Proverbs (6) wisdom takes human form

Where then does wisdom come from?
Where does understanding dwell?
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing ...
God understands the way to it
and he alone knows where it dwells. (Job 28:20-23)

So where does wisdom dwell? What's the hiding-place that only God knows? What is "God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began"? (1 Cor 2:7)

You can almost hear the fanfare as it's announced: "the mystery of God ... Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"! (Col 2:2-3) And then, with a second round of trumpets: "Christ crucified ... Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God"! (1 Cor 1:23-24)

Jesus is God's wisdom. Christ crucified - such foolishness to oh-so-clever humans! (1 Cor 1:23-24) - is at the heart of God's wisdom. The mystery hidden for ages is revealed as Jesus dies upon a cross (Rom 16:25-27, Eph 1:9-10, 3:4-11, Col 1:26-27).

In Proverbs 8, under the semblance of Lady Wisdom, we see Jesus, wisdom in the flesh. It's not that Solomon had Jesus in mind - he was writing about Lady Wisdom - but this passage, like every other page of the Old Testament, proclaims the name of Jesus (2 Cor 1:20, 1 Pet 1:10-11, 1 Cor 10:1-11).

In Proverbs 8 we hear wisdom call (Prov 8:1-11), we see wisdom rule (Prov 8:12-21), and we watch wisdom create (8:22-31) - and in each we see Jesus, the wisdom of God.

Wisdom calls
Wisdom goes to the most public places and calls people to listen. She calls out from the highest point of the city (Prov 9:3) - from the temple. She calls out to the simple and the wise, "Come and get wisdom, more precious than rubies!" (Prov 8:1-11)

Jesus, too, goes to the public places, to the temples and synagogues, as well as to the lonely places, to a Samaritan woman and a crowd in the desert. He calls people to follow him, preaching the kingdom, for "that is why I have come" (Mk 1:14-18, 21-22, 38, 12:35).

And he speaks with wisdom. The religious leaders are stunned by his understanding at the age of 12, before he grows into his full wisdom and stature. Jesus is a greater wisdom teacher than Solomon.

The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here. (Lk 2:46-47, 52, 11:31).

Wisdom rules
Wisdom alone can give a ruler sound counsel and just judgement. Wisdom grants power and fills treasuries (Prov 8:12-21). No wonder that Solomon asked for "wisdom and knowledge", "a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong" (1 Kgs 3:5-9, 2 Chron 1:7-10).

In Jesus we see a wiser ruler than Solomon. On him rests "the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD ". He judges with justice, not by outward appearance. He is the "Wonderful Counsellor" and the "Prince of peace". (Isa 11:1-5, 9:6-7)

Wisdom creates
My favourite passage in Proverbs is 8:22-31. Wisdom is "brought forth" and "given birth" as the "first of God's works". She is the "craftsman" at the Creator's side, rejoicing to see him "set the heavens in place" and trace "the horizon on the face of the deep".

It's impossible to miss the echoes in the New Testament. Jesus is "the firstborn over all creation". The entire universe was created and is sustained "through him", "by him and for him" (Col 1:15-20, Jn 1:1-5, 14, Heb 1:1-3).

Then I was the craftsman at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world,
and delighting in mankind.
(Prov 8:30-31)

In Lady Wisdom's delighted wonder we hear the majestic laughter of the Son, the craftsman at God's right hand, echoing through the newly minted heavens as "the morning stars sing together and all the angels shout for joy" (Job 38:7).

Heeding wisdom's call
We're left with a fantastic invitation: to heed the call of Lady Wisdom, and to hear in her call the far better invitation of Jesus. As we listen to God's message of wisdom - as we trust in Jesus' death on the cross for us - we "find life" and "receive favour" from God (Prov 8:32-36).

What better message to hear this Easter?

A final question
Our Bible study group was a bit confused. Why does Proverbs 8 say wisdom was "given birth", but also that she was "the first of God's works"? What does it mean to say that Jesus is the "firstborn" over creation? Was Jesus born or made? Was there a point at which he came into being?

