Handling the Beautiful Book with Wisdom

Scripture: Proverbs 8: 22-36

Sermon: Handling the Beautiful Book with Wisdom

Topics: creation, wisdom, general revelation,

Preached: September 2, 2018

Rev. Mike Abma

Proverbs 8: 22-36

²² The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,

   the first of his acts of long ago. 

²³ Ages ago I was set up,

   at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 

²⁴ When there were no depths I was brought forth,

   when there were no springs abounding with water. 

²⁵ Before the mountains had been shaped,

   before the hills, I was brought forth— 

²⁶ when he had not yet made earth and fields,

   or the world’s first bits of soil. 

²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there,

   when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 

²⁸ when he made firm the skies above,

   when he established the fountains of the deep, 

²⁹ 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, 

³⁰   then I was beside him, like a master worker;

and I was daily his delight,

   rejoicing before him always, 

³¹ rejoicing in his inhabited world

   and delighting in the human race. 

³² ‘And now, my children, listen to me:

   happy are those who keep my ways. 

³³ Hear instruction and be wise,

   and do not neglect it. 

³⁴ Happy is the one who listens to me,

   watching daily at my gates,

   waiting beside my doors. 

³⁵ For whoever finds me finds life

   and obtains favour from the Lord; 

³⁶ but those who miss me injure themselves;

   all who hate me love death.’ 

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION — WISDOM and CREATION

The book of Proverbs is a very practical book.

Wisdom takes on the voice of a woman —

Picture a wise mother talking to her children.

This wise mother spends most of her time

describing the Moral Order of the world.

She describes how there is a Moral Order to living life:

There is a way of wisdom and a way of folly:

the way of wisdom is to be righteous; the way of folly is to be wicked;

the way of wisdom is to be honest; the way of folly is to lie and cheat;

the way of wisdom is to be humble; the way of folly is to arrogant;

the way of wisdom is to be quiet; the way of folly is to be loud.

And so it goes for most of this book —

moral lessons in the way of wisdom and the way of folly.

In Chapter 8, Wisdom broadens her perspective.

She doesn’t only talk about how the Moral Order of things,

But she talks about the Created Order of things.

She talks about how she, Wisdom,

was there from the very beginning,

before time even began.

She talks about how she gave shape

to the heavens above,

and the oceans below;

how she gave order to the land

and all the life on it.

From the beginning, Wisdom was right there

planning things out with the Creator.

In verse 30 it says:

I was there beside him, like a master worker.

The Hebrew word for master worker is a rather obscure Hebrew word.

But what is the meaning here?

What role is Wisdom playing?

I think the best way to picture Wisdom is as a living blueprint that God used as he created all things.^[1]

The picture we are given is of God creating all things,

having Wisdom right there beside him

making sure things are the way they should be,

making sure living creatures fit together in their delicate ecosystems,

much the way a builder is always referring to the blueprints.

And so, when the atmosphere of earth was created,

it was precisely proportioned to be 21% oxygen –

any less, and we would all have breathing problems,

any more, and the whole planet could become one fireball.

When the oceans were created,

the salt content was very close to 3.4% – 3.5%,

Again, any more or less, and life as we know it in the oceans

would not be possible.

Wisdom – is both the blueprint at the beginning.

But Wisdom is also the way things are supposed to be right now

so that all life continues to flourish.

Find wisdom, and we find life and God’s favor.

Neglect wisdom, and we will only injure this planet and ourselves.

AWE AND WONDER

The New York Times website has a section called Science Take.

These feature little 3 minute videos on recent scientific discoveries.

So recently you can get a glimpse of

how elephants smell through that long trunk of theirs;

how spiders seem to be able to fly through the air;

or the secret to how ants get so much work done.

I find these little videos absolutely fascinating.

Of course, they give just little glimpses into the Scientific enterprise –

the enterprise of exploring the many facets of our Created Order,

and to be simply awestruck at the wonder and mystery of life on this planet.

I am not a scientist.

But I imagine that the way Scientists

plumb the depths of life on this planet,

is similar to the way I, and other pastors, try

plumb the depths of what the Bible has to tell us.

I know that after decades of learning more and more from the Bible,

there is still so much, so very much, I do not know.

I imagine that every Scientist has a similar feeling –

after years and years of scientific study,

she knows there is still so much, so very much, she does not know.

TWO BOOKS

Comparing Pastors and Scientists fits with the way the Belgic Confession describes the two ways that God reveals himself to us:

1. Through that Beautiful Book called Creation

2. Through that Holy Book called the Bible

Guido DeBres, the author of the Belgic Confession, did not come up with this “two book” idea all by himself.

This had been part of the Christian way of thinking for a very, very long time.

About one thousand years before Guido DeBres,

Saint Augustine already wrote this in his great work City of God:

“Some people, in order to discover God, need books.

But there is a great book; the very appearance of created things.

Look above you! Look below you! Note it. Read it.

God, who you want to discover, never wrote that book in ink;

Instead He set before your eyes the very things that He made.

