush as a military tactic.  In the military context it always has the meaning of also doing this for the purpose of killing another. 

I don't want to make you stay awake at night worrying, but there are very sinister forces today that are lying in wait against the righteous.  Radical Islam is one of them.  For years the 9/11 terrorists were waiting and training for their one day of evil.  It was spooky to say the least to learn just how long they were among us - acting like nothing was going on - and all the while they were planning the worst terrorist attack in history against us.  It was even scarier to read an article that listed the top 10 ways that Muslim terrorists were planning to attack us.  The article was written by someone from the homeland security department.  This list blew my mind because the attack that they are planning currently makes the 9/11 attacks look timid in comparison.  In addition to the threat from radical Islamic terrorists, there are also threats from the far left.  The radical homosexual movement wants to destroy conservative Christianity, making it illegal to hold views that are consistent with Scripture.  There are those among the religious and academic elites who think that Christianity should be relegated to the ash heap of ideas - with laws enacted and enforced to make sure this happens.  Like I said, this is disturbing to know - that there are those who are plotting and planning our demise. 

God warns such people that this is not a wise thing to do.  Remember saints, that God considers us the apple of His eye - and warns against those who would seek to harm us.  He warns that such things are very unwise and will elicit his judgment.  God warns specificially against seeking to destroy the "resting place" of the righteous.  It is true that some want to destroy our "physical" dwelling places - but there is also the fact that those who oppose us among academia and the marketplace of ideas - want to destroy the Biblical Christian worldview and the philosophy that goes along with it.  They fight us on the front of creation and science - saying that only their view is acceptable and that creation science is no science at all.  They fight us on the moral front, saying that our views on morality from a biblical standpoint are outdated and should be cast aside for more modern (read immoral here) standards, which wind up being no standards at all.  They fight us in the arena of human value - as they push abortion, euthanasia, and population control.  They fight us in the arena of God's purpose as they exalt the earth with their environmentalism - even saying that humans are a blight upon the planet and should be culled back from our current 7 billion to no more than 300 to 500 million people.  All these things are attacks on our "dwelling place" and "resting place" in the Lord God and in His Word as the ultimate source of truth. 

One could get the to the point of living in fear if he or she did not read the rest of this proverb.  The relentless attacks have not been just in this generation.  They have existed all throughout history.  Whether it has been the emperors like Nero, Diocletian, and Galerius or the attacks of the currently worldly educated like Darwin, Nietzsche, Hitchens, Harris and Freud, Christianity is amazing just for the fact that it is still around and still considered even a marginally valid worldview.  But it is far more that that.  The Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ continues to transform millions every year - and provide for them a resting place for their faith and their lives. 

We should take heart though, because this proverb gives us great hope - even though we are beset on all sides by those who seek to destroy us.  God tells the wicked that even though a righteous man falls seven times - he will rise again.  We have the peace of knowing that He Who began this good work in us, will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.  He will not allow us to be destroyed and decimated.  Even in death His martyrs speak - and the blood of the martyrs becomes the seed of His church.  We may fall seven times - but He will pick us up and make us to stand because of His grace and work in us. 

But this proverb comes also with a warning.  The wicked are warned that they will stumble in times of calamity.  When difficult times come - when evil befalls because of their wickedness or because of God's judgment in their lives - they will stumble in it.  The word for "stumble" here means to stagger, to totter, to be brought down or cast down.  The word is used in the Old Testament to describe not just the fall of individuals, but the fall of cities and nations who fall because of the evil and wickedness that they've committed.  So we come full circle on this proverb to what I began saying in this article.  Asaph almost stumbled when he considered the prosperity of the wicked in Psalm 73.  But in the end, he remembered the judgment and the sovereignty of God.  He considered their end - and how they were consumed all at once in their wickedness and iniquity.  This moved him to two things.  First it moved him to worship God, who is truly sovereign over all things.  He worshipped God because he knew there was more to this life than - well, just this life here on earth.  In light of the fear and terror of God in judgment, he worshipped with trembling as he considered the end of the wicked.  Second, he was moved to pity and mercy towards the wicked.  Seeing their latter end, he pitied them and grieved over their destruction.  Finally, he was thankful for God's grace and love for him.

