It is a characteristic of this book, and exactly in keeping with its contents, that we have “wisdom” personified from the first chapter, rising up (as is well known) to the Person of Christ in chap. 8:22-31. Even in this first introduction, though the form is plural, as in chap. ix. 1, and in later occurrences, the cry does not fail as it goes on to assume the solemnity of a divine warning of inevitable judgment, so that it is difficult to sever it from the voice of God Himself, as in ver. 24 if not in 23, and in those that follow. Compare in the N. T. Matt. 23:3131Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. (Matthew 23:31) with Luke 11:4949Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: (Luke 11:49).
“Wisdom crieth without, she raiseth her voice in the broadways; she calleth at the head of the noisy (streets), at the entry of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words, How long, simple ones, will ye love simpleness, and scorners delight them in scorning, and fools hate wisdom? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour forth my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you” (vers. 20-23).
Under the law there was nothing that properly, still less that fully, answered to the grace of the gospel in extending to every land and tongue, to be preached, as the apostle says, “in all the creation that is under heaven.” Yet when not only Israel fell as a whole but Judah revolted to the uttermost and was swept away to Babylon, yea, when the rejection of Messiah added incalculably to their older guilt of idolatry, and brought on still worse and wider and longer dispersion, the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet to write of the richest mercy which should surely dawn on their ruined estate. After the triple call to “hearken,” followed by the triple summons to “awake” (Isa. 51, 52), we hear the cheering outburst, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth glad tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, saying to Zion, Thy God reigneth.” So in due time will the kingdom be restored to Israel in God's mercy and sovereign grace. But as this is displayed in another and yet profounder way now in the gospel, the apostle does not hesitate to apply these glowing words to those now sent to preach the gospel of God's indiscriminate goodness, alike to Jew and Greek. For now there is no difference, and the same Lord of all is rich unto all that call upon Him. But if Israel be yet deaf to the report of those that believe, the gospel goes out like the voice of those heavenly orbs whose sound cannot be confined to one people or country, but went out unto all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the habitable earth, as Psa. 19 suggests.
Still here where Jehovah's law ruled, wisdom was not confined to parental discipline, still less was it shut up in philosophic schools but “cries without.” She “raiseth her voice in the broad-ways” instead of seeking only the refined and exalted; she “calleth at the head of the noisy places of concourse, at the entry of the gates.” The moral profit was sought assiduously of those that had most need, if culture despises the vulgar. Not in the calm and quiet of the country is she said to utter her words, but “in the city” where is far more to attract and distract the mass of mankind. “How long, simple ones,” says she, “will ye love simpleness, and scorners delight them in scorning, and fools hate wisdom?” There is thus a climax in these classes of careless ungodly souls. The simple are the many weak ones who, lacking all moral discernment and object, are exposed to evil on all sides and at each turn, and by this easy indifference they become a prey. The scorners manifest more positive pravity, and reject all appeals to conscience and reference to divine things by unseemly jest and insolent sneer. It is an ever growing moral disease, never so prevalent as in these last days. The fools that hate knowledge may be more godless still, and become openly atheist, as scripture shows. For the apostasy must come, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition who will set himself and be received as God; and this in the temple of God, where the affront is deepest.
But Jehovah gives wisdom's remonstrances, and, if heeded, her gracious encouragement. “Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour forth my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.” It is an error, which goes beyond the purport of the verse, to conceive that the gift of the Holy Spirit is here promised. There is undoubtedly an inward blessing promised which is ever by the Spirit, and an intelligence of wisdom's words. This is much, and Jehovah made it true from the time the book was written. But it is dangerous either to exaggerate what God always was to His people, or to undervalue those privileges which awaited redemption through our Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit was not poured out as at Pentecost till Christ was glorified. But whatever of blessing there ever was for man is by the Spirit, and this too is in knowing the words of divine wisdom; and here it is amply assured, where the reproof was heeded.