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Wisdom and Creation
for Understanding Creation
Dr. James Houston, Regent College
November 25, 1980
This study of Wisdom and Creation has been one of great delight and deep frustration – delight in that it puts one in touch with some of the deepest mysteries of life, frustration in that these mysteries find expression in what could be called paradoxes, or tensions, within the Biblical material. And the obvious dilemma one has in “studying” wisdom is that studying wisdom is not at all the same as being wise. One is tempted even in such a paper as this to free the intellectual endeavor from its proper place – within the fear of YHWH. This is not to negate the need for hard work, nor is it an excuse for laziness or apathy. The tension simply exists that whereas man tries hard to be wise, only God gives wisdom! Sometimes these two aspects jive, sometimes not.
This paper is an attempt to explore some of the Old Testament material concerning wisdom and creation, or more clearly, wisdom and the Creator, and to articulate some of the questions that arise in such a study. The words “wisdom”, “knowledge”, and “understanding” are meant to covey basically the same meaning as they appear in the Biblical passages. All Scripture references are drawn from the New International Version.
Probably the purest expression of the relationship of wisdom to creation and to the Creator is found in the middle section, 8:22-31, of the song of personified wisdom in Proverbs 8.
"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.
When there were no oceans, I was given birth,
when there were no springs abounding with water;
before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was given birth,
before he made the earth or its fields
or any of the dust of the world.
I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when he gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
Then I was the craftsman at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind (Proverbs 8:22-31).
Scholars disagree as to whether the Hebrew in this section yields the idea of the creation or rather the possession of wisdom by YHWH in the beginning. Von Rad goes with the former, Vawter with the latter. What is clear is that this wisdom in Proverbs 8 existed independently of YHWH before creation – before the acts of creation – and, in fact, worked alongside Him as a craftsman at His side. But notice the slightly different idea in Proverbs 3:19-20, and in Psalm 104 respectively.
By wisdom YHWH laid the earth’s foundation
by understanding he set the heavens in place (Proverbs 3:19).
How many are your works oh Lord
in wisdom you have made them all (Psalm 104:24)
So, whereas these verses lean toward the idea of wisdom as an attribute of the Creator, the song in Proverbs 8 teaches that this wisdom was a “something” apart from the Creator, working with Him in creation. Vawter’s idea of wisdom as pre-existent with YHWH, as something already there that YHWH sort of lassoed for His purposes, seems based on an assertion that Israel borrowed the concept of the pre-existence of wisdom and put her stamp of YHWH-ism upon it by placing Him as Wisdom’s ultimate boss and Lord.
This paper will adopt von Rad’s approach in considering this wisdom as having been created by YHWH as His first act of creation, though surely, this view is not without its problems. Most of the scholars do agree in considering this wisdom as a real objective “something,” perhaps a primitive order, infused into the created realm by YHWH, as something distinct from the other created objects, and distinct from YHWH himself.
As His special creation, this wisdom rejoices in her Maker.
Then I was the craftsman at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind (Proverbs 8:22-31).
How this takes us back to the glory and goodness of creation!
God saw all that He had made, and it was very good (Gen. 1:31).
Interestingly, this song, as the Genesis 1 account, culminates in the special “very-goodness” of mankind. For as wisdom rejoices in YHWH’s whole world, she ends by expressing her special delight in mankind. This closely echoes the majestic song of creation in Psalm 104, which reaches its climax with:
Then man goes out to work to his labour until evening (Psalm 104:23).
It is not just the biology of man that this Psalm speaks to, but to man as whole man, created in the image of God – mankind who works, labours, lives in relationships, and exercises dominion as vice-regent of creation, as the Psalmist reminds us:
You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
You put everything under his feet:
all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas (Psalm 8:6-8).
What is important to realize here is that the order of creation includes man in his fullness. The Israelite did not distinguish between nature and man, between biology and sociology, nor between the “natural’ and the “moral” order. All reality, as created by YHWH, is bound to and dependent upon Him, and having been created good and created in wisdom, reflects His great glory. And again (to repeat), this wisdom, this ordering, includes man as fully man.
Thus wisdom was with God in fixing the order of the universe, in creating stability. Many phrases in the poem express this ordering – “set in place,” “marked out,” “established,” “fixed securely,” “given boundary” – and indeed express confidence in the God who has so secure a reign over His creation. This was a great comfort to the Israelite, surrounded as he was by peoples whose gods were not totally in control of things. Surely, in the Christian era, this sense of God’s ordering of His creation has provided the underlying confidence for the scientific enterprise, at least in its early stages. One can explore the mysteries of the created order, knowing that there is order there, and knowing that that ordered creation is stable and under control.
