Grace Fellowship    5/18/08    Wisdom’s Wonders        Proverbs 8

I want to begin today with a little exercise that will hopefully help us in our approach to understanding much of the book of Proverbs.  I’d like to teach you the deep significance of a song with which you are all familiar.  The song goes like this:

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

I want to take this song and use it as an example of how to exegete a passage of scripture.  In order for us to understand the intent of the author of this song, and carefully understand the real meaning, we need to exegete all four lines of this important song.  The first phrase, “Row, row, row your boat” presupposes you do indeed have a boat.  That is something the writer assumes.  What does that mean?  Well, if you take that phrase in the context of the entire song, the rowing of your boat is the allegorical equivalent of walking or moving through this life.  Life is pictured here by allegory, likened to the rowing of a boat down the stream of time.  So that is the first crucial fact in correctly understanding this song.

Secondly, notice that your boat is going “down the stream.”  This is important.  Life goes downstream, as opposed to upstream.  Thus the reason why you can row gently, rather than strenuously.  In fact, this also clearly implies that there would certainly be those times in your life when rowing would not be necessary at all.  If your life was like a boat going upstream, then you would need to exert far more effort in living.  But the import of this song is that you should take the path of least resistance and go with the flow of all the other boats on their journeys with you, gently down the stream.  In other words, life need not be a struggle.

Thirdly, your rowing down the stream of this life should be a pleasant experience.  Notice carefully that the word “merrily” is used four times in this third line.  It is from the Greek word, euphraino {yoo-frah'-ee-no} which means to gladden or make joyful.  It is repeated here to emphasize the joy and gladness and the carefree attitude that fills our lives as we move gently downstream in our boat of life.  It is also presented four times, as opposed to the word “row” which is only repeated three times.  This means that as you row your way through life, the pleasure in life becomes increasingly exponentially greater than the effort you put into it.  So for every three measures of rowing, you get four measures of merry!

We also need to consider what this song does not say.  We read of no storms in this stream, no need for basic safety precautions like life jackets, nor is there any need to row against the current.  Life is to be safe, practically effortless, and happy.  If your life is not like this, then you should immediately drop anchor or row over to the shore and make sure you’re actually in the right boat.  You could even be in the wrong stream!

Then finally we read the conclusion, “life is but a dream.”  Life should not be taken seriously because it is, in the final analysis, not real.  Life is a dream, a fiction, a mirage, a figment of our imaginations.  So since that is the case, we should seek to enjoy to the fullest with all the merriment we can, what appears to be our lives.  That is clearly the intent of the author behind the song, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”

So much for exegesis. 

What do Row, Row, Row Your Boat  and Proverbs 8 have in common?  Not much.  But they do have one obvious thing in common in that they are both poetry.  Poetry is often not intended to be interpreted absolutely literally.  Much of the Bible cannot be understood correctly in an absolutely literal fashion.  Jesus is not a vine, or a door.  We are not really sheep and Jesus is not our shepherd in the literal sense of those words, but only in a figurative sense. 

We need to keep this in mind when we read Proverbs.  In chapter 8, Wisdom is presented as a person.  Wisdom is not really a person, but personification is a figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with human qualities.  “The wind whispered through the trees.”  “The tornado crushed everything under its feet.”  “The ocean called to the sailors.”  “The stars beckoned the crew of the Enterprise.”

Let’s read Proverbs 8, and I want to divide it into the sections you see in your text if you have the New King James Version:

Verses 1-11   Wisdom is Incomparable        Verses 22-31  Wisdom is Eternal
Verses 12-21  Wisdom is Invaluable            Verses 32-36  Wisdom is Desirable

Verses 1-11   Wisdom is Incomparable
Green’s translation states that last phrase this way: “all delights cannot be compared to it.”  I believe what the writer is saying is that everything that is desirable, if you took them all together and combined them into one package, all the desirable things of this life together cannot compare, cannot be equal to wisdom.  Wisdom has no peers. 

