Proverbs 8:22-31 - Homiletics

The primeval glory of Divine wisdom

I. THE HIGHEST WISDOM IS CREATED BY GOD . "The Lord created me as the first of his way." This idea was suggested to the Greeks in the myth of Athene, who sprang from the head of Zeus. It is the poetic form of the great truth that God is the Creator of thoughts as well as of things; and it suggests that he not only called individual intelligences into being, but originated the primary laws and conditions of all intelligence, just as he ordained the laws of nature and the conditions of physical existence as well as the rocks and plants and animals subsequently created.

II. DIVINE WISDOM WAS ANTECEDENT TO MATERIAL CREATION . "'Twas wrought from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." Thought precedes action, Design anticipates execution. The architect comes before the builder. Archetypal ideas precede creative work. In the awful depths of primeval antiquity the great Thinker wrought out the plans of the universe which as the great Worker he has been since evolving in visible existences.

III. WISDOM ACCOMPANIED AND DIRECTED PHYSICAL CREATION . "I was by him as a master worker." Wisdom did not cease when force appeared. The two wrought together. The result of their joint operation is the energetic cosmos—force and thought triumphing over death and chaos. When we endeavour to discover the secrets of nature, we are searching out the wisdom of God. When we learn the laws and processes of nature, we are able to think the thoughts of God. The naturalist should walk reverently, for he is treading in the footsteps of the mind of God. It should be our aim in studying nature to find God in his wisdom.

IV. THE DIVINE WISDOM IN CREATION LEADS ON TO THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE AND ORDER . First there is the confusion of the elements. Gradually these elements are marshalled into order till Wisdom is able to "rejoice in his earthly world." The onward movement of all things here indicated and illustrated very fully by recent science reveals the wisdom of God with increasing clearness. Instead of thinking of that wisdom as chiefly manifested in primitive creation, we should see that it is most active and most glorious in the latest and richest development of the life of the universe.

V. THIS WISDOM IS ONE OF THE MOST GLORIOUS OF THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES . God has glory of thought as well as glory of character. There must be all phases of perfection in the perfect Mind. God is not only to be regarded on the side of moral law and religious worship. He is the great Mathematician, Architect, Philosopher, Poet. Our thoughts of God are too "Churchy." God is not only in the church. He is much in the fields. He has his workshops as well as his temples; nay, they are his best temples. Let us try to find him in "secular" thought and work, and worship him the more for the wisdom seen in his "earthly world."