Proverbs 8: 22 – 31

Today’s verses are very interesting. I opened up the Word Document that I had copied this whole chapter into, and started reading the verses, and suddenly thought, “who messed with my Proverbs work!” It looked to me like someone had taken the scriptures from Colossians 1:15-20 about Christ and put them in here, and I wondered what was going on, so I went back to the last verses and reread them and found that it was “Wisdom” that was being discussed.

It was sort of like one of those pictures that if you look at it one way, it is something different than if you look at it another way… Like this one… is it a horse or a frog?
That is sort of what happened in my brain… (Twist your head to the right if you don't see it right off)

Anyway, here are today’s verses… and following them, are the verses from Colossians 1:15 – 20.

Proverbs 8: 22 – 31 (NKJV)
22 “ The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way,

Before His works of old.

23 I have been established from everlasting,

From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.

24 When there were no depths I was brought forth,

When there were no fountains abounding with water.

25 Before the mountains were settled,

Before the hills, I was brought forth;

26 While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields,

Or the primal dust of the world.

27 When He prepared the heavens, I was there,

When He drew a circle on the face of the deep,

28 When He established the clouds above,

When He strengthened the fountains of the deep,

29 When He assigned to the sea its limit,

So that the waters would not transgress His command,

When He marked out the foundations of the earth,

30 Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman;[a]

And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him,

31 Rejoicing in His inhabited world,

And my delight was with the sons of men.
Footnotes:
Proverbs 8:30 A Jewish tradition reads one brought up.

Colossians 1:15-20 (NKJV)
15 He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation.

16 For by Him all things were created

that are in heaven and that are on earth,

visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created through Him and for Him.

17 And He is before all things,

and in Him all things consist.

18 And He is the head of the body, the church,

who is the beginning,

the firstborn from the dead,

that in all things He may have the preeminence.

19 For it pleased the Father

that in Him all the fullness should dwell,

20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself,

by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven,

having made peace through the blood of His cross.

I talked to my son about it and he said something to the effect of “Well… DUH!” We went on to discuss it. When you think about the fact that Jesus is called “The Word” in John 1, and these verses in Colossians speak of Him as creating all things, and you tie that in with God “speaking the Word” and all things came into being, and THEN you put THESE verses in THAT mix, you realize that Jesus embodied “wisdom.”

To me, this all worked together and gave me such a MUCH more rounded picture of the relationship between God, Jesus (His Word) in human form, and the creation through God’s wisdom/word, and I want to think about this for a bit. I will go back to discuss these verses more in depth in the next study...