Proverbs chapter 8
Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right.
For my mouth will utter truth. Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
All the words of my mouth are righteous. There is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
They are all straight to Him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge.
Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold.
For wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil, pride and arrogance, and the way of evil, and perverted speech I hate.
I have counsel and sound wisdom. I have insight. I have strength.
By me, kings reign, and rulers decree what is just. By me, princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly.
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness.
My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver.
I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.
The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His work, the first of His acts of old.
Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths, I was brought forth.
When there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped.
Before the hills, I was brought forth.
Before He had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world.
When He established the heavens, I was there.
When He drew a circle on the face of the deep.
When He made firm the skies above.
When He established the fountains of the deep.
When He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress His command.
When He marked out the foundations of the earth.
Then I was beside Him, like a master workman.
And I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always.
Rejoicing in His inhabited world, and delighting in the children of man.
And now, O sons, listen to me.
Blessed are those who keep my ways.
Hear instruction, and be wise, and do not neglect it.
Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors.
For whoever finds me, finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord.
But he who fails to find me, injures himself.
All who hate me, love death.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
In last week's passage, chapter 7, verses 4 to 5.
The father exhorted his son this way.
Say to wisdom, you are my sister, and call inside your intimate friend.
To keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
So the forbidden woman, which means literally strange woman.
It's a reference to a woman that doesn't belong to your family.
Someone that is not your wife, but your neighbor's wife.
If you want to be protected from the seduction of the strange woman, he told us that we ought to make wisdom familiar to us.
Wisdom, our family.
And if you want to remain estranged from the adulteress, you have to make yourself familiar with the wisdom of God.
And that's where Proverbs 8 picks up.
It gives us a portrait of personified woman wisdom.
As a contrast from the portrait of the forbidden woman from chapter 7.
And the main exhortation of this passage is that we should court woman wisdom in order to find divine favor and eternal life.
So in verses 1 to 11, we see the instruction of wisdom.
She instructs her hearers to learn from her.
And then in verses 12 to 31, we see the introduction of wisdom.
She introduces herself and explains her value.
And then finally in verses 32 to 36, we see the invitation of wisdom.
Where we are exhorted to seek her diligently.
So the instruction, the introduction, and the invitation.
So let's look at the instruction of wisdom in verses 1 to 11.
It says in verses 1 to 3,
So on the one hand, we were told already in Proverbs chapter 2,
that we should call out for insight and raise our voice for understanding.
And that we were told to seek wisdom.
So on the one hand, we are to call out for wisdom and raise our voice.
But on the other hand, it's also true that wisdom herself calls out to us and raises her voice for us.
So it depicts wisdom as using these elevated platforms beside the way as our podium from which to teach us.
She stands at the crossroads, it says, where there is most foot traffic.
Where people are deciding which way to go.
And you can hear her, it says, beside the gates in front of the town at the entrance of the portals.
In contrast with the forbidden woman, the forbidden woman was a lurker.
If you remember from chapter 7, verse 12, she was lying in wait in every street corner,
as if to pounce on unwitting, I guess, unwitting bystanders, people that would come by.
And she also worked with traps and ambushes in the darkness of night, in the cover of night.
Woman wisdom, however, has nothing to hide.
So she walks out in the open, speaks forthrightly.
She's at the city gates, the center of public commerce and politics,
offering her insight to all who would listen.
And her audience, it says in verses 4 to 5, is all of humanity.
To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the children of men.
O simple ones, learn prudence, O fools, learn sense.
This is an instance of the grammatical convention that I mentioned a few sermons ago,
called the collective masculine.
Old Testament Hebrew, New Testament Greek, just like English and many other modern languages,
use the masculine noun and pronoun when it's referring to a group of both men and women.
And as we have seen, the book of Proverbs often employs the male perspective
because men were representative leaders in society and it's addressed to them.
And this is why, for example, you find warnings about the adulterous woman in chapters 5 to 7,
but no parallel warnings about the predatory man.
But this does not mean that Proverbs is only applicable to men
or that it has an implicit bias against women.
Just as it warns specifically against the adulterous with her smooth words,
it also warns specifically against men of perverted speech in Proverbs 2, verse 12.
It personifies folly as a woman in chapter 9,
but it also personifies wisdom as a woman throughout the book.
