Proverbs 8:22-23 "The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began."
It is hard to read Wisdom's song in Proverbs 8 without seeing an unambiguous reference to Christ himself as the one who is speaking. He is God's 'only begotten Son'; he was there at 'the beginning', and everything was made through him and for him: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:1-3); "In [him] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3).
Like 'Wisdom', Christ claims to be the source of life, and that those who reject him, or just fail to acknowledge him, are destined for death (35-36; John 1:4; 3:36;10:10b; 1 John 5:12).
This part of God's revelation (Proverbs 8), therefore, makes it clear that any attempt to understand God's world that doesn't start with an acknowledgement of Christ as Lord, is flawed at the very foundation of its reasoning. This is why, in the very next chapter of Proverbs, we are told that "the fear of the LORD (Christ) is the beginning of wisdom" (9:10).
How sad it is, then, that modern 'science' refuses to admit any reference to God-in-Christ (or God-in-anything for that matter!) into its discipline. We are expected to study creation, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, history, etc, etc, and to learn and benefit from these studies in our understanding of life and purpose/meaning, without including the existence and work of the Triune God of Creation and Redemption in our calculations! It's a bit like putting together a course of study in hydroelectric power generation without allowing any reference to be made to the existence or influence of water! I like Tim Keller's comment: "Sin shrugs at God. Its essence is failing to believe, not that he exists, but that he matters" (see 'The Songs of Jesus', Devotional on Psalm 36:1-4, for March 11). It is no wonder that Solomon insists: "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge/wisdom" (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10).
- Bruce Christian
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