Proverbs 8:23
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
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Wisdom does not change. Wisdom did not evolve. Wisdom is not the result of discovery or experimentation. The amount of wisdom in the universe is not growing. Men are not improving in wisdom with education or time. Wisdom is not developed in university think tanks. Wisdom is not accumulated in libraries. There is a fixed amount of wisdom in the universe, and men are losing contact with it. The future of your race is at stake.
Wisdom is the ability to rightly judge a situation and choose the correct action. There is an infinite amount of wisdom – perfect understanding of all things – with Jehovah (Pr 8:22-31). He had wisdom in the beginning – the same eternal beginning when He created all you know (Gen 1:1). Any wisdom available to men is by revelation from Him only; it is not discovered by human effort. It begins with the fear of the LORD (Pr 1:7; 9:10).
Wisdom speaks here in the first person, for Solomon is in the midst of a lengthy personification of wisdom as a desirable woman (Pr 8:1 – 9:12). A powerful figure of speech, Lady Wisdom appealed to men to consider her superior gifts and virtues to the foolish and damning attractions of the strange woman (Pr 9:13-18). Every man makes a choice – to accept the offer of eternal wisdom from God or choose depraved folly instead.
You live in the midst of an information explosion. The Internet, and mountains of data, is only a mouse click away. More money is being spent on education, and children are sent to institutions of higher learning for more years, than ever before. Private and public research, of even the most bizarre and obscure subjects, increases constantly. There is an incredible amount of information available for most any subject you might want to study.
But what did Paul say about such knowledge and learning? He warned Timothy to keep the wisdom given to him by preaching and to avoid the profane and vain babblings and oppositions of false science, which cause men to fall from truth (I Tim 6:20-21). What a fit warning! And he also warned him that grave danger was coming in a generation that would be always learning without any ability to ever understand truth (II Tim 3:1-7).
Men are not getting “smarter and smarter.” The invention of automobiles and other advances are deceiving, for at the very same time the human race is morally imploding. Educated men miss even the sexual pleasure of the woman. God has effectively given man a lobotomy and set him loose in the candy store of a lunatic mind (Rom 1:18-32).
Classrooms are filled with tongue-pierced, hair-dyed, rag-wearing, and weed-smoking pubescent children. An older version of their evolved species monitors their sharing of dreams and imaginations. They ridicule parents, mock pastors, rebel against government, and call for a new way of things. And they call this education! They call this learning!
The fixed body of wisdom the LORD Jehovah has offered the human race is found primarily in the Holy Bible. But of course, with all their Internet research and university ravings, they despise the only wisdom available. In fact, to make sure their hallucinations are not questioned or refuted, they have outlawed the Bible in school. How intelligent!
Reader, if you appreciate the right definition and source of wisdom, then carefully read Job 28:12-28. Let a truly wise man instruct you. When you are done, there will be only one response to the depraved and profane claims for advancing knowledge in this generation, “But the emperor is naked!” Let God be true, but every man a liar.
The blessed Lord Jesus Christ possesses all the eternal wisdom of God (Col 2:3). He has always possessed all of it. He never changes – He is not growing in wisdom (Heb 13:8). He is allowing this world to show its true colors – depraved rebellion against God and hatred for wisdom – before He comes to incinerate it (II Thess 1:7-10; I Tim 6:13-16).
Many corrupt this proverb to support a heresy from Origen of the eternal generation of Jesus. They repeatedly chant the Nicene Creed, “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God,” and so forth. They foolishly believe the New World Translation and New American Standard Version in John 1:18, where both claim Jesus is a begotten God. What heresy! Their confusion in doctrine and language causes them to miss Solomon’s simple personification of wisdom.
When will you read God’s divine library of 66 books and learn wisdom? You have started by reading this far in this commentary. You have 168 hours in each week. Think how much you could learn, if you were to cram even 1/10 as hard as you have for worthless exams and tests. Wisdom is eternal, but what will you do today about it?