Maybe today you are expecting a second lesson on the blessedness of God. That's what I had mentioned last time, but I'm calling an audible today. So because of the way our schedule works out, I'm gonna come back to that second lesson in a few weeks in the future Sunday school. But today I wanna talk about Proverbs 8, and that's because this afternoon I'm preaching Proverbs 7, And then the plan is for next week to be preaching Proverbs 8 in the morning and then preach on deacons in the afternoon next week. And so that's the schedule, which means that basically this is the last Sunday school before a sermon comes on Proverbs 8. And I wanted to take a Sunday school to talk about how we interpret Proverbs chapter 8. So I'm going to break a rule that I was taught in seminary. In seminary they tell you that the purpose of a sermon is to serve the meal to the congregation, to serve up a feast, and not to read the recipe of everything that you brought into the feast, but to just serve it up. And so the sermon is supposed to be, what does the Bible say, and what does it mean, and how does it apply? You're not supposed to tell the church all the details of how you came, to that conclusion. So that's what we're taught in preaching classes. And so, it would be a little boring, I think, for me to read in a typical sermon. Here are 16 commentaries about this one word, and this one word could either be based on the Ugaritic, or it could be based on the Akkadian, and let me tell you the 12 people who think it's Ugaritic, and four who think it's Akkadian, right? So, that's not the purpose of a sermon. That would be like sitting down at Thanksgiving and the hostess has to read you all the recipes Before you can eat so that's not what you want but When we come to Proverbs 8, and next week I want to come and preach a sermon, I want to serve up the meal, but it's such a difficult passage to interpret that I wouldn't have time in a sermon to talk about why this is how this passage is being interpreted in this way. So the Sunday School lesson today is reading you a recipe. I hope you find it interesting. I hope you find it helpful. But it's essentially telling you how I've gotten to the interpretation that I'm going to preach next week. So this is one of the most debated passages, maybe, one of the hardest passages to interpret in the Old Testament. And so the question of Proverbs 8 is whether this is speaking about wisdom as an attribute of God, speaking about God's wisdom, or if it's speaking about wisdom as a person, another person within the Godhead. And so the issue is whether this is speaking directly about the Son of God or just speaking about God's attribute of wisdom. And just as an example of how this is debated, I have this book called Five Views of Christ in the Old Testament. And the book is about how to see Christ in the Old Testament because we know that Jesus says the law of prophets and Psalms are about him. but how are they about him? What about the verse in Leviticus about rock badgers? What does a rock badger have to do with Christ? And so there's a whole spectrum of how people see Christ in the Old Testament. And in that book, you have five people giving five different ways of coming to Christ, and they have a test case, well, they have several, and one of them is Proverbs 8. So in that book, one of them says Proverbs 8's not about Jesus, four of them say it is about Christ, but then those four, they all have different ways of saying that it's about Christ. So that's just one example of, in the case of Old Testament scholars, Five of them come to five different interpretations of the chapter. So how should we interpret Proverbs 8? Even before we get to that, I wanna ask a question. I wanna get us to think something about the nature of scripture. So here's my question. Are the scriptures clear? Let's say your 12-year-old comes up and asks you that question. Are the scriptures clear? What would you answer? Yes, Dick? I'd say yes and no. Yes and no, OK. Yes to some people, no to me. To some people, but not to you. OK. Yes, John? Peter said some things that Paul wrote were difficult to understand. OK. Okay. Right. So there are aspects of scripture that are hard to understand. Okay. Anybody else want to? Well, essentially, yes, you've got it correct. They're clear in one sense and not in another. This is the way our confession puts it, based on those verses in 2 Peter. The confession says, all things in scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all. Yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and opened in some places of scripture or other that not only the learned but the unlearned in a due use of ordinary means may attain to a sufficient understanding of them. And this is an important doctrine to believe about the Bible that was recovered in the Reformation. Maybe you remember William Tyndale, he said to a Roman Catholic priest, he said, I want the plow boy driving the plow to know the scriptures better than you do. And so the Reformation emphasized