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing, So on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed The seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all The work of creating that he had done (Gen. 2:1-3).
Yet here lies a tension, for even as His work is finished, even as God has ordered and separated, He is also continually active as an effective cause in the workings of the created realm, as can be seen in Psalm 104. Yet even in this Psalm there exists a tension, for one sees that the present tense alternates with the past tense (5-15), the passivity of creation in tension with its activity (16-17), and the intervening hand of YHWH with the independent workings of His creation (16-22). The same is true of man and his place in created order. As was seen above, man as man in his dominion and vice-regency was not to be separated from “nature.” Indeed, it is the very ordering of human activity that the Proverbs go to such great length to express and to teach, yet at the same time asserting quite unabashedly that it is YHWH who not only intervenes but is in direct control of all things.
Do not exploit the poor because they are poor
And do not crush the needy in court
For the Lord will take up their case
And will plunder those who plunder them (Prov. 22:22-23).
The Lord works out everything for his own ends –
Even the wicked to the day of disaster (Prov. 16:4).
So whereas on the one hand the Proverbs seem to assert a true secularity, that is, the existence of valid rules and order on the creation side of things, they also seem to assert a true theonomy, that is, the complete control of YHWH over His creation.
Another important aspect of this wisdom, this order, is her revelation to man. Wisdom calls and beckons to man – to all mankind.
To you, O men, I call out
I raise my voice to all mankind (Prov. 8:4).
Wisdom calls aloud in the street;
She raises her voice in the public squares.
At the head of the noisy streets she calls out;
In the gateways of the city she makes her speech (Prov. 1:20-21).
Not only was wisdom in the beginning with God creating, but she also calls out to man universally in the present, in the everyday places that man finds himself. As we clearly know from Biblical and ancient literary data, wisdom was not the sole possession of the Israelite, and wisdom herself freely admits this:
By me kings reign,
And rulers make laws that are just.
By me princes govern,
And all nobles who rule on the earth (Prov. 8:15-16).
Wisdom speaks. She has worthy things to say and good things to give. She speaks into the reality of everyday human experience, into a reality of good and evil, foolish and wise, into different spheres and class-levels, to man, in effect, in a world that simply is as is.
But speaking into this world she is not morally neutral, nor merely pragmatic.
My mouth speaks what is true,
For my lips detest wickedness.
All of the words of my mouth are just;
None of them is crooked or perverse.
To the discerning all of them are right (Prov. 8:7-9a).
To fear the Lord is to hate evil;
I hate pride and arrogance,
Evil behavior and perverse speech (Prov. 8:13).
I walk in the way of righteousness,
Along the paths of justice (Prov. 8:20).
Wisdom indeed is on the side of YHWH, fearing Him, upholding both His will and His law. And so, wisdom, then, is godliness!
To those who would follow her and heed her, wisdom offers many benefits, including life itself.
I love those who love me,
And those who seek me find me.
With me are riches and honour,
Enduring wealth and prosperity (Prov. 8:17-18).
The wise inherit honour
But fools he (YHWH) holds up to shame (Prov. 3:35).
For whoever finds me finds life
And receives favour from the LORD.
But whoever fails to find me harms himself;
All who hate me love death (Prov. 8:35-36).
In offering such salvation benefits, wisdom becomes the most valuable possession a man can attain.
Choose my instruction instead of silver,
Knowledge rather than choice gold,
For wisdom is more precious than rubies,
And nothing you can desire can compare with her (Prov. 8:10-11).
Get wisdom, get understanding;
Do not forget my words or swerve from them.
Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;
Love her, and she will watch over you.
Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding (Prov. 4:5-7).
And if you call out for insight
And cry aloud for understanding,
And if you look for it as silver
And search for it as for hidden treasure,
Then you will understand the fear of the LORD
And find the knowledge of God (Prov. 2;3-5).
So in a sense, to be wise is to know God. For those who choose not to heed wisdom’s call, there is not only death, but no fear of YHWH. Wisdom’s call will not go out forever – if rejected wisdom will be silent.
They will call to me, but I will not answer;
They will look for me but will not find me.
Since they hated knowledge,
and did not choose to fear the LORD (Prov. 1:28-29).
Here is raised a different question. If wisdom’s call is universal, in choosing wisdom in a given situation, in choosing the good, can it be that man apart from YHWH is yet fearing Him? In her revelation to all man, does this wisdom act as a mediator between man and YHWH, whose call, if heeded, brings salvation? Is this a form of revelation in the same sense as that natural moral law which speaks to the conscience of all men? These are difficult questions indeed. What can be asserted clearly at this point is that to the Israelite, wisdom did offer life, honor, wealth, protection, and safety, if he would abide in her and heed her call.
