Proverbs 8:29 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 8:29

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This is majestic language. Here are earth’s boundaries described: ‘When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment.’ In other words, he formed the world, so that the seas would be arrested and stopped in their tracks by the shores and the cliffs and the rocks, and they would not cover all the land, and here it is described as God's commandment to the sea. It is about the boundaries of the seas. There it is by God’s decree: there is a separation between water and land. Making local allowances for unusual occurrences the sea does not invade the land generally speaking. You are either on dry land or you are at sea. And by and large, despite the erosion of the coast, you can count on the land always being land and the sea always being sea. To the mind of the ancients this was a wonderful illustration of the fact that there are things in life where one element does not invade another. The two things are not the same, and they are to be kept apart and separate. And by wisdom that is decreed and we are thankful that it is so. ‘Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed’ (Job 38:11).

Application

Yes but God's truth sets boundaries that are even higher and more permanent. Just as the earthly boundaries cannot be overrun, neither can the boundaries of God's truth in any circumstances. For instance, the wages of sin is death. That boundary of God's truth has always been, and will always be. There was a time when there was no earth, there was a time when no seas fought to overrun the shores and found they could not. There will be a time when there are no seas as there are in this present earth, crashing onto the rocks and the shores, for speaking of the new earth Scripture says, ‘And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea’ (Revelation 21:1). Yes, but there were boundaries that existed before any of earth's boundaries, and they will go on for ever. ‘The wages of sin is death’ now and always has been and always will be. You learn about the great boundaries, and the eternal boundaries, and the significant boundaries – ‘but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Romans 3:23). These more significant boundaries you learn from God, from divine Truth.

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Proverbs 8:29 Commentary and Bible Study