This precious portion of God’s Word presents wisdom in such a personal way that no intelligent Christian can fail to perceive that the His Spirit is allowing us to hear, mystically, the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We could not have understood this Scripture without the revelation of the Father in the Person of the Son, or without the unfoldings of God’s eternal purpose in Christ Jesus in the writings of the Apostle Paul. Reading this passage in the light of the New Testament we discern Wisdom to be the Son of the Father’s bosom, and the Man of His counsels. Moreover, there is the plain statement in 1 Corinthians 1:24, that unto them which are called, Christ is “the wisdom of God;” and in verse 30 of the same chapter it is written, “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom.”
“The Lord possessed me”
How invaluable was the possession of Wisdom to Jehovah! In the Son, the Father had not only an object for the satisfaction of His love, but One who was essential for the accomplishment of His eternal purpose, for the securing of His glory in creation and redemption, and for the carrying out of all His will. Among the angelic hosts there are great intelligent beings, created and possessed by God to do His will, but not one of them could become the Man of His counsels to give effect to His eternal purpose; only the Only-begotten Son of His bosom, Who was co-equal with Him, was capable of bringing to fruition all that lay in the heart and mind of God.
Wisdom was possessed by God “In the beginning of His way, before His works of old.” These ancient works would no doubt refer to God’s creating and fashioning the heavens and the earth; but this was before the preparation of the earth for man’s habitation, as recorded in the six days of God’s work in Genesis 1. In examining the earth’s crust and atmosphere man has learned a little of the handiwork of God, and also gleans some little knowledge of it as he turns his telescopes to the heavens and beholds the myriads of great shining orbs that spangle the sky by night, and traverse the oceans of space in their appointed orbits at enormous speeds. Angels, although created before the foundations of the earth were laid (Job. 38:7), may not be contemplated in this passage.
But this Scripture teaches that the beginning of God’s way was before His works of old. Does not this reveal that God’s way concerns His activities for the accomplishment of His eternal purpose, and that the creation was the means used to secure what lay in that purpose? We read of this in Ephesians 3, where it is written, that God created all things “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God;” and this was “according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (verses 9–11). The revelations of the New Testament make known to us the thoughts of God “in the beginning of His way.” These we learn with adoring hearts as we trace the steps of the Son of God in incarnation, manifesting in His perfect life, and in His death upon the cross, the infinite love of God; and as we see Him rising from among the dead and taking His seat at the right hand of His God and Father where He awaits the day of the display of His glory, and the full accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose in the world without end.
“I was set up”
Another rendering of “set up” is “anointed.” From the anointing of priest, king and prophet, we learn that this was the means used to set them apart for the will of God. When God commanded Elijah to anoint Hazael, Jehu and Elisha, it was for the fulfilling of a special mission. The Lord Jesus Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit to do God’s will on earth (Luke 4:18); and in resurrection He was made by God both Lord and Anointed (Acts 2:36), to accomplish God’s good pleasure in His present ministry in heaven. From Proverbs 8 we read that from eternity God had His Anointed, set apart to give effect to His eternal counsels.
Moreover, from the beginning of all God’s activities, the Son of His bosom was His Anointed; and this beginning, we are reminded, was “or ever the earth was.” God’s counsels for a new creation were in existence before He formed the things of the old creation. The ruin of the creation that ensued on Adam’s fall did not take God by surprise or find Him unprepared. His Anointed One was not only capable of retrieving God’s glory from amidst the ruins of the first man’s failure, but He was able, through the great work of the cross, to bring fresh glory to God. The cross was not an afterthought with God: it was in His eternal counsels, even as the Apostle Peter could say, it was by the “determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” that Israel, by wicked hands, crucified and slew the Lord Jesus.
“I was brought forth”
From the womb of eternity Wisdom is brought forth into special relationship with the earth which, though not yet existing, was to be the platform for the working out of God’s eternal counsels. Our attention is focused on the One who is to be pre-eminent in all the divine activities concerning the earth, whether as regards its creation or the fulfilment of God’s purposes in it.
Wisdom is, as it were, brought forth to survey God’s plans for the construction of the earth which, though so relatively small, was to play such an important part in accomplishing God’s eternal purpose in Christ Jesus. He looks into the depths that were yet to be, and at the fountains whose waters would cleanse a world defiled by man’s corruption. The future mountains and hills are in the plans, yea those which He would tread when tempted by Satan, when transfigured in glory, when He would spend His nights in prayer to God, and when He would teach men the wonderful words of God. From this distant prospect He can foresee the fields through which He would walk with His disciples, and also the particles of dust which, in the upper atmosphere would reflect the light of the sun for the benefit of mankind, and which would be His writing table as He stooped to write the story of the love of God.
“I was there”
We have been taken back to eternity where God possessed Wisdom to learn that He had an eternal purpose; we have heard God’s Anointed speak in relation to His counsels; and have seen Him as brought forth to view the divine plans. Now we learn from Wisdom of the beginning of the work that had for its great objective the fulfilling of all that lay in the heart and mind of God to secure His eternal pleasure.