that everybody Well, first they should have the Bible in their own language, but then when they come to the Bible, they should be able to, they are able to understand the Bible. But what this is saying is still not everything is equally clear. What's very clear in scripture is salvation. John 3, 16, and Romans 3, these things are clear in the Bible, but not everything is that clear. So you get to the end of Daniel and all those prophecies, those are hard to figure out. And so I'm bringing this up because this is a balance that we have to have, that as we come to the Bible, We want to say, okay, yes, anyone can understand the Bible and the message of who God is and salvation. But then, if you think that, and you come to parts of the Bible that are hard to understand, I don't want you to just throw up your hands and say, well, it's hopeless. If five views of Christ, they can't even agree with each other, what hope is there for me? but to say that, yes, there are things that are hard to understand, and yet we hold fast to the fact that Scripture and its essential message can be understood. So, Proverbs 8. As you can imagine, there are different ways to interpret it, and we don't need to divide over it. We can disagree within a local church, but Here I am, I'm going to preach a sermon. What am I going to say? How am I going to interpret it based on what I believe God is revealing? So I'm going to make the claim that wisdom is speaking about Christ as the Son of God in Proverbs 8. And before we read the passage, what led me to look into this more and say, you know, is this really about Christ? Is that there are so many in the past who have interpreted it that way. The more I study the Bible, the more I appreciate the teachers of the past and the wisdom and the way that they read the Bible. So, Here are those who saw Christ in Proverbs 8 as wisdom speaking about the Son of God. And this is obviously just a sample. There's Justin Martyr, a church father in the hundreds, second century. Tertullian, 100 years later. Athanasius. Augustine. Then skip ahead a few hundred years to Mabede in the Middle Ages. And then Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages. John Calvin at the time of the Reformation. Many of the Puritans, I think probably all of the Puritans, so John Owen, Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole. And we can go to the 1700s, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, John Gill. and then some in the 1800s, theologian Herman Bovink, Robert Murray McChain, he preached a sermon on this, and J.C. Ryle. In case you're wondering, I couldn't find anything about Luther or Spurgeon, so I don't know exactly what they think, but I would guess that they're on this list, too. So, when you look at this long list, You should think, well, maybe they know something that I don't know. Maybe they're reading the Bible in a way that I need to think about. It doesn't mean that all of these are right. I think there's only one Baptist on this list. John Gill is the only Baptist. So all these people got baptism wrong, except for John Gill, so we don't just believe in infant baptism because of that, but it does give us pause. Why are they reading Proverbs in this way? Because then if you go to the modern day, in the 1800s, this started, many writers and commentaries, they Take the other view. So why is there such a sharp distinction where almost every commentary today is going to tell you it's not about Christ, and almost every theologian before the 1800s is going to tell you it is about Christ? So something is going on in the way that people are reading the Bible. And I think it has to do with scientific method in the modern day and Darwinism and all these things are influencing the way people study the Old Testament. So this is what gives pause. What is it that they're seeing? And what are their arguments? Well, they see the Bible as Christian scripture. They see it all as one book. They see it as written by God primarily and not just human authors, and so there's more of an inclination for them to see how God would explain the Trinity, explain who He is as the Triune God all across the Bible. So you read the Old Testament as a Christian, and so they have a certain lens as they're reading Proverbs 8. Okay, so let's read the chapter. Parts we're going to study are more towards the end, so I'm going to read pretty quickly the beginning. We need to know the context. So Proverbs 8, verse 1, does not wisdom call, does not understanding raise her voice on the heights beside the way? At the crossroads, she takes her stand. Beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals, she cries aloud. To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the children of man. O simple ones, learn prudence. O fools, learn sense. 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. My yield and choice silver, verse 20. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me and filling their treasuries. Let's focus, we're going to focus on these verses, starting verse 22. So 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. Well, you can probably see how people would see Christ there. Look at the end, find me, you find life. Hate me, you love death. Back in the verse that says, I love those who love me, that's verse 17. So in some ways, you can see how people would see Christ there. Well, we're gonna go in depth now and look first at verses 22 through 24. And in the early church, there was debate about who Christ was, and there was heresy of Christ, and so there's the heretic Arius. In the late 200s, early 300s, Arius argued the heresy that the Son of God was created. And one of the main verses that Arius used was Proverbs 8. And Jehovah's Witness today, they are Arians, so they have the same view of Christ and the same arguments. They will try to argue from Proverbs 8 that the Son of God was created. So by saying that this is the Son of God, this is about the Son of God, I don't want to lead you towards Arianism. And so what's interesting is that Athanasius, when he was arguing with the Arians, he could have responded by just saying, well, Proverbs 8 isn't about the Son of God. And so he could have just thrown it out. But that's not what he did. Athanasius actually used Proverbs 8 to argue against Arius, and saying, Arius, you're misinterpreting, you're reading it wrong. So Athanasius said, yes, Proverbs 8 is about the Son of God, and I can prove to you from this text that the Son of God was not created, but he is the one and true eternal God. Athanasius wrote the Discourse Against the Arians. 25% of his writing against the heresy was just explaining Proverbs 8 and why Proverbs 8 is about the Son of God as true God. So here's the issue. The issue is all in the translation. And when people are translating the Bible, they have an interpretation. And so they translate one word one way. and then they have to make it fit with the next part, and so they translate that another way. So you have all these steps of translation. So this is what I'm gonna try my best to show you what's happening here. So first we can look at the verbs in verses 22 to 24. Let's look at the verbs that are used. So in the ESV, it uses the word in verse 22, possessed. The Lord possessed me. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work. I'm just curious, does anybody have a translation that says a different verb? Like New King James or NASB, does it use the word possess? I think it does. Different, or same, same, yeah. So I think most translations will use the word possess. Now Arius, you can see on this chart here, Arius, his issue is that he's using the Greek translation of the Old Testament. And the Greek translation uses a word that means created. So you can imagine being in Arius' head, if this is about the Son of God, verse 22 would say, the Lord created me at the beginning. That's what Arius is thinking, okay? So Arius would say, see, look, the Bible says the Son of God was created first, as the first of creation. That's what Jehovah's Witnesses today will say. So the problem, though, is that that's a Greek translation, and what the Hebrew is actually saying is using the word possess, or the word can mean acquire. I'll tell you what the word is because it might bring up some, might jog your memory. So the word is kana. Kana, to acquire. So maybe you're remembering, where did I hear that word? What does that sound like, kana? We heard it recently preached with the birth of Cain, the birth of Cain in Genesis. And Eve calls her son Cain, Kan, Cain, because it sounds like kana. And she says, I've called him Cain because I have gotten a man from the Lord. I have acquired, I have acquired a man from the Lord. What does acquire mean? Did Eve steal Cain? Did Eve purchase Cain? No. The word acquire there is I gave birth to Cain. I have a son now, I gave birth to Cain by the Lord, the Lord gave me this gift. And so the same word being used here, to acquire or to get, we can see that when it's saying the Lord possessed me or the Lord acquired me, it can have the same idea as begetting a son, just as Eve, acquired Cain because she begot Cain. So in the same way, the Lord begot this person, this figure, wisdom. And so this is why people like Athanasius saw this as being about the Son of God. That there's more than just God has this attribute of wisdom. but somehow wisdom is begotten by God. And so it's the son. The son is the one who is begotten of God. So the son is not created, is what the Orthodox Christians would say. No, he's not created, that's a mistranslation. He is begotten. As the creed says, begotten, not made. There's a distinction that we hold as to who the son is. Okay, so that's the first verb, possessed, means to beget in this context. Then in verse 24, it says, when there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. So again, you can see how someone might look at that and say, okay, the Son of God was created in that case. He was brought forth. And again, the Greek translation here uses the word that means to make. So