Suppose we decided to have a contest here at Grace Fellowship to see which one of us could play the piano the best.  How many of you would like to participate in that?  Wouldn’t you hate to be the judge that had to determine the winner of that competition?  “Well, I don’t know.  I mean, you all did really well except for the part about when you were touching the keys.  But the lady with the curly hair was pretty good!”

No contest!  In this group, in regard to the piano, Kathy has no peers.  If we were able to take all of our musical talents combined and rolled them all into one of us, it would still be a smack down.  There is no comparison. 

There is nothing desirable, nor any combination of desirable things (with the single exception of God Himself), that can compete with the greatness of wisdom.  Why is that?  Why does our author say that?  One reason he gives is that wisdom is pure.  In Wisdom’s excellence and prudence and truth, according to verse 8, there is nothing crooked or perverse.  Wisdom is right, she can be trusted.  She does not lead the person who trusts in her astray.  That is why she is incomparable.

Verses 12-21  Wisdom is Invaluable
Because of that, Wisdom is also to be valued above all things.  Repeatedly, the Proverbs talk about Wisdom being more valuable than gold or silver or rubies.  Why?  According to verses 15 and 16, it is because Wisdom is the stuff rulers are made of.  Wisdom is an absolute necessity for kings, princes, judges, nobles, and rulers.  Unfortunately, even though it is a necessity, not all rulers have it.

What is wise leadership worth?  If you were the king and the entire population of your kingdom looked to you for leadership, and their lives are very much your responsibility, what would it be worth to be able to rule over your subjects well, in a way that blesses them and causes them to live in safety and prosperity?  That is a question we should ask ourselves as we approach this year’s election.  Do we not want wise government?  Don’t we need wise judges across the land to rule in our courts, particularly in California?  Do you think the people of Myanmar could profit from some wisdom among their rulers?

The one thing that convinces us more quickly than anything else of the value of wisdom in government is when that wisdom is lacking.  The same is true within Christendom.  We have come to expect the unsaved world to lack the wisdom that comes from God alone.  It should not surprise us when the ungodly are ungodly.  But when prominent Christian leaders do not exhibit wisdom in their dealings with fellow believers, as well as with the world around us, it brings shame upon the name of the Lord Jesus and throws believers into confusion. 

Much of that kind of poor leadership plagues us today which is why a number of denominations, like the Episcopalians and the United Methodists are perpetually dealing with the question of active homosexuals in ministry.  Should they be ordained?  Are they qualified to serve as ministers of the gospel?  Should an active homosexual minister serve the communion elements?  To ask those questions with a straight face is to betray one’s lack of wisdom, discernment and understanding of God’s word.  Why is this even being discussed?

So Wisdom is incomparable, it is invaluable, and it is also eternal.

Verses 22-31  Wisdom is Eternal
When did Wisdom have her beginning?  Or maybe the better question is where did Wisdom begin?  Technically, Wisdom never began.  Wisdom is the possession of God.  The Scriptures teach us that God is all-wise.  Wisdom is one of His undeniable attributes and therefore it is eternal, it has always been.  To put it in terms we’re capable of dealing with, the author says Wisdom pre-dates Creation: “before His works of old, before there was ever an earth, when there were no depths, when there were no fountains, before hills and mountains, before the earth or the primal dust of the world, Wisdom was with God.  Wisdom is not a creation of God, but a characteristic of God.  An eternal possession.

Speaking from a human perspective because it is quite difficult for us to grasp much of anything clearly from God’s perspective, Wisdom was first manifested in God before He created the universe.  But His wisdom was put on display physically for men to observe and be in awe of Him when He designed this world in which we live.  Notice the particular things that are mentioned in verses 27-31:

27 When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28 When He established the clouds above, When He strengthened the fountains of the deep, 29 When He assigned to the sea its limit, So that the waters would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth, 30 Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, 31 Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8:27-31, NKJV).