It has an entire section dedicated to praising a woman who fears the Lord in chapter 31,
who also appears to be schooled in wisdom.
And so Proverbs is written for a general audience.
It's written for the children of man that includes both men and women.
But here, there is a more particular audience than just all of humanity.
It says in verses 5 to 6,
Proverbs employs a variety of terms to characterize the fool.
Of those terms, the simple one is the mildest term.
It refers to those who are naive or gullible,
people who are easily duped.
They are duped by evildoers in particular.
And so they're still responsible for their naivete,
but their gullibility is not morally neutral.
They're still morally culpable.
But of the range of words that are used to describe the fool,
this one is the mildest.
It's the least problematic.
They're not settled in their foolish ways yet.
You can still speak to them and exhort them.
Hopefully, they will listen and gain prudence.
That's what they need to learn, prudence or shrewdness.
The term fool used here is the one that's most commonly used
to refer to the fool in the book of Proverbs.
It occurs 70 times in the entire Old Testament,
and 67 of those times is in the Proverbs.
It can have several nuances,
but its basic root meaning is to be thick or fat.
So it refers to someone who is thick-headed or obtuse,
and for that reason, short-sighted and foolhardy.
So then wisdom is particularly concerned
with instructing the simple-minded and the thick-headed.
If only they would learn prudence,
if only they would learn sense,
there is still hope for them.
And so a woman calls out to them in verses 6 to 9,
All of this is also a contrast
with the smooth and wily nature of the forbidden woman.
The words of the woman's wisdom are all noble,
right, true, righteous, straight.
There is no wickedness, nothing twisted or crooked.
In contrast to the words of the forbidden woman,
which were slippery, twisted, deceptive.
Wisdom is a straight shooter.
However, there is an important caveat.
Her words are all straight,
only to him who understands.
Her words are right,
only to those who find knowledge.
To those who do not understand,
to those who have not found knowledge,
even wisdom's unvarnished truth appears false.
Nowadays, a lot of people talk about cognitive biases.
And there's one of the popular ones,
the confirmation bias, right,
the tendency to interpret new evidence
as a confirmation of one's existing beliefs and theories.
And as much as people like to think
that they are cruelly rational and objective,
humans often take new data
and finagle it to fit their existing prejudices
and preconceptions.
And such is the case with the fool.
The fool is immune to learning.
He is impervious to instruction.
He never comes to understand.
He never learns.
Look again at verse 5
and the repetition of the word learn.
O simple words, learn prudence.
O fools, learn sense.
The Hebrew word that is translated as learn here
is the same word that is translated as understand in verse 9.
And notably, in the book of Proverbs,
this word is used only to refer to those who acquire wisdom.
The moment you learn, you cease to be a fool
because only the wise learn in Proverbs.
The fool has no use for learning.
Proverbs 12, 15 says,
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
but a wise man listens to advice.
Learning wisdom requires patience,
self-discipline, humility.
It demands change, a reformation.
In contrast, folly comes easily
because it requires no self-discipline,
only self-indulgence.
It demands no change.
It preserves the status quo.
And this is why wisdom is a hard sell.
This is why woman wisdom needs to make
this compelling sales pitch.
She says in verses 10 to 11,
Take my instruction instead of silver,
knowledge rather than choice gold,
for wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
Wisdom has incomparable value.
Think for a moment about the things
that you desire in life,
things you wish you had or hope to attain,
perhaps traveling the world,
maybe fame or fortune,
a dream job,
a spouse or a family or a car,
a jewel or a laptop,
whatever it might be,
it does not compare with wisdom.
So you must choose wisdom over all else.
That's the exhortation of this passage
because in her we find divine favor and eternal life.
That's a nice transition to the second part of the passage,
verses 12 to 31,
which is the introduction of wisdom.
She introduces herself to us
and explains our true value.
And usually when people are trying to sell you
on the value of something,
they often mention that the thing is,
one, proven,
and two, that it is time-tested, right?
So we know that,
have that phrase,
proven and time-tested.
First, they mention that it has proven benefits.
This is the page with all the raving reviews
and endorsements.
And then second,
they mention that it's time-tested,
meaning it has been around for a while,
it has outlasted its competition,
it has demonstrated staying power,
it's been around longer than its rivals,
which means it has experienced a thing or two more,
which makes it more reliable or trustworthy.