Here is wisdom . . . God is sovereign, even when it seems that the wicked are being destructive towards His people.  We should not stumble over this reality - but rather realize that God is working, even in the moments when it seems like the world is out of control - or even worse - under the control of the wicked.  Know this - God is working for His own glory.  If He used a moment as horrific as the cross of Christ to redeem the world - believe me when I say that He can also use anything to eventually bring about His will in this life. 

 

 "All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverted in them. "They are all straightforward to him who understands, And right to those who find knowledge. Proverbs 8:8-9
 
Ah yes, that sticky doctrine of infallibility of Scripture rises again with a statement made by Wisdom.  God is speaking in this passage as wisdom is personified.  God is calling out to men and women everywhere to listen and to open their hearts to receive the wisdom that God wants to grant to them.  Wisdom is awaiting them at home, in the workplace, in the market, where the two roads diverge in the wood (with thanks to Robert Frost).  But the question should rightly be asked, "Can we trust what Wisdom says to us in all these situations?"

ALL the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness!  Well there is an answer for us.  Wisdom cannot lie to us - cannot mislead us - will not deceive us!  Every utterance - every word from the mouth of God given in wisdom is righteous (that means they are all in a state of being RIGHT!).  What is even better is that we next read, "There is nothing crooked or perverted in them."  Crooked here means to twist something - and it speaks of those who are shrewd and cunning - those who are devious and who wrestle the truth in a direction that is to their liking.  God does not work like this.  Holiness means that God's motives are utterly transparent.  He may speak things in a mystery - but He never speaks things with devious or cunning intent.  What drives Him is His love - and His passion for righteousness and for His own glory.  Perverted here is the Hebrew word "iqqesh" which means something crooked and perverse.  It describes one with a deceitful, perverse, and evil heart.  The person like this perverts morals, social graces, even religious things for underhanded purposes.  Once again - God knows nothing of this kind of mindset or motive.  We read further of His heart in verse 9.

All God's utterances - His Word - are straightforward.  In the vernacular of our day - God shoots straight with us.  The idea behind this word is honesty.  It also has with it the idea of someone who is incapable of being perverted or being partial in their judgment.  Something we all need to grasp is that ultimately God is worthy of all glory - therefore - what He does is ultimately to display His own glory.  What we don't grasp is that God is not being in any way conceited by doing this.  To be conceited, God would have to be gaining or seeking glory that is not rightfully His.  The truth is - all glory is rightfully His - all the time - in every situation - and from every person that has ever lived or ever will live - period!  Therefore God speaks the truth - and He does so with absolute honesty - and with a view to the absolute best at all times. 

Now there is something that would be nice to have.  Someone Who will never be partial to anything but the very best.  Someone Who knows what needs to happen, what needs to be said, what needs to be addressed - and does so every single time with wisdom, with tact, and with razor sharp accuracy.  But we need to note that this ability to see God in this way is for those who "understand."  There is a discernment that takes us beyond fleshly, earthly wisdom that is necessary for men to understand the straightforwardness of God at all times.  You see all the time in liberal circles men and women who don't understand - and who accuse God of the most horrific sins and the most terrible motives.  The fact is that they DON'T udnerstand and are blind the true nature of God.  This understanding comes from the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds.  Without Him and without God's gracious work in us - we will never understand.  Our minds and hearts are perverted and twisted by sin.  It is only when God's grace is manifest to us that we are transformed - and that our sinful tendencies are no longer dominant in our thinking. 

God is offering wisdom to us every day - in a myriad of situations where we need it.  The truly wise man is the one who submits himself to God - and learns to listen at the crossroads as God instructs him in how to live and how to walk.  May we be such men and women - and may we be blessed by the wonderful straightfoward words of God!