This speaks of God’s wisdom in establishing the laws of nature and physics.  All these systems that work together to make this planet function as it does, and make life a reality, are designed by God to operate as they do.  They put on display His obvious, infinite wisdom in it all.  Just looking at a photo of the Earth from space, how is it that three-fourths of the world is covered with water, and it doesn’t fall off?  You say, “Well, duh!  It’s gravity.“  And I say, “Oh.  You mean gravity just holds everything on the earth while the earth rotates through space, moving thousand of miles and hour.  I didn’t realize it was that simple!“

Not only that, but the oceans don’t even run all over the planet and cause perpetual flooding everywhere.  The oceans have been given prescribed limits, thankfully!  We have the occasional tidal wave, but the operative word there is what?  “Occasional.”  Why don’t we have cyclones and earthquakes and tidal waves and tornadoes all day, every day?  Because God in His wisdom has decreed the limits of His creation.

Clouds perform the task of providing fresh water for plants and animals.  The foundations (or the tectonic plates which form the continents and the oceanic basins) of the earth are, in spite of what has happened in China in recent days, remarkably stable.  The fountains of the deep, in the bottom of the oceans, produce global currents or rivers that help regulate the temperature of the earth, which we have only recently discovered.  And all of these global systems work together and sustain life out here in the vacuum of space because God is wise. 

Verses 22-26 emphasize the existence of Wisdom before creation.  The Wisdom of God is eternal.  Then verses 27-31 state the role of Wisdom in the creation of the universe.  It sounds very similar to another very familiar passage.  Listen once again to John 1:1-3.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (John 1:1-3, NKJV).

27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (Luke 24:27, NKJV).

39 "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.  (John 5:39, NKJV).

Is this personification of Wisdom in Proverbs a testimony from the Scriptures of the Lord Jesus?  I think it is obvious.

Verses 32-36  Wisdom is Desirable
32 "Now therefore, listen to me, my children, For blessed are those who keep my ways. 33 Hear instruction and be wise, And do not disdain it. 34 Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors. 35 For whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the LORD; 36 But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; All those who hate me love death." (Proverbs 8:32-36, NKJV).

" . . . Blessed are those who keep my ways. . . .  Whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the LORD . . . . 

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life [Whoever finds me finds life].  No one comes to the Father except through Me.  He who has My commandments and keeps them [those who keep my ways], it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father [obtains favor from the LORD], and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." (John 14:6&21, NKJV).

It sounds a lot like John 9: "Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors.  ["I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture." (John 10:9, NKJV). 

It sounds a lot like Romans 5: ". . . through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5:2, NKJV).] 

It sounds a lot like Ephesians 2: "For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." (Ephesians 2:18, NKJV).

When Proverbs is talking about Wisdom, it sounds like it’s really speaking in poetic form of Jesus Christ.  These are the Scriptures which testify of Him!  But if that was not enough, we also have verse 36: Isn’t that what Jesus said about Himself?  According to Proverbs 8, it is by Wisdom that we gain access to God and find favor in His eyes.  That sounds remarkably similar to what John recorded in chapter 14:

But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; All those who hate me love death." (Proverbs 8:36, NKJV) 

Jesus said it this way: "He who hates Me hates My Father also.”

24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. (John 5:24, NKJV).

23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. (1 John 2:23, NKJV).

Just as Wisdom is presented as the only access to God and life and blessedness in Proverbs, Jesus is presented in exactly the same way in the New Testament.  The Old Testament Scriptures speak of the Lord Jesus.  He is the Wisdom of God.  He is the eternal One who existed before time and creation.  He is the One who in wisdom formed the universe and continues to hold it together.  To sin against Christ is to sin against one’s own soul.  To sin against the Lord Jesus is to embrace eternal death. 

Once again, everything, absolutely everything, revolves around Jesus Christ.  Do you believe this?