When Jehovah spoke to Job, He asked him, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?” It was a question that left the patriarch speechless; and one that would confound the most learned of Adam’s race. But here is One who can say, “I was there.” He was present at the preparation of the heavens, with all the wonders of the atmosphere and stratosphere, some of which man is but now discovering. Wisdom saw the circle ordained upon the face of the deep, which announces the rotundity of the earth, and He watched the establishing of the clouds above and the fountains of the deep becoming strong. He heard God impose His limits on the sea, even as He would later limit the raging of the nations and the working of the powers of darkness; and He took account of the appointing of the foundations of the earth, which brought such joyful acclamations from the angelic hosts.
How charmingly simple and dignified are the descriptions of Wisdom on such profound matters, and how great the contrast to the elaborate and mysterious pronouncements of the scientists when disclosing some simple discovery relating to the creation.
“then I was by Him”
Wisdom was not simply an interested, enraptured spectator, like the angels who shouted for joy; He was at the side of Jehovah, occupying a place that no angel, or any created being could fill. He could enter into all Jehovah’s thoughts, into the secrets of His counsels, and into the deepest feelings of His heart, for, from other Scriptures we learn that He was Jehovah’s fellow. Indeed, from the New Testament, we learn that He is none other than the Only-begotten Son, Who ever dwelt in the bosom of the Father.
“as One brought up with Him”
This has been translated as “His nursling” or “His artificer,” and both are true regarding the holy Son of God. As His nursling there is brought before us the deep affection of the Father for the Son, even as the Son could say to the Father in His prayer of John 17, “Father…Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” As His artificer, the Son is viewed as the One who constructed and created, for, as is well known, whenever the creation is attributed to any one Person of the Godhead, it is always to the Son. In Ephesians 3, it is God who creates all things, but the Son is creator in John 1, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1.
“I was daily His delight”
It was eternally true that the Father’s pleasure was found in the Son, but here there is the particular delight that the Father finds in Him “daily;” that is during the successive periods pertaining to the creation; and this would seem to indicate the great ages subsequent to “the beginning of His way, before His works of old.” When we think of the Son engaging Himself before His works of old.” When we think of the Son engaging Himself to secure the eternal pleasure of the Father in undertaking to fulfil all His counsels, we can understand, in some feeble way, the Father’s delight in His Son as He brings into existence the scene in which He would be so perfectly glorified. In the light of this we cannot wonder at the Father declaring His pleasure in His Son, both at His baptism and on the holy mount. The Son gave the Father unbroken pleasure from eternity as in every moment of His sojourn on the earth; and that pleasure was never greater than when the Son in holy obedience to the Father’s will offered Himself without spot to God.
“rejoicing always before Him”
The joy of the Son was not only in the Father, but also before Him in all that belonged to Him. On earth He could say, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work;” and even when rejected by Israel, and feeling, as He alone could feel, the bitterness and sorrow of it, He could still rejoice in spirit, as before the Father, saying, “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Luke 10:21). How wonderful it is that we have been permitted to know that the Son always rejoiced before the Father whether before time, or as Man in this world.
“rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth”
Here was a special part of the earth that attracted Wisdom, and gave to Him peculiar joy: it would be the dwelling place of the sons of men. In the habitable part of God’s earth He would be a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; but it was there that He would reveal God and lay the basis in redemption for the accomplishment of all the Father’s counsels. The earth is but a tiny speck in the vast physical creation, but its importance is not derived from its size, but because of its place in relation to the purpose of God. With what precision and care were its mountains and hills weighed in God’s scales, and all pertaining to it measured, balanced and controlled by infinite wisdom, and formed and fashioned by a hand of divine and infinite skill. We know but little of the worlds of the great universe around, but God has told us of the things He would have us know regarding this world; how He has formed it for man’s habitation; how it is the platform for the working out of His purposes of love, and how it will be burned up and changed after it has served His purpose.
“and my delights were with the sons of men”
Although God would be grieved at His heart that He had made man, because of the corruption and violence with which his sin would fill the earth, there would still be those in whom Wisdom could find His pleasure. There would be such as Abel and Enoch before the flood, and such as Abraham, Job, Moses, David and Daniel after it, who would please Him. On His coming to earth there would be the faithful few who would continue with Him in His temptations, and those who, through their word, would believe in Him. From those distant ages the Son of God could look forward with pleasure to those who, on earth, would live by faith, and on those who would be His companions in the eternal ages.
The sons of men no doubt include all that the Son of God would redeem with His precious blood, the many families of men who will be named of the Father in the new heavens and the new earth. There will be the families of the Old Testament saints, both from among Jews and Gentiles; and those who, after the church has gone, will yet have part in the first resurrection. Different families will no doubt pass from the earth that is burned up into the new earth, where God will have His tabernacle among them.
But there will be a family of the sons of men that will have a special place with “Wisdom,” even “the church of the firstborn ones, whose names are registered in heaven” (Heb. 12:23). This family are in peculiar relationship with Christ as His body and His bride. For Him the church was like “unto treasure hid in a field,“ and like a “pearl of great price,“ for which He sought, and having found, sold all that He had to procure it. If the church is in peculiar relationship with Christ, it also gives to Him peculiar delight. And the delight that Wisdom had for the sons of men so long ago will be His as Man for all eternity.
R. 12.1.62