WISDOM'S HISTORY
WISDOM’S HISTORY
JT Proverbs 8 deserves great attention as showing the character of Wisdom’s instructions and that which she proposes to her votaries; and then the wonderful history that she gives of herself.
We observed that she calls attention to that which she speaks, the character of which she cites. “I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge”. I have thought that this chapter contemplates that the instruction of the earlier chapters has become effective, so that there is capacity to appreciate the greatness of the things.
FL Wisdom received and appropriated in the renewed mind becomes understanding.
JT The things are all plain to those who have understanding. As in Christianity, the “hidden wisdom” is spoken to those who are “perfect”.
FL Well, to how many of us is that spoken?
JT That would be the exercise; but the apostle distinguishes between those who are carnally minded and those who are spiritually minded. We often find great difficulty with souls in the understanding of things, but Wisdom’s things are all plain to those who have understanding.
JB The building of the house is only accomplished by those who have understanding.
JT I had thought of the establishment of Wisdom, that which it builds, though we have not as yet much touched on chapter 8. I think there is [p. 224] great importance to be attached to the character of Wisdom’s sayings and that which she proposes to those who hearken to her. She says, “Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold ... ; and my revenue than choice silver”, Verse 18, 19. And then in verse 21, “That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures”.
FL And in verse 11, “For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it”. Do not we get the principle set out in verse 9, “They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge”?
JT It seems to me that when souls are simple and free from selfish motives the truth is more easily set forth and there is capacity for the reception of it.
ARS I think that is very important, for we sometimes find that people do not seem to see anything, and if you go down deep enough you find they are self-willed.
JT The greater part of difficulties that are raised and objections to the truth are from that very thing; hence the apostle was not prepared to present the hidden things of wisdom to the Corinthians . The capacity was not there.
ARS Is not that something like becoming a child so as to enter the kingdom?
Rem You might open up a little in connection with chapter 8.
JT I thought of the character of Wisdom’s things and that which she proposes, namely, “durable riches” so that one’s treasures are filled.
It seems to me to be of great importance that the saints should be enriched with that which Wisdom supplies. And it is as you are blessed by the hand of Wisdom that you appreciate the history [p. 225] of Wisdom.
AFM Will you enlarge a little upon the “durable riches” and so on?
JT Well, I think that in Christianity they take the form of the possession of divine things by the Spirit.
JB May we not say that leads on to verse 1 of chapter 9, “Wisdom hath builded her house”?
JT Chapter 9 is the building, and the other things lead to the building. I think chapter 8 is the climax for the individual.
JS Do you mean the way of individual instruction?
JT Yes, that which qualifies you for the structure.
JP I suppose the exercise of the apostle for the Colossians was that they might be spiritually wealthy. He was greatly exercised for the Colossians and as many as had not seen his face in the flesh, “to the end that their hearts may be encouraged, being united together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. That answers to what you speak of here as the “durable riches” and “I will fill their treasures”.
JS What we find around us is a great deal of spiritual poverty, but the divine idea is that we should be enriched, “for ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich”.
JT One would like to see among saints a desire for the acquirement of these riches. The meagreness of our desire is painful; we are so easily satisfied.
JP I suppose the meagreness of desire for the “durable riches” is the result of eagerness for things which are not divine.
ARS In connection with these riches we see from Revelation 3:17 that the professing church [p. 226] has made a great mistake. She says, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”. But the Lord tells her she is poor.
JT That is really what prevails; the profession or assumption to possess, whereas the Lord says, “and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”. And then the wonderful grace shines out in verse 18, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich”. I do not know of a greater expression of grace than that; the Lord is so morally great that instead of appearing in the attitude of judgment He in grace counsels them to buy these things of Him. And so at the present time the Lord is appealing to souls, telling them that He has the things they need and proposing that they should come and buy of Him.
ARS Does the idea of the word buy mean that it costs you something, so there must be sacrifice?
JT If you want the truth you have to buy it. “Buy the truth, and sell it not”.