And this is why people often prefer
well-established brands, right,
that have been around for a while.
And that's why they say,
well, we've been around since 1928
or established in 1942 and so on.
And similarly, in her self-introduction,
woman wisdom tells us of her proven benefits
in verses 12 to 21,
and then about her ancient origin
in verses 22 to 31.
First, she tells us of her proven benefits.
The second person pronouns of verses 4 to 11
give way to the first person pronouns here,
because wisdom is not talking for herself.
She says in verse 12,
I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
and I find knowledge and discretion.
Her name is wisdom.
Wisdom, this word is used in other parts of Scripture
to refer to an expertise or a skill in something,
such as arts, war, judgeship, or governance.
So it's not merely bookish,
kind of theoretical knowledge,
it's applied knowledge.
That's what wisdom is in Scripture.
And wisdom, as it is used here in the book of Proverbs,
is about life.
So it's expertise in life.
It's skill for living in proper relationship
with God and with the world.
It's expertise that enables one
to navigate the complexities and difficulties
and the realities of life.
And woman wisdom discloses her close consorts.
She says she dwells with,
is accompanied by prudence,
knowledge and discretion.
Prudence is shrewdness,
which is the corrective to naivete.
Knowledge is the building block of wisdom.
It's you apply the knowledge
in order to have wisdom.
It's the corrective to ignorance.
Discretion is the quality of being careful
or considerate.
It's the corrective to carelessness
or impulsiveness.
And so she continues her introduction
in verse 13 this way,
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil
and pride and arrogance
and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.
This echoes the thesis statement
of the book of Proverbs
found in chapter 1, verse 7,
that the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge.
And the fear of the Lord
is another name for wisdom.
Notice the structure of verse 13.
It tells us about two things
that are hated.
Evil and then pride and arrogance.
Wisdom tells us that she herself
hates pride and arrogance
in the way of evil and perverted speech.
And she tells us that
the fear of the Lord
is hatred of evil.
So structurally,
wisdom and fear of the Lord
are parallel,
which suggests that to have wisdom
is to fear the Lord.
So that means you can't have wisdom
apart from relating to God
in a proper way.
To fear the Lord
is to relate to Him
and respond to Him
with reverent obedience
and humble submission.
Proverbs chapter 15, verse 33
confirms this.
It says,
The fear of the Lord
is instruction in wisdom
and humility comes before honor.
This is why wisdom
militates against pride.
A human being cannot simultaneously
have a high view of God
and a high view of himself.
Just as one can only take
in the soaring height
and the grandeur of a mountain
by looking up,
we cannot rightly appreciate God
and relate to God
unless we assume a position of lowliness,
a posture of humility,
and look up to Him in submission.
To be wise is to fear the Lord.
And woman wisdom
continues to demonstrate our value
by telling us about
our proven benefits
in verses 14 to 16.
I have counsel
and sound wisdom.
I have insight.
I have strength.
By me, kings reign
and rulers decree
what is just.
By me, princes rule
and nobles
all who govern justly.
It's by woman wisdom
that kings, rulers,
princes and nobles govern.
During this pandemic,
I have developed
a newfound respect
for our governing authorities
because even as a pastor
of a small local church,
I've had to wrestle
with both the spiritual
and physical consequences
of every decision
that I, along with the eldership,
have to make
to consider how certain words
and phrases
are going to land
on some people differently,
to anticipate cheers,
both cheers and jeers
from different sectors
of people
with various views
and opinions,
different political,
theological,
and spiritual sides
of the spectrum.
I've had to make
many decisions on the fly
from a place
of uncertainty
but nevertheless
have to live
with the certain consequences
of those decisions.
And that's the case for me
who's just a small
local church pastor.
I can't imagine
being a mega church pastor
with thousands of people
in their church.
I can't imagine
being a president
with billions of people
under his authority.
I'm sure the complexities
and weight of things
that they deal with
are orders of magnitude
greater than what I face.
And that requires
great wisdom.
And so woman wisdom
tells us,
you know how these rulers
do what they do.
Not the ones
that do it badly
but ones that
who do it with justice.
Do you know
what enables them
to govern justly?
She says,
by me.
All those who rule
and govern justly,
they govern by me,
says Lady Wisdom.
And woman wisdom's words
become increasingly
personally and intimate
in verse 17.
Personally and intimate
in verse 17.
