AP

Proverbs 8:1-7, 34-36  Does not wisdom call out?  Does not understanding raise her voice?  At the highest point along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gate leading into the city, at the entrance, she cries aloud: “To you, O people, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind.  You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, set your hearts on it.  Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right.  My mouth speaks what is true, … … Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.  For those who find me find life and receive favour from the LORD.  But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death.”

Solomon’s personification of ‘Wisdom’ throughout Proverbs makes much more sense to us today becuse we can read his words more cogently through the lens of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially when we read Proverbs 8 in the light of the Prologue of John’s Gospel.  John’s reference to Jesus as the ‘Logos’, who was ‘in the beginning’, who was ‘with God’, and who ‘was God’; and ‘through [whom] all things were made; without [whom] nothing was made that has been made. In [whom] was life, and that life was the light of all mankind’, fits this understanding ’like a glove’.

So if we apply today’s verses to the post-Christ world (Anno Domini), and especially to our situation today, it is a great encouragement and incentive for evangelism.  The desire of our forebears to design church buildings to be significant edifices at the highest point in a town makes sense in this context.

Solomon’s words are encouraging when we set them against the active attempts being made by our culture to eliminate God, his Word, and especially his everlasting Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘Wisdom’ (Christ) is patiently but urgently pleading beside the gate leading into the city, calling out: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

And this is a God of compassion, who loves dearly all he made, “rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind” (Proverbs 8:31).  O that the ‘foolish’ people around us would ‘listen’ to what is ‘trustworthy’ and ‘right’, and so ‘find life’ instead of ‘hating’ him and ‘loving death’.

Let us be among those who take every opportunity to cry out to our lost world on his behalf.  “All you that pass by, to Jesus draw nigh: to you is it nothing that Jesus should die?  Your ransom and peace, your surety he is: come, see if there ever was sorrow like his. … He answered for all: O come at his call, and low at his cross with astonishment fall!  But lift up your eyes at Jesus’s cries: impassive, he suffers; immortal, he dies. … … His death is my plea; my Advocate see, and hear the blood speak that has answered for me.  My ransom he was when he bled on the cross; and by losing his life he has carried my cause” (Charles Wesley).

– Bruce Christian