What was not quoted above with Proverbs 2:3-5, was the next verse; “For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Prov. 2:6) Even when wisdom beckons, when she is found, and heeded, she has come from YHWH all along. This brings us to what is certainly the central motif of all of the wisdom literature, that key summary statement of the whole book of Proverbs:
To fear the LORD is the beginning of wisdom
But fools despise wisdom and discipline (Prov. 1:6-7).
The fear of the LORD is the prerequisite, the underlying necessity for attaining true wisdom. But what does this mean, this fear of YHWH? Perhaps the clearest statement of what the fear of God involves is to be found in Deuteronomy 10, where Moses is exhorting the people, poised to enter the promised land, that they must fear YHWH for their good.
And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your good? To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection
on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendents, above all the nations, as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome. Hold fast to Him (Deut. 10:12-17a).
Whereas it is clearly true that the fear of God involves the recognition of the distance between God as Creator and man as creature, between His bigness and power and man’s smallness and weakness, there is more involved. It is not a mere trepidation, but a deep trust in the Mighty God of Promise, and a deep commitment to God in love and service. Israel is not to be stiff-necked, but given over, committed to, in love with her great God, in a commitment which means primarily keeping the commandments, the law of God. Herein lies the fundamental unity between law and wisdom – commitment to the Covenant-maker YHWH. Indeed it was the breakdown of this commitment which resulted in Israel’s expulsion from the Land. Quite notably, the very fear of YHWH assured that man need have no fear:
He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress,
And for his children it will be a refuge (Prov. 14:26).
The Psalms affirm that the Lord confides in, pities, lends His mercy to, and gives salvation to those who fear Him. Remembering that wisdom called out in the streets, in the rush and run of everyday existence, to the common man in common places, i.e., into the arena of real human experience, one sees the meaning of this fear. For it is not a statement simply of ancient Israeli epistemology, as we think of this term. For her theory of knowledge was deeply and directly rooted in the ground of life. In the walk of life one is to go hand in hand with YHWH – a walk, not a mere speculation – a walk in trust through all the unique situations of life, each in a sense new, yet each a part of that created order. In this maze of everyday life, in the attempt to stop and seize the elusiveness of reality and bring order and mastery to life, YHWH is there. The fear of YHWH is a walk with this imminent God. As von Rad asserts:
“The thesis that all human knowledge comes back to the question of commitment to God is a statement of penetrating perspicacity….. It contains in a nutshell the whole Israelite theory of knowledge ……effective knowledge about God is the only thing that puts a man into a right relationship with the objects of his perception, and it enables him to ask questions more pertinently, to take stock of relationships more effectively and generally to have a better awareness of circumstances.”
Yet even here there is a basic element to true wisdom, to a true fear of YHWH, that is missing. That element is choice. For the order we have been speaking of is not merely a neutral givenness that needs to be “gotten in touch with” or “discovered.” Man’s need is more profoundly to choose, in the face of YHWH, and in the face of the pressure and temptations of life, the good. While man is in one sense part of the created order, he is in a more profound sense called, in his own choices, to order creation. For there exists a tremendous gap between the first and second sections of the song in Proverbs 8, a gap which is as profound as the fall of mankind itself. In the first section wisdom calls out, as we have seen, into a fallen world, and demands a restructuring. The original goodness which wisdom delights in is stained. And herein lies the great rift between the Israelite as opposed to the modern view of knowledge, that is, between true and false secularity. The call of secular “objectivity” is to take a neutral stock of the phenomenal realm, a realm that in its “whatisness” includes both the evil and the good. To know is to describe, YHWH excluded. In a sense the proverbs that have a basis purely in the experience of what happens in the phenomenal realm could coincide in what is observed with a modern secular study. But observation is only a minor component of wisdom, even if YHWH’s workings are observable, which of course they cannot be to the modern secularist. So, the secularist has taken one form of knowledge, and that rooted in unreality, and exalted it high above all else. His concern is not to choose. His will is not involved. His intellect has a free reign. This very attempt to fail to question the authority of knowledge would have been unheard of to the Israelite, the intellect being itself an object of knowledge. So science, in all of its forms (including theology), in all its pomp and self-importance, is full of folly, void of real knowledge, for the modern secularist has no notion what to do with all the monsters he creates anymore than he knows how to cope with the problems of his everyday existence in the home, in the office, or in the market place.