I love those who love me
and those who seek me
diligently find me.
This is the language
of courtship
and covenant.
Woman wisdom
is inviting her suitors
to come.
Because already
in Proverbs chapter 4
we were told,
do not forsake her
and she will keep you.
Love her
and she will guard you.
We are to set our love,
our loyal affections
on the wisdom of God.
And verses 18 to 21
give us the reason
why we should do this.
It says,
Riches and honor
are with me,
enduring wealth
and righteousness.
My fruit is better
than gold,
even fine gold,
and my yield
than choice silver.
I walk in the way
of righteousness
in the paths
of justice,
granting an inheritance
to those who love me
and filling their treasuries.
Earlier in verse 10,
woman wisdom said,
take my instruction
instead of silver
in knowledge
rather than choice gold.
But then here
she promises riches
and wealth
to those who choose her.
Paradoxically,
it is by pursuing wisdom
instead of riches
that one acquires riches
as the reward of wisdom.
If you make wisdom
your highest aim,
it enriches you.
But if you make wealth
your highest aim,
it corrupts you.
This is because
God has so ordered
the world
that wise living
and honest hard work
ordinarily,
generally speaking,
produces prosperity.
So even in English,
we have proverbial sayings
like honesty pays
or cheats never prosper.
Of course,
these sayings
admit exceptions,
but these exceptions
prove the general
applicability of the rule.
But woman wisdom
isn't merely
promising material wealth
since she says
in verses 19 to 20,
my fruit is better
than gold,
even fine gold,
and my yield
than choice silver.
I walk in the way
of righteousness
in the path
of justice.
Ultimately,
she promises
something far better,
righteousness.
And in verse 35,
she says,
for whoever finds me
finds life
and obtains favor
from the Lord.
Wisdom promises
divine favor
and life itself.
And these are
the proven benefits
of wisdom.
And in verses
22 to 31,
then woman wisdom
further communicates
her worth
by speaking
of her ancient
and divine origin.
She says in verses
22 to 23,
the Lord possessed me
at the beginning
of His work,
the first of His acts
of old.
Ages ago,
I was set up
at the first
before the beginning
of the earth.
If you're using
the English standard version,
there's a footnote
next to the word
possessed,
which says
that the word possessed
can be rendered
fathered
or begot.
So that's because
the Hebrew word
behind the translation
can mean a wide
range of things,
just like many English words
have a wide range
of meanings.
And this means
that we need to rely
on the context
to determine its meaning.
And in certain
specific contexts,
like Genesis 4,
verse 1,
Deuteronomy 32,
verse 6,
Psalm 139,
verse 13,
this word that's used
here clearly refers
to conceiving
or begetting a child.
And I think
that's what it means
here.
It's confirmed
by verses 24 to 25,
which say,
When there were
no depths,
I was brought forth.
Before the hills,
I was brought forth.
The word brought forth
repeated twice.
There literally means
birthed.
So it's continuing
that metaphor
of begetting,
fathering.
So verse 23,
again,
says,
Ages ago I was set up.
That literally means
woven.
And these verses
then have a close parallel
in Psalm 139,
verse 13.
For you formed
my inward parts,
you wove me
in my mother's womb.
This is all referring
to the same idea.
The Bible has no hint
whatsoever
of the pagan ideas
of gods procreating
with one another
and with other humans
to bring about
other gods
and demigods.
It has no hint
of that at all.
However,
it uses the language
of begetting here
to convey the fact
that wisdom
has a divine origin.
She was birthed
from God.
And this makes her
qualitatively different
from the created world.
The world,
the earth was made,
it says in verse 26,
but wisdom was begotten.
When we make something,
whether it's a meal
or furniture
or webpage
or even a sculpture
that resembles us,
we make something
that is fundamentally
different from us.
We make things
that do not share
our nature.
But when you beget something,
you beget something
that fundamentally
shares your nature.
Dogs beget dogs,
right?
Cats beget cats.
and humans
beget humans.
And so it's significant
that wisdom
is begotten,
not created.
And as such,
she predates
all love creation.
The Lord fathered her
at the beginning
of His work,
the first
of His acts of old.
Ages ago,
she was woven
at the first
before the beginning
of the earth.