There's no hint in the Bible that Jesus, unlike wisdom, is one of God's "works". He is God's "firstborn", the "one and only Son". He is eternal, with no beginning and no end Col 1:15, Jn 3:16-18, Heb 13:18, Rev 1:8, 17-18). Our Bible study group ended up looking at the Nicene Creed, which puts it beautifully:

I believe in ... one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made.

images are from stock.xchng

John Piper on the Holy Spirit in the Trinity

While I'm taking a couple of weeks away from intensive blogging, and while you all get hold of Feminine Appeal and start reading it ;), I thought I'd tie up a couple of loose ends on my Enjoying God series.

It occured to me - and one of you pointed it out! - that in my post on how God feels about being God, I talked a lot about the Father and Son's delight in each other, but not much about the Holy Spirit. So I was excited when I read what Piper had to say about this topic during my morning reading:

I have stressed (from texts like Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15; 2:9; Philippians 2:6; 2 Corinthians 4:4; and John 1:1) that the Son of God is the mirroring-forth of God the Father himself in his own self-consciousness. God has a perfectly clear and full idea of all his own perfections. This image of God is so complete and perfect that it is, in fact, the standing forth of God the Son, a person in his own right. ...

Now what about the Holy Spirit? I find it helpful to observe that the mind of God, as reflected in our own, has two faculties: understanding and will (with emotions being the more lively acts of the will). In other words, before creation God could relate to himself in two ways: God could know himself and God could love himself. In knowing himself he begot the Son, the perfect, full, and complete personal image of himself. In loving himself the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son.

So the Son is the eternal image that the Father has of his own perfections, and the Holy Spirit is the eternal love that flows between the Father and the Son as they delight in each other.

How can this love be a person in his own right? Words fail, but can we not say that the love between the Father and the Son is so perfect, so constant, and carries so completely all that the Father and Son are in themselves that this love stands forth as a person in his own right?

John Piper A Godward Life pp. 73-4.

image is from stock.xchng

enjoying God (1) how God feels about being God

Last term I told you about our Sunday school lessons on the fruit of the Spirit. This term, week by week, I'd like to tell you about a seminar I led recently on enjoyment of God. Here's the first in the series, on how God feels about being God.

Have you ever thought about what life was like for God before he made the angels, human beings, or the universe? Was God lonely? Did he create us because he needed someone to love or glorify him?

No! Father and Son were together forever, delighting in each other with the joy of the Spirit.

Many theologians have pictured the Trinity like this. The Son is the perfect image of God, God's joy-filled view of his own excellencies given form. Father and Son rejoice in each other, and delight to bring each other glory. The Spirit is the love and joy which flow between them.

Which is good news for us. For our joy is the overflow of his. We have joy only because he is a God of joy. All joy, all delight, flow from the happy God.

Here's my favourite word-picture of the joy between Father and Son on the day the "morning stars sang together, and all the angels shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). "Wisdom", or God's Son (1 Cor. 1:24), speaks:

The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works,
before his deeds of old;
I was appointed from eternity,
from the beginning, before the world began.
When there were no oceans, I was given birth,
when there were no springs abounding with water;
before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was given birth,
before he made the earth or its fields
or any of the dust of the world.
I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when he gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
Then I was the craftsman at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind.
Proverbs 8:22-31

Take a minute to rejoice in the boundless joy of God.

I dare to speak of mysteries beyond understanding, but we are given glimpses into these wonders in the Bible. See Isaiah 42:1; Job 38:4-7; John 1:1-4; 17:1, 24; 1 Cor. 15:28; Eph. 1:10; Phil. 2:6; Col. 1:16-19; Heb. 1:1-3. There's a good explanation of the theological position I described in Jonathan Edward's essay On The Trinity, or see chapter 1 of John Piper's The Pleasures of God.

The original artwork in this post is by my daughter, Elizabeth Williams, age 9.