Still, wisdom is even more than correct perceptions and correct choices – more than the correct ordering of one’s life in the fear of YHWH. For as one, in experience, is confronted with the deeper mysteries of a fallen world, the inevitable inscrutability of life, one finds an even more profound meaning in the fear of YHWH. A man may plan his way fully in wisdom, yet there is never a guarantee that the anticipated results will come about. YHWH has the last word.
In his heart a man plans his course
but the Lord determines his step (Prov. 16:9).
The horse is made ready for the day of battle
But victory rests with the LORD (Prov. 21:31).
Between what we intend and what is realized, many factors beyond our control can intervene. Thus man is called not to be too wise in his own eyes. Whoever finds wisdom, finds life, but in YHWH’s hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind (Job 12:10).
“Do not hesitate to summon up all your powers in order to familiarize yourself with all the rules which might somehow be effective in life. Ignorance in any form will be detrimental to you; only the ‘fool’ thinks he can shut his eyes to this. Experience, on the other hand, teaches that you can never be certain. You must always remain open for a completely new experience. You will never be really wise, for, in the last resort, this life of yours is determined not by rules by God” (reference lost).
What this outlook required was a deep abiding trust in the goodness and faithfulness of YHWH, in His special love.
Even in a deeper sense was there a gap between the wisdom of god and the wisdom of man. In the great wisdom poem in Job 28, it becomes clear that man, in spite of all his technical abilities, is totally unable to find or to comprehend wisdom, that which is the most desirable of all things, for…
God understands the way to it
and he alone knows where it dwells (Job 28:23).
He established (and created?) it back when He gave the rest of creation its order.
When he established the force of the wind
and measured out the waters . . . .
then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
he confirmed it and tested it (Job 28:25, 27).
God alone knows where wisdom dwells. Man does not know. The tension here is that whereas wisdom called out to man clearly in Proverbs 8 in a way that he could hear, now, though man (the writer) is aware of her, she cannot be found. Is this a great cosmic tease? Is this a cosmic game of hide and seek? That man knows not the mystery of creation is seen in God’s speech to Job that begins with that most humbling pronouncement, “where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” This speech goes on to cover almost the entire created order. Job was not there in the beginning, when creation was brought into being, neither could he comprehend it. He knows not the purposes of God. He cannot probe the mysteries of the all mighty. Even the prophet Isaiah joins in the chorus.
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth
He will not grow tired or weary.
and His understanding no one can fathom (Isaiah 40:28).
What then in these great praises to the unsearchableness and mystery of YHWH offers protection against pessimism and resignation? It is the fear of YHWH. It is trust in YHWH, the great mighty God who is also the faithful and just covenant-maker and covenant-keeper. Surely Job more than any man deserved the full blessing of wisdom. Surely he of all men had the right to confront the reality that something had gone terribly wrong. He was not concerned with the intellectual problem of suffering, but with the overwhelming existence of it in his life. He didn’t deserve it! He was a righteous man. Yet, his reply to God at the end of the book sums up in a deep way what the fear of God means.
I know that you can do all things:
no plan of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, ‘who is this that obscures my counsel
without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
You said, ’Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you shall answer me.’
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:1-6).
Only the fear of YHWH could keep a man truly open to His mysterious ways, truly open to life in all its mystery. It is primarily an unshakable faith and trust in this covenant God which forms the ground for such a humble wisdom. The gap between the two sections of Proverbs 8 is a huge one, and it is to such a world of good and evil that wisdom makes her promises. Job, in a sense, did have a right to expect what was promised. But wisdom, in its fullness, lives in the fear of YHWH, whatever life brings.
Heart of my own heart, whatever befalls
Still be my vision, Oh ruler of all.
Appendix
The obvious next step in such a study is to move on to the book of Ecclesiastes. This book raises numerous questions about the nature of order and wisdom in creation, as well as the use of wisdom and its role. Wisdom and its role seem to be of a different nature in Ecclesiastes than in Proverbs It questions the view of eternal life in Proverbs; it raises the mysterious call of the eternity of man’s heart. What is the relationship of this to the call of wisdom in Proverbs 8?
Though I have spent much of my own mental energy considering these questions in Ecclesiastes, I will not include a detailed study here. Instead I will shift gears and try to relate my own personal experience and the experience of many of my contemporaries to that eternity which taunts and teases many beyond endurance. The key verse to consider is Ecclesiastes 10:10,11.
I have seen the burden God has laid on men.
He has made everything beautiful in its time.
