Going Deeper
Proverbs 8 (2-20-21)
As we begin in Proverbs 8:1-12, we read about the poetic personification of wisdom, which gives us a visual of all of the benefits of valuing and heeding truth. In a world shaped and ruled by lies, the call of wisdom should be to us like the sound of an approaching ship when we are lost at sea.
Do you value wisdom? Do you value truth?
Do you want to know what is right? Are you tired of being deceived and lied to? Then hear wisdom’s call.
Run to truth and righteousness. Leave behind deceit and dishonorable things. Pursue what is right and good and God-honoring. Run! Don’t walk.
I love the simple, but often overlooked, point of verse 13.
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
To side with God—to be on His team—is to hate evil. The Lord is righteousness. How can light mix with darkness? How can we who are of the light desire or befriend what is evil? Do you have a passive acceptance of evil, or do you rightly detest what is evil and what stands against our holy God?
Do you make war with your pride and arrogance? To not make war with them is to walk in a manner that God hates. Do you tolerate and enjoy perverted speech? To do this is to embrace something that God hates. How can we who are in the light embrace the darkness? Brothers/sisters, we are to fight sin and to hate evil. We are to not be afraid to call sin “sin” in our modern, politically correct day. May we be set apart and not embrace nor enjoy the ways of evil, while we love our enemy for the sake of our gospel testimony and God’s glory.
Reading on in Proverbs 8:14-21, we see a list of rewards for truth’s manifestation in our life. God rewards honorable living. It points out here that wisdom is what sets us apart as the victorious and the honored. Do we value truth, knowing we will be honored for eternity? Our prize in this harsh land may be persecution and ridicule, but our eternal prize is what the people of God want and pursue.
Now, the imagery used in verses 22-31 is very special. It is a proclamation of wisdom to say that the Lord God wielded wisdom and truth from before there was time. The very existence of God, the very perfection and power of God, is wisdom and truth. Then, the beautiful and majestic display of the handiwork of God in creation is on display, and they are all done in wisdom and truth.
Just read Proverbs 8:22-31 again. Let it draw you into worship of God, for He is good and worthy of our praise.
This is what John the Beloved was getting at in the opening verse of the Gospel of John.
John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
Who is the one John is referring to as “the Word”?
To help us answer this, we look to the opening statement in Hebrews: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2a). Here we learn that Jesus is the spokesman of the Godhead. Jesus, the son of God, is the Word.
Also, in Revelation 1:8 a title declared of Jesus is “I am Alpha and Omega,” which intimates that He is God’s alphabet, the One who spells out Deity, the One who utters the word of God.
Even clearer, perhaps, is the testimony of John 1:18: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.”
John’s calling Jesus “the Word” is his way of declaring this biblical truth that Jesus is the Spokesman of God and the One who has declared, or told forth, the Godhead.
A "word" is a form of manifestation. If I have a thought and it is only in my mind, others do not know what it is, right? But the moment I put form and body to the thought in words, whether written or spoken, that thought has now become revelation that is known by others.
I want you to stop and consider the mind-blowing reality that God has chosen to reveal Himself to us by speaking His word. He does this through Christ who is referred to as the Word. Jesus has made manifest the invisible God to us is a most special way. I want us to stop and really take in the game-changing reality that the eternal God of all creation has chosen to reveal Himself to us by communicating with us by the Word, Jesus. We do not deserve this.
Think about what you know about how Christ has revealed God to us! Christ, as the Word, reveals the attributes and perfections of God. He displays His power, He manifests His wisdom, He exhibits His holiness, He makes known His grace, He unveils His heart. In Christ, like nowhere and nothing else, is God revealed to us. This is what the Apostle Paul is getting at in Colossians 1:15: “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God.” Paul, right away, is showing us this huge, game-changing truth: God has made Himself known—visible—by His Word, Jesus Christ.
A "word" is an expression. It is by words we articulate our speech. The Word of God, then, is the Deity expressing Itself in audible terms. What we need to see is that this is not just any word of expression but THE WORD from THE LIVING GOD. In other words, it is the very source of all TRUTH and wisdom and life!
John calls Jesus the Word because he has come to see the words of Jesus as the truth of God and the person of Jesus as the truth of God in such a unified way that Jesus Himself—in His coming, working, teaching, dying, and rising—was the final and decisive message of God. Or to put it more simply: What God had to say to us was not only (or mainly) what Jesus said, but who Jesus was and what He did. His words clarified Himself and His work.
The person, words, and work of Jesus is God’s revealing that He is the TRUTH!
Track with me here to gather the power of this:
Jesus said, “I am the truth” (John 14:6).
Jesus came to witness to the truth (John 18:37). His witness and His person were the Word of truth.
He said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31), and He said, “Abide in me” (John 15:7). When we abide in Him, we are abiding in the Word. He said that His works were a “witness” about Him (John 5:36; 10:25). In other words, in His working, He was the Word.
In Revelation 19:13 (by the same author as the Gospel of John), John describes Jesus’ glorious return: “He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.” Jesus is called The Word of God as He returns to earth.
Two verses later, John says, “From his mouth comes a sharp sword” (Revelation 19:15). This is how Jesus will strike the nations: in the power of the word of God that He speaks!
May we see Jesus as the ultimate manifestation of wisdom and truth. He is God; He is light; He is truth.
May we long for and worship Him above all else. May the wisdom we seek not be only that of man but more, far more. May it be the highest revelation of wisdom and truth, the Lord Jesus Christ—THE WORD, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE!
By His grace and for His glory,
-Joshua “Shepherd” Kirstine
Soldiers For Jesus MC
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