And she continues
in verses 24 to 26,
when there were no depths
I was brought forth,
when there were no springs
abounding with water,
before the mountains
had been shaped,
before the hills
I was brought forth,
before He had made
the earth
with its fields,
or the first
of the dust
of the world.
Before the sea depths
below were made,
before the mountains
up above were made,
before anything on earth
between the two
were made,
before even the first
of the dust
of the world
from which human beings
were made,
wisdom was there.
So when we look
at the earth,
it looks as though
the seas and the mountains
had been there forever.
And yet,
even before they were made,
wisdom was already
begotten by God.
And she not only
predates all of creation,
she was present
for all of God's work
in creation
and even participated
in it.
She says in verses 27 to 31,
When He established
the heavens,
I was there.
When He drew a circle
on the face of the deep,
making the horizon.
When He made firm
the skies above.
When He established
the fountains of the deep.
When He assigned
to the sea its limits
so that the waters
might not transgress
His command.
When He marked out
the foundations
of the earth.
Then I was beside Him
like a master workman
and I was daily
His delight,
rejoicing before Him always,
rejoicing in His
inhabited world
and delighting in
the children of man.
When God established
and separated
and filled
and ordered the cosmos,
wisdom was right there
beside Him.
She emphasizes
her participation in it
by saying,
I was there,
I was beside Him.
And this is confirmed
by Proverbs 3,
19 to 20,
which says that
Lord,
by wisdom,
founded the earth.
And,
this too,
highlights wisdom's value.
that's the point
of this section.
Because in the book
of Proverbs,
the elder is described
as being superior
to youth.
And the reason why
Proverbs describes
the elders that way
is because a longer life
usually confers
broader experiences
and deeper understanding
and learning.
And that's why
Proverbs 16,
verse 31 says,
gray hair is a crown
of glory.
Following that logic,
woman wisdom
should be heeded
because she has been there
from before the beginning
of creation.
She was there
as a witness of,
even participant
of God's work
in creation.
She has seen
all of human history
unfold.
So she has something
that Job didn't have.
If you remember
in Job's encounter
with God,
in the book of Job,
Job is complaining
to God
and accusing God
of injustice
because he,
for as far as he can tell,
was obedient,
he was righteous,
he was blameless
and yet God allows him
to undergo experience
unimaginable suffering
and he loses
all of his prosperity,
his crops
and all of his progeny,
his children as well.
And so he accuses God,
points his finger at God
and Job thinks
he is in the right
when he does this
but God finally answers him
in Job chapter 38,
verses 2-4
with a simple question.
Who is this
that darkens counsel
by words without knowledge?
Where were you
when I laid the foundation
of the earth?
Tell me
if you have understanding.
And once God recounts
all his work of creation,
Job backtracks
and forfeits entirely
his claim to answer
back to God at all
in Job chapter 42,
verse 3,
I have uttered,
he says,
I have uttered
what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me
which I did not know.
I had heard of you
by the hearing of the ear
but now my eyes see you,
therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.
Job realizes at that moment,
he understands that he
has an infinitesimally small part
of the created world.
He understands so little
and that his life
is an infinitesimally small piece
of the whole puzzle.
And so he concedes
that he was presumptuous
to try to counsel God.
Woman wisdom, however,
is far superior to Job.
She can answer that question
and say,
I was there
when God laid the foundation
of the earth.
And for that reason,
we ought to value
and cherish her counsel
because she has been
through it all.
She's been around the block.
This is who she is
and why we should cherish her,
the introduction of wisdom.
And after this,
we see in verses 32 to 36,
the invitation of wisdom.
And like a nurturing mother,
she addresses us as sons
and encourages us
to seek her favor
and learn from her.
And she goes back and forth
between telling us to listen
and the promising blessing
in verses 32 to 34.
Now, O sons, listen to me.
Blessed are those
who keep my ways.
Hear instruction and be wise
and do not neglect it.
Blessed is the one
who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
Watching and waiting
convey just eager anticipation.
We are to be vigilant
and diligent
in our pursuit of wisdom,
biding our time,
waiting with bated breath,
watching for her door to open
in order to seize
any and every opportunity
to learn from wisdom.
And in the same way,
verses 30 to 31,
wisdom was beside God constantly
and was filled with delight daily,
rejoicing before Him always.
We are now told
to emulate her example
by watching daily
at wisdom's gates,
waiting beside her doors.
And verses 35 to 36
provide the reason
why we should do this.