He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;
Yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
There is a hole in us as men. We long to have an answer – even if not cognitively – to what is not primarily an intellectual quest, but a quest of the deepest soul for the very heart and meaning of reality. In the context here in Ecclesiastes, that which beckons the Preacher is the order of everything, beautiful in its time. Man wants to rise above, perhaps even to be able to view time without being trapped within it – to see from the vantage point of God, to possess a sense of deep coherence and to experience a view of time from the place of eternity. It seems probable that the wisdom that man cannot attain in Job 28 is much the same. Man does not know wisdom’s place, but somehow it beckons him, perhaps even in the same sense that it beckons man in Proverbs 8. Yet, there, wisdom calls to man in his everyday experience, whereas in Ecclesiastes, the quest is to attain by wisdom an understanding of all that has been done under heaven. It is a different call, a different quest. One is a call to master life, one a call to understand it in its fullness. In each case, in Job 28, Proverbs 8, and in Ecclesiastes 3, something is beckoning man which man cannot grasp fully.
Perhaps the desire in the 1960’s to get “back to nature,” despite the futility of the effort, was in a sense a desire to heed the call of a deeper reality, perhaps this divine wisdom. This was sought both in love and in relationships – for the quest for love was perhaps the most intense aspect of the journey. Something was beckoning, something innate in the order of things, and the call was to beleaguered human spirits entrapped and confused in an era of moral relativity, dead orthodoxy, and the “death of God.” To most, the 70’s brought resignation and an end to the journey. Perhaps ego and the quest for absolute freedom blinded many to the God who is really there. A contemporary song writer, Jackson Browne, looks back to the days in his song “Before the Deluge”.
Some of them were dreamers, some of them were fools,
Who were making plans and thinking of the future.
With the energy of the innocent, they were gathering the tools
They would need to make their journey back to nature.
While the sand slipped through the opening
And their hands reached for the golden ring
With their hearts they turned to each other’s hearts for refuge.
In the troubled years that came before the deluge.
Some of them knew pleasure, some of them knew pain.
And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered.
And on the brave and crazy wings of youth
They went flying around in the rain.
And their feathers once so fine, grew torn and tattered.
In the end they traded their tired wings
For the resignation that living brings.
And exchanged love’s bright and fragile glow,
For the glitter and the rouge
And in a moment they were swept before the deluge.
Now, let the music keep our spirits high
Let the buildings keep our children dry.
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by
When the light that’s lost within us reaches the sky.
In my own experience, it was the mysterious but intense call of creation which eventually helped to bring me to Christ, which eventually led to the personal call of the true wisdom of God – His son Jesus. In college, before I was a believer, I remember the deep agony of the lack of wholeness, an agony which one night, alone in my room, hearing a seagull outside somewhere, led me to write these words.
The song rang on; The song rang deep
What was it in those notes of peace
Soon to be silent, floating over timeless oceans deep.
My heart did want to sing the song
My heart did want to gently sing along
But nowhere could I brink the great abyss.
With the men of ages past,
I felt the oneness of shared experience
That call which beckoned, but denied.
The same longing I tried to fulfill in “‘love” – in relationships. That same fall I wrote these words (as best as I remember them) concerning my search for the “key”
I long for a profound mutual “yes.”
When everything is wrapped up in a word.
Finally, six months later just prior to my conversion, I was able to conclude the first song above with this simple chorus, aware of God’s call to me.
Come out, come out, take my hand.
With me you’ll understand; I am the mystery.
So, in a real sense, I believe, that in his creation, in the full sense of what is, what is still, the good, God beckons. Perhaps that primitive order, that hidden order, or mysterious order, even though in some sense it can be objectified and studied, more profoundly can also be found the mystery of God himself, who upholds all things by the word of His power; who, in the midst of evil and confusion, is there with His own mysterious purposes, wanting us to come to Him.
Perhaps what this call stirs most deeply is simply our longing for meaning and love, that most profound of all realities – the love of God. And, perhaps what the wisdom in its most profound sense simply means is the will of God.
Bibliography
1. Houston, James M., I Believe in the Creator, (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans publishing Co., 1980) pp. 179-201.
2. Kaiser, Walter C. Jr., Toward an Old Testament Theology, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1978) pp. 165-181.
3. von Rad, Gerhard, Wisdom in Israel, (London, SCM, 1970) pp. 1-239.
4. Vawter, Bruce, “Proverbs 8:22: Wisdom and Creation”, Journal of Biblical Literature, Volume 99, pp. 205-216.
5. Zimmerli, Walter, “Place and Limit of Wisdom in the Framework of the Old Testament Theology”, Scottish Journal of Theology, Volume 17.
6. Zimmerli, Walter, Old Testament Theology in Outline, (Atlanta, John Know Press, 1978) pp. 39-40, 107-108, 145-147, 155-166.
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