Proverbs 8:30

Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;

The LORD, Jehovah of the Bible, has had infinite wisdom forever. There is not, and never was, any limit to His understanding. Some call His infinite wisdom omniscience, but it is far more than knowledge of all things: it is perfect understanding of any situation and the perfect response to it. Lady Wisdom, personifying wisdom in this chapter, was always with Him, for He has always been the only wise God (I Tim 1:17; Jude 1:25).

There are seven pronouns in the proverb, representing two persons, one male, one female. First, the LORD is represented by “him,” “him,” “his,” and “him.” You can see this easily from the preceding context, which speaks of the LORD possessing wisdom from the beginning (Pr 8:22) right down to using wisdom to decree limits on the sea (Pr 8:29).

Then you can see Lady Wisdom, which is Solomon’s personification of wisdom, who is referenced throughout this chapter by female pronouns. In the proverb, wisdom is identified by “I,” “one,” and “I.” For help with this feminine personification, note “her” in Pr 8:1, “she” in Pr 8:2, “she” in Pr 8:3, and right on down to “me” twice in Pr 8:36.

God inspired Solomon, as one method for teaching wisdom, to personify wisdom as a woman, whom we should choose to hear and follow rather than the strange woman or Lady Folly. Each reader must make a choice which woman he will follow and befriend. He frequently used this figure of speech (Pr 1:20-33; 2:4; 3:15-18; 4:5-13; 8:1-36; 9:1-5). Please see the comments on Pr 8:1, for a short explanation of this figure of speech.

This proverb is often perverted to teach that Jesus is a begotten God – a secondary God generated by the Father. Heretics crept into the church 150 years after the apostles and taught that the deity of Jesus was derived from His Father. They held that Jehovah begat a Son in eternity by a mysterious process of eternal generation. You can read this horrible blasphemy in John 1:18 of the NASV. Jehovah’s Witnesses, blasphemous heretics that they are, love such a devilish doctrine, for Jesus is only a subordinate God to them.

Jesus is not a begotten God at all. Jesus is the mighty God (Is 9:6). Jesus is Jehovah, the fulness of the Godhead in a body (Col 2:9). Jesus is I AM THAT I AM. Jesus is the Everlasting Father (Is 9:6). Jesus is the Word of God made flesh (John 1:1,14). Jehovah never begat a god or a son in its divine nature. Jehovah had a Son named Jesus, when He brought about Mary’s conception; it is this miraculous birth that makes Jesus God’s Son (Luke 1:35). Only after this birth, this incarnation of deity in humanity, did God have a Son (John 1:14,18). This is the great mystery of godliness (I Tim 3:16). Believe it!

The most important message of the New Testament is that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, and it is this precise doctrine you must believe and defend. A derived, begotten, generated, or otherwise inferior deity from eternity is not the Son of God. The divine nature of Jesus was and is undivided, unbegotten, unoriginated, and ungenerated! He was and is the Word of God, without origin, begetting, generation, or any other manmade idea (John 1:1). He is Jehovah! Jesus is not an eternal Son! He is the eternal God! He became the Son of God by His glorious incarnation in Mary’s womb (Luke 1:35; Gal 4:4).

These heretics ignorantly reject the personification of wisdom in this chapter. The proverb does not speak of God having a little boy playing with Him in eternity! Lady Wisdom speaks, and she is figuratively describing herself as always having been with the LORD of heaven and earth. Read Pr 8:22 again. Here it is: “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.” God has always had wisdom.

If this proverb describes the divine nature of Jesus in eternity, as these false teachers say, then the divine nature of Jesus is female, for the pronouns are feminine! Wisdom is a woman by personification in this chapter and the other places where Solomon uses the figure. If Jesus is intended here, then He was just a female spectator at creation (Pr 8:27)!

Enough with their heresy! What can you learn profitable for your soul? The glorious and infinite God delights in wisdom, and He has always delighted in wisdom, and He has always used wisdom, which is the power of judging rightly in any situation. From His holy example, you should pursue and rejoice in wisdom as much as He does.

Lady Wisdom rejoiced to see men created, and she delights in serving them (Pr 8:31). Hearing her, watching for her, and keeping her ways will bring blessing (Pr 8:32,34). If you pursue wisdom, you will find life and obtain the favor of the God of glory (Pr 8:35).

Dear reader, what have you done this day to hear wisdom, to watch for her, and to keep her ways? Do you delight in knowing her? Life, blessing, and the favor of the LORD are waiting! What is more important to you than these wonderful things? If wisdom is important enough to delight the great God, why not you?

All the treasures of wisdom are found in the Lord Jesus Christ (Col 2:3). Though the proverb does not teach it, after the incarnation of Jesus Christ in Mary’s womb, God the Father did delight greatly in His only begotten Son, the man Christ Jesus (Is 42:1). He publicly declared so at His baptism and at His transfiguration (Matt 3:17; 17:5). Do you delight in the Son of God? The angels delighted in Him, and you should more so.