this is what Arius said. See, the Son of God was made when there were no depths, when creation was not made. So again, we look at the original, the original Hebrew. And we see that the word used is actually the word that means to give birth. And so we have the same idea. It's speaking of wisdom as being birthed, or the language we use is begotten. That's all the word begotten means. It just means born, conceived. And so this is, again, the way that the Bible speaks about the Son of God, eternally begotten, the only begotten Son of God. So, verse 24, when you understand the verb in that way, this would actually go along with Christian theology. Before creation, when there were no depths, the Son of God was begotten. So, in other words, in eternity, the Son of God is begotten. He's the eternal, begotten Son of God. Okay, so those are the verbs in those few verses. Then the second question, so you see how One step leads to another step, leads to another. So we have now the other question, okay, well, when did this happen? What was the timing of all of this? So again, if you look at verses 22 to 24, you have words in English like beginning, and first, and then ages ago, three, at the first, verse 23, and then before creation, verse 24. And all of this is talking about before the world was made. So Arius, the heretic, He says, okay, see, the Son of God was created first. He's the first in time of God's creation. So we could respond by saying, well, one way to interpret verse 22, when we look at how it says, the Lord begat me at the beginning, you could think of it as, when time was created, or when the world was created, that the sun already existed at the beginning. When we're talking about the begottenness of the sun, remember this is eternal, and so It never begins, it never ends. This is hard for us to understand, but this is what the word eternal means. He is always existing in this relationship of being begotten by the Father. And so, if that's true, can we say, at the beginning when God created the world, the Lord begat me? Yes. at the beginning and before the beginning and after the beginning. He's eternally, he's always being begotten of the Father. Okay, so that's one way to read it. Another way you could read it is by seeing the word beginning to mean something different like the word head. So Arius talks about at the beginning of time, But the word that's used here is, maybe some of you know the word Rosh. The word Rosh, like Rosh Hashanah, the new year, means the head of the year. So it's the first of the year, it's the head of the year. And so that word Rosh can mean first or head. And so, if it's saying, the Lord begat me at the head, or as the head of his work, that's not necessarily speaking about the time frame, but it's speaking about Christ, or the Son, as the head of all creation. I think this is the better way to understand it. The Lord begat me as the head of all creation. And that's because this fits with Colossians 1. Colossians 1.16 says he is the firstborn of all creation. And Arius, the heretic, he said, that's another verse that tells us, see, he was created first. But no, Christians have always interpreted that as speaking about his status. He has the status as the firstborn of all creation. So he wasn't created in time. He's begotten as the head, as the ruler, the prince, the chief, whatever you want to say, of creation. Colossians 1.18. It says, he is the beginning. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. So verse 22, to sum it up, is probably most likely speaking of wisdom as the son of God as being head in his status of creation and not speaking of the time of when he was begun. So as John 1 says, all things were made through him. So that's what it means to be the beginning of creation, in terms of the head, I should say. Okay, now that's verse 22, now verse 23. Ages ago, I was set up at the first before the beginning. Set up, first of all, has to do with being installed. And so you can understand this as being placed as the head of creation or recognized. So he is begotten and installed as the head of the creation. But the timing of it is ages ago. And again, this is not speaking of the beginning of time. So when time begins, when God creates the world, he sets up the sun. But this is speaking of eternity. So literally, the Hebrew speaks of being from eternity. I was set up. It's the exact same word used in Micah 5, too, about the Messiah who would come from Bethlehem. And it says his origin is from of old. He is from of old. and literally from eternity. So there is an eternal one who would come to be the Messiah. That's in Micah 5.2. It's the same word here. From eternity, I was installed as the head of creation. Now, at the first, the next one, the last one in verse 23, at the first I was set up. What does at the first mean? Does it mean at the beginning? Well, literally it says from the first. So from the beginning of time. The son of God was already installed in this position as head of all creation. So then we read verse 24, I think that's pretty more simple to understand. