Wisdom Before the Beginning

If 2020 and 2021 have tried to teach me anything, it's been how to fear. Like I need lessons on that, you know? Hey, Tamara, in case you haven't figure out how to be afraid yet, look at the world! Let me show you a few headlines! Check out the Covid stats! Don't stand too close to anyone! Riots, riots everywhere! People hate people, wheeeeee! 

Honestly, I fell for that line of thinking many times over the last few years. Anxiety is my go-to. In the language of Superman, it's my kryponite. It's what burrows beneath my closest armor and worms deep down inside me, destroying me from the inside out. 

But that line of thinking is also what has taken me, time and again, to Isaiah 43:1-2: "Fear not..." Guys, that literally means... Don't fear. Don't have fear. Don't be afraid. Don't be anxious. Don't worry. Fear... not. "For I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." When you pass through Covid and relationship fall-outs and riots and rumors of wars and hatred... you will not be harmed.

He's with me. 

It seems so simple, and yet, it's such an overwhelming, profound Truth. He is with me. Immanuel -- God with us. Jesus isn't some guy that arrived on planet earth over 2,000 years ago and then left again. He's with me today. Right now, November 30, 2021, Tuesday, getting ready to start my homework. He's with me.

Sometimes, it's tempting for me to think of Jesus as having a beginning, you know? Like, His story begins when Mary says: "'May it be to me as you have said,' and the angel left her" (Luke 1:38). And in a sense, it was the beginning of His physical body, the day that Jesus "made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself..." (Philippians 2:7-8).

I happened to be reading in Proverbs today, where, in chapter 8, we meet Wisdom. Wisdom takes on personification in this passage, where she says: "I, Wisdom, dwell together with prudence. I possess knowledge and discretion" (Proverbs 8:12). She goes on to list her characteristics: "To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have understanding and power. By me, kings reign and rulers make laws that are just. By me princes govern and all nobles who rule on earth. I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full."

So, Solomon, king of Israel, wrote the majority of the Proverbs, with some additional installations from other authors, and reading through it, I remember the moment in 2 Chronicles 1 when Solomon requested wisdom from the Lord over wealth and power. And because the Lord was pleased with his request, He granted him all of the above.

A few weeks ago, my husband asked (out loud) a question that has kind of moved behind my thoughts for many years but never made its way out: "Why, if Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived, did he a.) have 700 wives and 300 concubines, because everyone knows that's stupid, and you know, play stupid games, win stupid prizes... and b.) why did he turn away from the Lord toward the end of his life?"

The only answer I had was the Lord Acton answer: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Israel's greatest days were under the rule of Solomon as far as wealth and territory was concerned. In those days, while they weren't a world power on the level of the later-coming Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, or Rome (the statue/beast of Daniel 2 and 7), they were certainly a force to be reckoned with. Solomon had access to anything his heart desired, and Jeremiah says about the human heart: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).

So with that background, it's really interesting to me how Solomon worded this chapter about Wisdom, personifying her as though she herself wrote it. Look at this: "The Lord brought me [Wisdom] forth as the first of His works, before His deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth, when there were no springs, abounding with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before He made the earth or its fields or any of the dust of the world. I was there when He set the heavens in place, when He marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when He established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when He gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep His command, and when He marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was the craftsman at His side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in His presence, rejoicing in His whole world and delighting in mankind" (Proverbs 8:22-31). 

This sounds super familiar. Where have I read this account before? Oh, that's right: Genesis 1:1 - 2:3, when God spoke and the universe came into being. Wisdom was there, before the world began.

So then, I had flipped over to Luke and was reading again through the Christmas story, because it's that time of year, you know? I got to Luke 2:40, where Jesus' parents have been blessed by both Simeon and Anna in the temple courts, and they take Him home to live in Nazareth. Verse 40 says: "And the child grew and became strong; He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him."

Having just read the Proverbs passage, that struck me. Not that no one else besides Jesus has wisdom... but Wisdom was there in the beginning, just like Jesus. Wisdom filled Jesus. Not just in His earthly, growing, strengthening body, but always was a part of His character... from before the beginning. 

From before time. Time. We cannot even wrap our minds around this, because we are products of time. We cannot conceive of a reality where time doesn't exist; it's not within our rational minds to be able to do so. John 1:1-5 goes back to the same place Wisdom went to in Proverbs 8: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him, all things were made; without Him, nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

That Word is full of Wisdom (Luke 2:40). That Word is Jesus. That Word existed before time (John 1:1). That Word took on human likeness and was found in appearance as a man (Philippians 2:7). That Word died (Luke 23:46), rose again (Matthew 28:6), ascended to heaven (Acts 1:9). That Word exists today (John 14:3). That Word has never abdicated His throne (Psalm 11:4) to powers of this dark world or to any evil force in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).

This is so reassuring to me, but I'm not going to find words to explain why. Suffice it to say that Peter faced the same doubts and fears we do today on some level. As an apostle of Christ, he had to reassure the early church. He says: "First of all, you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, 'Where is this 'coming' He promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.' (Sound familiar?) But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's Word, the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same Word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:3-9). 

There's that time factor again. The Lord -- with Wisdom, with the Word -- does not operate on our timetable. He created time. He authored time. 

So when I doubt, when I fear, I go back to the beginning. And He goes back before the beginning where Wisdom dwells in the Word, that is Jesus, that is my Savior. When I doubt, I go to the end, where we will see Him, Jesus, the Word, come again. He holds time in a framework, made by His hand. We are in the middle of that framework; He contains it, between one nail-scarred hand and the other.

With this mindset, I can't worry about relatively simplistic things like... Covid. Or wars and rumors of wars. Or natural disasters. Or nations rising against nations. 

Because He's on His throne, and what He has decreed -- with Wisdom -- will happen. Not an iota, not a single fraction of a particle of anything will happen to me outside of His will. 

He says: "'Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.' The Spirit and the bride [the church] say, 'Come!' and let him who hears say, 'Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come, and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life" (Revelation 22: 12-17).