I think Proverbs 8 corresponds with the gospel of John, which reaches back to the beginning, and refers to Christ as from the outset. It is the climax in regard to the furnishing of the individual. He is furnished with everything by Wisdom; and then Wisdom gives an account of itself. In the gospel of John you get, in a sense, a history of the Lord, a divine history, “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 received being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being. In him was life, and life was the light of men”. The divine thought is that men should be illuminated, not angels. And so here as Wisdom opens up and sets forth its history, what you find is that men were in its thoughts from [p. 227] the beginning.
JP In that way Proverbs 8 suggested in your mind the gospel of John.
JT That gospel is Wisdom in the highest sense, because it contemplates the breakdown of the official system, but God is not baffled. He reverts to His counsel and eternal life established in Christ. Everything is maintained in the Person of Christ.
What we see in the opening of John’s gospel is that after we are told “All things were made by him”, we read, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men”. Meaning that men, that order of being, was to be illuminated by the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
JP I like that.
AFM The gospel of John is regarded as the last of the inspired writings.
JT I take it to be the manner in which God met the breakdown in the church. Hence you find in it no allusion to the apostles viewed officially; and the Spirit in John emphasises the Lord’s isolation. I could cite several instances of that, the object being to show that after all the breakdown and declension had taken place God would not be baffled, because, after all, things were not any worse than they were when Christ was here; yet God met that situation and came victoriously out of it.
We want to see that the gospel of John shows the Person of Christ as the great resource of God, and the Spirit emphasises His isolation. For instance, in chapter 4 the Spirit tells us that the disciples had gone into the city to buy meat. That really meant Christ was left alone. He was left solitary at the well. Why should they all have gone to buy meat?
JS One might have gone.
JT Yes. In spite of the fact that He was alone, the woman’s need was met, and that is encouraging in our day. No matter how few there may be. God carries out His purpose. So when the disciples returned the Lord says, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of”. Now they should have known. His meat was to do the will of God and finish His work.
Rem I do not quite understand what you have in mind in connection with the Lord’s isolation.
JT When John wrote the time was at hand when those who were faithful to the truth would be left alone by the many, and in John’s gospel we find that the Lord Himself was treated in the same way; and Paul says, “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me”, but he says further, “notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me”.
CA But God was not baffled in carrying out His purpose.
JT The Lord remained two days with the Samaritans. He remained there in testimony, and many of the Samaritans believed on Him. The point there is, I think, that the apostles were not the witnesses. The Lord was independent of the apostles, and the woman became the witness. She went back to the city and said, “Come, see a man”. The chapter shows how God can carry on His work even if those who have an official place fail. The disciples had gone into the city for meat. The woman came out for water. She found living water, and in principle she carries that water back into the city; but she did not carry it back in the waterpot; she left the waterpot. She herself became the vessel; the Lord is wholly independent of what is official. He can at any time find vessels for what He has to give.
JP So that divine wisdom, such as John 4 brings before us, takes up that which symbolises weakness, a woman, and constitutes it a suited vessel.
JT To my mind it was wonderful that she [p. 229] should go back into the city carrying living water in principle. So the Samaritans were illuminated by a woman of their own city, not by the Jewish apostles.
AFM Have you any other instance to refer to?
JT A most touching one in chapter 8 which we dwelt on yesterday: “And every man went unto his own house. Jesus went unto the mount of Olives”. The mount of Olives was His house really, I mean His retreat. We are told elsewhere, “as he was wont”.
The point for us today is that there is nothing to be disheartened about. Things are no worse today than they were in that day.
WP I do not catch that thought about things not being worse than when the Lord was here. We are accustomed to think that things are getting worse.
JT And so they are. But He was at the end of a dispensation and so are we. The conditions He found in Israel were similar to the conditions today.
CA I suppose the great thought is that no matter what the conditions God will carry out His purpose according to divine wisdom.
JT Proverbs 8 furnishes the individual with everything. He has “durable riches” and his “treasures are filled”; and then Wisdom unfolds her own history, and what comes to light is that man has a place in her mind.
FL There is order in the unfolding of the truth in the chapter, leading up to the thought of life in verse 25.
AFM Will you enlarge upon the place that man has with Wisdom?
JT It is simply man as that order of being, not an angelic order.