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. So the Son of God was begotten when there was nothing created. Son of God begotten in eternity. All right, well the last translation issue is in verse 30. Verse 30, I was beside him. like a master workman. Then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I saw daily his delight, rejoicing before him always." So here, the question is, what does this term mean, master workman? The word means something like an artisan or an artificer. So it's someone who shapes things or a builder, someone who builds things. It's a workman and he's a master workman. So Arius takes the Greek translation and the Greek translation means something like to be brought up. And so he's reading into this being brought up as a child. A child is born and brought up. So people use this first to say the Son was created by God, that the Son of God, wisdom, was brought up by God. But that's just not what the word means. The word just doesn't mean to be brought up. It means an artisan, an artificer. And so what verse 30 is really saying is that wisdom, or the Son of God, is beside God like a artisan. And as an artisan, the Son of God is creating the world. The Word of God, as John says, the Word was with God. So, right beside him, in his bosom, John 1, 18 will say. When the Gospel of John writes about Jesus and uses this term, word, in those days there's a lot of association of that with the concept of wisdom. So, word is more like reasoning, And so wisdom and reasoning, they're very similar. They're very closely related. And so when John calls Jesus the word of God, there are a lot of references that he's making, I think, to Proverbs 8 as the wisdom of God. So John says the word was with God. Proverbs 8 30 says wisdom was with God. Wisdom was beside God. John says all things were created through him. Without him, nothing was made that was made. And verse 30 says the wisdom was the master workman creating through this artisan, this creation through wisdom, through the sun. Verse 30 also says, his delight rejoicing before him always. We'll say the Lord here, the Lord delights in wisdom daily and wisdom rejoices before the Lord always. A perfect relationship of communion and joy And so John 1 18 in the King James says, no one has seen God, the only begotten son in the bosom of the father. He has declared him in that language of being in the bosom of the father. It's not just that they're with the same space, but that they are delighting in each other. They are close friends. They love each other. So the father loves the son. The son loves the father. Daily, the Father rejoices in wisdom, the Son of God. Wisdom rejoices in the Lord, the Father. So you can actually see many connections between John 1 and Proverbs 8. The word is wisdom, begotten of God, in the bosom of God, daily His delight, and through whom God created the world. So you read the chapter, and at the very least, the chapter is speaking about wisdom in a way that does make wisdom sound like a person, has personal traits, personal characteristics, being delighted in and delighting and being active in creation. And so this is why the church fathers and all those people and the Puritans They actually use Proverbs 8 to argue about who the Son truly is and to prove the Son's full deity as true God. Because we have the Gospel of John that speaks of Jesus as begotten. But there are only a few other places that give us that concept of what it means to be begotten. And they would go to Proverbs 8 as one of those places, that it shows us that the Son of God is begotten of eternity, before creation, before anything was made. And so they use this chapter to say Jesus is true God, not created, not lesser God in any way, because he is begotten of the father before all ages. And those words are from the Nicene Creed, begotten of the father before all ages. And they come from chapter eight, verse 24. I was brought forth, I was begotten. Ages ago, verse 23, before the ages, I was begotten. And so this is why I at least come to the conclusion that Proverbs 8 is speaking of the Son of God. So that's the recipe. I won't tell you too much of the recipe next week, Lord willing. We'll preach about the Son of God and God's wisdom. Let's pray. Our God, we do come to you and we thank you for your scriptures. We thank you for how you've revealed yourself. And we know that our interpretation of your word can be fallible. And so we ask again for the help of your spirit. to give us insight as we study these things, as we think about them, as we leave this class, and as we come to hear this word preached again in a week. We pray, God, that you would help us to know your truth. That is what we desire. And we desire to honor your son. We pray that he would be glorified. We pray even as we come to a worship service in a few minutes that our thoughts would be drawn to the son of God and his greatness and his glory. We ask for your help in Jesus name. Amen.