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Wisdom and Joy


        “The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began …. Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, (Proverbs 8:22-23 & 30)
 
          The “I” in Proverbs 8 is wisdom. Throughout Scripture, when wisdom is personified, she is personified as a woman. This isn’t to suggest that wisdom is an attribute of women. Wisdom is not sexist. The first reason I’m making a point of this is because the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that in Proverbs 8, the “I” is Jesus and they use it as their proof text that Jesus is a created being.
          The second reason I’m focusing on this is because I don’t believe that it’s accidental that Wisdom is personified as a woman. There are others who have studied more who know better than I, but my goal is to give you food for thought. I might not be correct and if you can provide corrective information, it’s welcome. According to Scripture and scholars, God is wise. So how could wisdom be brought into existence? How is wisdom then one of His works?
          It could be that prior to the creation, when God was the sole Being, wisdom could not be demonstrated.  it could not be demonstrated. Wisdom could only be said to exist when God acted (so to speak) outside of Himself. It only existed (from the perspective of the observer) when He demonstrated it. It is only in that sense that Wisdom can be considered a separate thing from the wise one.
          This may be a key to why wisdom is personified as a woman. It is a type of God’s relationship with man, to Christ’s relation to the Church and man’s relationship to woman. Wisdom is an integral, necessary, productive, dependent (it does not exist independently), complementary helper.
          There is something else in this passage that relates to the subject of joy. Wisdom says that she was a craftsman at His side, filled with delight and rejoicing in His presence. The source of wisdom’s job was two-fold: being a master craftsman and being with God. If we are wise, our joy comes from joining God in His work and from being with Him. If we aren’t doing these things we should not expect joy. If we aren’t experiencing joy, then if we spend more time with Him, He will undoubtedly involve us in what He’s doing.

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