For whoever finds me
finds life
and obtains favor
from the Lord,
but he who fails to find me
injures himself,
all who hate me
love death.
Finding wisdom
leads to life
because it comes
with favor
from the Lord.
In contrast,
the failure to find wisdom
leads to injury
and death.
This is
an incredible promise
and a striking portrait
of woman wisdom
who represents
the wisdom
of God's Word.
If we heed
the wisdom of God
revealed to us
in the book of Proverbs,
it's saying that
it will impart
life to us.
But this promise
and portrait
of woman wisdom
goes beyond this book
and points to a person.
Wisdom described herself
this way in verse 14.
I have counsel
and sound wisdom.
I have insight.
I have strength.
These four exact attributes
are attributed
to God Himself
in Job chapter 12
verse 13.
It says,
Not only this,
wisdom describes herself
as fathered by God,
begotten by Him
verses 22 to 25,
existing from before
the creation of the cosmos.
And so,
this depiction
of woman wisdom
in Proverbs
points to
and is ultimately
fulfilled by
the eternal
Son of God,
Jesus Christ,
who is described
in 1 Corinthians 1.24
as the wisdom of God,
who is described
in Hebrews 1.5
Hebrews 5.5
and 1 John 5
as the begotten one.
It says of Jesus
in John 1.1-4,
In the beginning
was the Word
and the Word
was with God
and the Word
was God.
He was in the beginning
with God
and all things
were made through Him
and without Him
was not anything
made that was made.
In Him
was life
and the life
was the light
of man.
Eternal pre-existence,
instrument of creation,
giver of life.
We can superimpose
Christ on all
the characteristics
of woman wisdom
described in
Proverbs 8.
And this really
is given
climactic expression
in Colossians 1.15-20
which we read
for the assurance
of pardon.
There it described
Jesus as
the firstborn
of all creation.
Meaning,
not that Jesus
is the first thing
that God created
because He's uncreated.
He's begotten.
However,
the verse itself,
Colossians 1.15
explains it.
For by Him
all things were created.
The reason why
Jesus is called
the firstborn
of all creation
is because
He is the one
through whom
all of creation
was brought forth,
was created.
And likewise,
that same passage
described Jesus
as the firstborn
from the dead
for the same reason
because it is
through Jesus
that all of God's
people are brought
forth from death
and are born again
into eternal life.
And that happens
because Jesus
died on the cross
for the sins
of His people
and He was raised
from the dead
promising new life
and that's why
He can promise
in 2 Corinthians 5.17
Therefore,
if anyone
is in Christ,
He is a new creation.
The old has passed away.
Behold,
the new has come.
That's why
He promises
in Revelation 21.5
that He's making
all things new.
And so,
this is the promise
that is in
Jesus Christ.
If some of you,
maybe you are not
yet a follower
of Jesus,
maybe you feel
dead inside,
maybe you know
what it means
when Scripture speaks
of being dead
in our sins
and trespasses.
You are living
without the abundant life
that God
has given.
But Christ
came to restore
all of that.
He came to bring
new life.
I found
a compelling
description
of what Jesus,
how Jesus lived
and what He did
from a writing
by a German theologian,
Jürgen Moltmann.
Because we often
think of when
Jesus is coming,
He's performing
miracles and signs
and wonders,
things that defy
nature.
But He puts it
this way instead,
that when Jesus
expels demons
and heals the sick,
He's driving
out of creation
the powers
of destruction
and is healing
and restoring
created beings
who are hurt
and sick.
The Lordship of God
to which the
healing's witness
restores creation
to health.
Jesus' healings
are not
supernatural miracles
in a natural world.
They are the only
truly natural thing
in a world
that is unnatural,
demonized,
and wounded.
Jesus comes
to restore
the natural order,
the goodness
of creation
that was there
when God
first created
by wisdom,
through the Word,
through Jesus Christ.
And ultimately,
death itself
is unnatural.
It was not
meant to be.
We were created
to live forever
with God.
And so God
sends Jesus,
His Son,
to die for our sins,
to pay the penalty
of death,
to absorb our penalty,
and to be raised
from the dead
in resurrection power
so that that life
and that power
may rest with us,
all of those
who put their trust
in Him,
and that may be restored,
that may be restored
to new life,
that we may be
new creations,
as this passage
speaks of.