On Lord's day evening we had Proverbs 8. and were with Wisdom everywhere: "The Lord' possessed me " from before all His works, before He had laid the foundations of the earth and the worlds. The archangel announced His approach in Luke 1 to Mary, by " the mystery of the Incarnation." At His birth, one universal song, by the multitude of angels and the heavenly host, spread the glad tidings that unto men "is born a Savior in the City of David which is Christ the Lord." Simeon, the power of the Holy Ghost resting upon him on earth, possesses this Wisdom (in time) Whom the Lord possessed from before time was. A man below has got this Treasure from above in his arms, and celebrates Him as God's Salvation to the very ends of the earth: "A Light to' lighten the Gentiles and the Glory of Thy people Israel.
Wisdom utters her voice and begins to preach in the city, at the entering in of the gates-and in Luke 4., at Nazareth (where He had been brought up according to human reckoning) Jesus enters into the synagogue, and this Wisdom " stood up for to read." He takes the Book of God's everlasting counsels, and finds the place where it is written " the Spirit of the Lord is upon me " (read vs. 18-23).
Wisdom's delights were in the habitable parts of the earth too, and with the children of men —so that in chap. 5. He was in a certain city and a man full of leprosy meets Him, and. Wisdom in grace drives away the leprosy and the man is clean. Wisdom is found in another city, and at the gates there was a dead man being carried forth, the only son of his mother and she was a widow (chap. 7). Wisdom finds its new delights by meeting death; and, taking His place in the midst of this scene in compassion, said " weep not, and He came and touched the bier,.... and delivered the young man to his mother etc." The time is now come for this Wisdom, in its turn, to be justified by one of its children, and who could do this but the woman of another city who was a sinner. She justifies Him by owning Him, as only a sinner can, and stood behind Him weeping, etc. (vs. 36-50). Simeon had Wisdom in his arms, but the sinner is at His feet, and He finds His best and sweetest delights with this woman. Wisdom is justified by this child in the house of the Pharisee, and she is justified by infinite Wisdom and Love: "He said to her, Thy sins are forgiven. Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace."
In Luke 23. "This Wisdom " takes another place on the cross in order that God might righteously assume the attitude of beseeching sinners to be reconciled to Himself and find His delight in so doing. He there did the work in blood and death, by which He became yet further the Wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Wisdom (as the fruit of this finished redemption) carries one of its children away back into the heavens, as the trophy and witness that His delights were with the sons of men. This child justified Wisdom in his expiring breath, saying, "This man hath done nothing amiss," adding, " Lord, remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom; " and Wisdom in. the boundlessness of its own delights justified the thief by saying, "To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise! " The thief has gone up with Wisdom, as a sample to the heavens of what had been gathered from below-and God Himself can come down to make the cross of Christ a mercy seat (see Rom. 3:2525Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:25)) and proclaim Himself in righteousness a just God and the Justifier of him that believeth in, Jesus.
By the side of this Wisdom (as in 1 Cor. 1.) all the wisdom of man is foolishness with God, and rejected by Wisdom's children too. " Let no man deceive himself. If any man seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise " (1 Cor. 3:1818Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. (1 Corinthians 3:18)). " Doth not wisdom cry? And understanding put forth her voice!..... Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man; O ye simple, understand wisdom; and ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart." (Prov. 8:1, 4, 51Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? (Proverbs 8:1)
4Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. 5O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. (Proverbs 8:4‑5)). This Wisdom that God possessed from the beginning for Himself, He now makes, in sovereign grace and divine holiness, to be unto us (who are Wisdom's children) our wisdom, and makes this Christ as suited to us at the end, as He was to God at the beginning, of His ways. For 1 Cor. 1:3030But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1 Corinthians 1:30) it is the hand of God who closes up the circle of our blessedness, by standing in the midst of Wisdom and all her children and saying, " Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord." May we not be unready to justify this Word made flesh-our Savior, Christ and Lord-in all the ways of His own delights with His children in the habitable part of the earth. May we glory in the Lord below and get outside every person and place and thing, that usurps His name and title, till He comes for " His own " and be justified by us, in the presence of principalities and powers in the high places of the heavens. The woman of the city who was a sinner brought the precious ointment and anointed Wisdom for herself in the house of the Pharisee, till the day comes when He will be anointed with the oil of gladness above all His fellows in the courts above!