FL [p. 230] What I understand by It is. God is sovereign; therefore, when it became a question of counsel, to suit Himself and in view of the eternal day, He chose man; but as you said this morning it is man in the abstract.
JS That is why the question is raised, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”
JT Yes; the question is raised in Psalm 8 as to man. Why is it that man has this place? This chapter explains it; at the outset man had this place. Wisdom says, “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was”. Then it goes on to say, “When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men”. That is, Wisdom took account of the earth as a place to be inhabited. What interests Wisdom especially is the human race.
FL That becomes obvious in Genesis 1, for all the divine operations there were to get ready a scene for men to dwell upon. So it comes out that in all created things the only one that could take the image and likeness of God was man.
JT So you have “the habitable part” and then “the sons of men”.
Rem You said somewhere that angels were greater than men.
JT The angels are not so now. Christ as Man has all power in the heavens and in the earth. “All [p. 231] power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”, Matthew 28.
FL In that- connection one would bear in mind that man in his lost condition is lower than the angels. So in speaking of man being superior it is Man as in Christ.
JT After all, the formation of the earth had man in view. No doubt the angels, as beings, were regarded as superior. Referring to the manna, it says, “Man did eat angels’ food”. But at the same time man was the order of being that Wisdom delighted in.
JP Christ coming into manhood is what has made the change.
FL The divine record shows that Adam was the great centre of all the divine operations; but Adam was but a figure of Him who was to come. Hence the importance of taking account of man as referred to here in an abstract way. I think it is never said anywhere in Scripture that angels should be in the image and after the likeness of God; but of man it was said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”.
JT There can be no question, as comparing this chapter with the opening of Genesis, that man was the great central object with God in all His operations; but in result we know it is Man in Christ.
JP So in the close “The tabernacle of God is with men”.
FL We cannot understand the counsels of God unless we overlook time.
JT That is a very good point. There you get the great end reached and it is simply God and men. The national idea was not the divine order. The millennium is a national state of things; but that is not the divine end.
JP You can see that [p. 232] in the beginning of nations.
The history of the beginning of nations in Scripture shows it was not an original thought with God; it came in consequent upon the sin of men.
JT A city and a kingdom do not present the original divine thought. They both came in connection with men in this world.
JP Finally the national idea passes away. There are no nations in the new heaven and the new earth.
FL Everything may be summed up in two points. One is what we get in chapter 8, “my delights were with the sons of men”. And the other is, “the tabernacle of God is with men”. And what comes in between is a matter of detail.
JT Quite so.
FL In the past eternity “my delights were with the sons of men”; and finally “the tabernacle of God is with men”.
JT The tower of Babel necessitated the division of the race. The race was split up into nations. That was judicial. God did that governmentally. Then the problem was; how is God going to reconcile that state of things? That brings out His grace, which really is His moral greatness. In Genesis 11 the judgment is put into execution by the division of the race. They are separated by their language. God is, as it were, morally bound in consistency with Himself to adjust that, and hence He calls out Abraham from that state of things and He purposes in Abraham to bless all the nations of the earth. “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”. God in His grace preaches the gospel to Abraham, and the gospel is that all these families which have been separated from one another by the judgment of God are to be blessed through Abraham, and the millennium is the answer to that; but it is a provisional state of things. They all come into blessing through the seed of Abraham; but that is only a [p. 233] means to an end. God vindicates Himself in that He comes out victoriously in heaven. The day of Pentecost was partially the answer to it. All the nations heard them speak in their own tongues the wonderful works of God. The present moment is the answer to it morally; but the millennial state is the literal answer to it. But that is not the end; the millennium has a city and a kingdom, but the eternal state of things has neither. The idea of a city disappears and is replaced by the tabernacle, and it is no longer God dwelling mediatorially; it is God and men, “The tabernacle of God is with men”.
RSS What you have been saying clears up a difficulty I have had for a long time, and that is, the thought of a city arose from the descendants of Cain, and yet God takes it up, and therefore you might think it was a divine idea. The same is true of a nation. The first kingdom in Scripture was Nimrod’s, who was not after the divine generation. So it is rather remarkable, and I have never been able to understand it exactly, why it was that God should take up a thought of which He was not the originator.
