Proverbs 8:22 Commentary and Bible Study

Here the language changes. Until now wisdom has been describing its superiority to the seeking of success and happiness in this world, but now from verse 22, wisdom is seen speaking of her history and her background, of her own intrinsic essential worth and activity. The Lord possessed infinite wisdom in the beginning of his way. This is human language being used to refer right back into eternity, before his works of old, before the very first thing he did in relation to the world. The word there ‘beginning’, ‘in the beginning of his way’, is exactly the same as the word used in the very opening verse of the Bible, ‘In the beginning’. So we are being reminded that wisdom predates the beginning.Often commentators have been tempted to see this verse particularly as a description of Christ. They see all this passage on wisdom as a description of Christ. But the majority in the Reformed tradition will fall just a little short of that, and say, ‘No, wisdom personified here is a description of the eternal character of wisdom.’ Now of course, wisdom is to us supremely seen in our great Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So yes, wisdom is spiritual shrewdness, awareness, understanding, and discernment. It is doctrine, and knowledge, and all this flows from the word of God. Christ is the author of the word of God and so ultimately all wisdom originates in him. The gospel is Christ’s gospel. So there is no problem if someone wants to read Proverbs 8 and say this is Christ speaking, this is about him. But here wisdom presents herself, not as a consciously deliberate figure for Christ, but as eternal wisdom. It is a feminine form and it is an attribute that is being described. Throughout this chapter wisdom is presented to us as a communicable attribute of God. It is an attribute of God that is spoken of, and yet it is an attribute of God of which we can have some small part, and which can be communicated to us by grace. Here now is a description of the worth of this eternal wisdom, and the reasoning is this: ‘Look, if you can have from God discernment and shrewdness and awareness of spiritual things, if you can have from God divine knowledge, do you not realise that what you are getting is a portion of something which is an attribute of God himself?’ So now the language soars. So we are looking at wisdom as a divine and an eternal attribute, nothing less than this.