JT If it had been a primary thought with God He would never give it up; but the very things which were begotten of sin God rises above and introduces the same things, only of a holy and spiritual character, and they are for the deliverance of men from the world of sin.
JS Victory comes in in that way.
JT God’s greatness rises above the sin of man.
AFM What you were saying shows that the kingdom is a necessity with God. All the testimony of Scripture runs to that great end; that is, that God is to display Himself in a mediatorial kingdom. We have very little said about the eternal state.
[p. 234] Is it not the point that the-kingdom is a necessity with God consequent upon sin taking that form?
JT Because testimony has to do with us under the conditions which sin introduced, for God is aiming at our complete deliverance from the world. If a man is brought up in a city, a city is very likely to be a great thought with him; so in delivering him from it God proposes a city for him, but it is not a primary thought with God. The idea of a king is not a primary thought with God. It arose on account of certain conditions; but the primary thought is this: that God would have man. Wisdom set her mind upon man.
FL While we are on this subject I might just mention that there is very often a difficulty with Christians as to why they should not be patriotic. It is very hard for a good many to understand why they should not be.
JT Abraham was not patriotic. He was called out from his country, his kindred and from his father’s house, and he left all. But then God proposes a country for him and a city, and I think it is in that way that these things are found. What God proposes to a soul would deliver it from that from which it is called out.
FL 1 Corinthians 15 brings before us a wonderful point of time. Christ delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father, and the Son becomes subject that God may be all in all. It shows that what is now intervening, the kingdom, is a means to an end. It is not a primary thought. I think the primary thoughts are indicated here in Proverbs 8. In Eden we see how man was God’s object — He comes down to walk in the garden where Adam was. Moreover, He said that it was not good that man should be alone. The assembly was a primary thought.
JS All primary thoughts are eternal.
JT Yes, they abide for ever.
[p. 235] The great evidence of Wisdom is that God meets the ruin by bringing out of it His ideal; that is, He brings out Christ as He is now and the assembly. There can be nothing compared with that which God has brought out of the ruin in connection with Christ. “Now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God”. That was a primary thought. The breakdown being permitted Christ had to come in and accomplish redemption and bring in the assembly.
AFM Will you explain why the assembly in the eternal state comes down from God as the holy city? There is the thought of a city.
JT It is not so regarded after it has come; it is a tabernacle. It says, “the tabernacle of God is with men”. The city being mentioned is for identification. It is the same city that illuminated the millennial world, but it changes its character; it becomes a tabernacle, not in the sense of the tabernacle in the wilderness, which was a movable thing, but a dwelling-place. Of the Lord it is said, “and the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us”.
JP Is the primary thought of the assembly brought out in God saying “It is not good that the man should be alone”? Genesis 2.
JT It is mentioned in Genesis 1, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion”. Then, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”.
JP I notice it is not my delights were in the sons of men, but “my delights were with the sons of men”. So in Revelation 21, “God himself shall be with them, and be their God”.
FL The city in Revelation 21 coming down and the kingdom in 1 Corinthians 15 being somewhat [p. 236] on the same ground, they are both brought into view in order to show how both are ended. The kingdom culminates in God becoming all in all, and the city assumes the form of a tabernacle and God tabernacles with men.
JT It is very striking that in the beginning of each order of things God always introduces His primary thoughts. Eden indicated a primary thought. And the tabernacle in the wilderness indicated a primary thought, and so at the inauguration of the assembly, it was God dwelling here. All these things refer to God’s primary thoughts.
Ques Would you say that the two trees in the garden were connected with God’s primary thought?
JT I think not; the tree of life is found in the midst of “the paradise of God” (Revelation 2: 7), but the tree of knowledge of good and evil is not there. It is the test that God placed for man in the garden, and it was the beginning of the whole responsible history of the race. God knew perfectly what would be the result. But at the end the tree of life is said to be “in the midst of the paradise of God”, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil is not mentioned.
Ques What would you say has become of the tree of knowledge of good and evil?
JT The question of responsibility has been solved in the death of Christ.
JS A perfect solution of it is seen there.
FL There comes in the final removal of all evil; evil is confined in the lake of fire.
ARS Is the wisdom of God seen in the raising of the question of good and evil?
JT I think so. We read in Ecclesiastes 9 of the “poor wise man” delivering the city. Now the poor wise man was Christ, and the wisdom of the poor wise Man was displayed in the way He delivered the city; and that involved His [p. 237] death.
FL But Wisdom goes further than that. I mean Wisdom comes out in connection with the counsel of God, and in creation apart from sin.
JT Divine wisdom is seen in the way in which it has grappled with the consequences of sin. God has brought the mystery out of the chaos brought about by sin; and in it “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. The angels behold in the assembly “the all-various wisdom of God”.
Rem Would you say that what has been enacted in the history of the world, from man’s fall to the new heavens and the new earth, sets forth how God in His wisdom has dealt with good and evil? Is that the great point from the beginning to the end?
JT I think so. Proverbs 8 refers to the formation of the physical universe. Wisdom was there at the beginning, and when everything was done; but we have to do with a moral system, and it is in connection with that that you get the full display of Wisdom. So the resolving of the question of good and evil necessitated the coming to light of God’s resource, and hence Wisdom shines all along the way.
RSS As a matter of fact, good and evil existed even before man existed; but it is in connection with man that the question has been settled to God’s glory.
FL Evil unquestionably existed before man existed. Satan had risen in pride against God; and since God had set His heart on men, the point of attack with Satan was to inject pride into man’s heart. So it was man that was the great subject of interest both with God and Satan; but Wisdom adjusts all, and there is victory.
LFF Was Wisdom only actively connected with men?
JT What I see is this, that love is the spring of everything, because that is what God is; but Wisdom is the skill by which He accomplishes things.
[p. 238] It is most important to see that Wisdom is the handmaid of love, because love is the suggestive power, and in all the operations Wisdom is present, so that in the activities of love you have everything suitably done. Love does not overstep itself, but accomplishes its designs in Wisdom. And the force of that is that all innovations are excluded.
FL Wisdom takes account of more than what has come in by the failure of man. It says in Proverbs 3, “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth”. So in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handy-work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge”. I think we can connect Wisdom with that.
Ques Would you say that Wisdom does not come to light before God is vindicated?
JT You do not see the full working Out of Wisdom; the mystery is the consequence of the death of Christ, and then you see the “manifold wisdom”.
FL “Many-sided wisdom” — manifold.
Ques It was said that good and evil existed from the beginning?
JT The Spirit of God does not disclose to us the history of the evil except as it affects men. Beyond that we know very little, but we know it existed.
RSS Do we not know that it existed with Satan prior to man’s existence? We have inklings of it in Ezekiel; but the Spirit of God does not disclose to us the details, neither have we much light about angels; but we have light as to God’s primary thoughts, and that is, that He had an order of being before Him, and that being was man, and we know that the family that God delights in is formed after Christ, and God dwells with that family [p. 239] eternally.
JT He has not deviated from His original thought. Jacob had two wives; that was not a primary thought. But Isaac had but one, which answers to a primary thought. Jacob indicates a provisional state of things, referring to Christ’s relation with Israel, which passes away, whereas what answers to Isaac and Rebekah remains.
JP In what we have had before us it is very beautiful to see when Wisdom gives an account of herself in verses 22 to 31, that there is nothing to suggest evil; there is no evil and there is nothing to suggest evil; and apart from every question of evil you have Wisdom rejoicing in the habitable part of God’s earth, and her delights were with the sons of men. So when we come to Revelation 21 there is no evil there; the tabernacle of God is with men. He is with them and He is their God. Of course, practically for us as Christians, we have to face the question of good and evil. For instance, take that word in Romans 12, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”. Or take a word like that in Hebrews, “have their senses exercised for distinguishing both good and evil”.
I think it is so delightful that even for a few moments we can exclude every thought of evil from our minds and look at a picture like this, and then look at Revelation 21 and see how God comes back to His original thought. There God is tabernacling with men and there is nothing about evil.