Can you ask for a louder voice than that?”

Can you ask for a louder voice than that?

You know, you do not need to be an expert to read the Bible.

And you do not need to be an expert to be overwhelmed by the wonder of Creation.

In the most recent BANNER, Jim Payton writes about a trip he recently took to the Canadian Rockies, traveling from Jasper to Banff.

He writes about being swallowed up by the mountain,

about being left speechless,

about being swept away in sheer wonder and awe.

He writes,

God is not so much the object of our knowledge

as the cause of our wonder.

HANDLING BOTH BOOKS

My son is a PhD student in Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh.

He likes to tell me about his fellow students.

When it comes to the two books of wisdom —

the Beautiful Book of Creation and the Holy Book of the Bible –

his fellow students fully accept the Beautiful Book of Creation,

but most fully reject the Holy Book of the Bible.

And yet, they look very critically at how professing Christians handle both these books.

They ask,

if Christians claim that God is the author of both

the Beautiful Book of Creation

and the Holy Book of the Bible

why do they seem to honor the one but not the other?

That, I believe, is a very legitimate question and concern.

I have learned that many of these philosophy students have another concern.

They feel that humanity has basically messed up the planet.

They feel that the world would be a much better place without humans in the equation.

So, many of them have adopted what is called Voluntary Human Extinction.

In other words, they believe we should voluntary have no children

so that over time the population gets reduced to 0 for the sake of the planet.

Many of these students see a stark choice between humanity or the planet —

and they choose the planet.

So what does Wisdom tell us in our passage?

Well, Wisdom says she was there at the very beginning to make sure everything fit together, so that everything might flourish.

She says that humankind has a key place.

Verse 31 says that Wisdom rejoices in the inhabited world

and that Wisdom delights in humankind.

This close connection between the earth and humanity is even evident in the Hebrew language.

The word for humanity is adam.

The word for earth or land is adamah.

The two words look the same, sound the same, and are closely connected.

That is a reminder that

according to the original design

humanity was meant to be a friend of creation,

not a foe.

So how can we live in such a way

that we show, in our daily living,

that we are for this planet and not against it?

WISDOM’S ADVICE

Like I said at the beginning of this sermon,

it is hard for me to hear the voice of Wisdom in Proverbs

without picturing a wise mother

speaking to her child.

I know that when I was growing up

and if I was invited to stay at a friend’s house

My mother would say:

* don’t take more than you have to

* don’t make a mess

* leave the place as clean or cleaner than you found it.

Wise words from a mother:

* don’t take more than you have to

* don’t make a mess

* leave the place as clean or cleaner than you found it.

DON’T TAKE MORE THAN YOU HAVE TO

We North Americans have to come to grips with how much we waste, especially in the area of food. The Department of Agriculture recently found that every person in the country wastes an average of just under 1 pound of food a day – about 300 pounds a year. That means roughly 20% of all the food we produce is trashed – enough to feed 2 billion people.

That simply is not right.

It takes time, energy, labor, resources of the earth, to produce all this food.

It is simply foolish to waste so much of it.

Don’t take more than you have to.

Don’t Make a Mess

Remember the 1967 movie The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman?

It is an old movie, I know, but there is a scene where the Dustin Hoffman character is considering his future.

An older man comes up to him and says

“I have one word for you – PLASTICS.

There is a great future in plastics.”

It was a funny line.

But it turned out to be absolutely true.

The world produces more than 10 times the plastic it produced in 1967.

In the USA we use 270 pounds of plastic per person, per year.

270 pounds.

Most of that 270 pounds is packaging.

Some of that plastic is recycled.

Much of that plastic ends up in the landfills.

And too much of that plastic ends up in our oceans.

Perhaps you have heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,

a semi-floating garbage dump of plastics and cigarette butts

that is about double the size of Texas.

Isn’t that terrible?

We simply need to be much more aware of everything we throw away.

The way of wisdom is not to make a mess.

LEAVE THINGS CLEANER THAN YOU FOUND THEM

The last motherly piece of wisdom was to leave things cleaner than you found them.

We need to think about this, especially when considering the atmosphere

and the increasing amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

The truth is, with respect to carbon,

we are not leaving things cleaner than we found them.

This is not so much a political issue

as it is a matter of wisdom.

The wise John Calvin once wrote that

Wisdom is learning to enjoy the fruit of creation

without damaging the fruitfulness of creation.

I find that such a lovely definition:

Wisdom: enjoying the fruit of creation

without damaging the fruitfulness of creation.

Listen to the Voice of Wisdom:

Don’t take more than you have to.

Don’t make a mess.

Leave things as clean or cleaner than you found them.

CONCLUSION

Before ending, let me go back to our passage.

Near the end, in verse 32, it says

Happy are those who keep Wisdom’s ways.

That word keep in verse 32 is an interesting word.

In Hebrew it is the verb shamar.

At the end of many worship services there are words of blessing.

Often these words of blessing are from Numbers 6:

The Lord bless you and keep you….

keep you…it is the same Hebrew word: shamar.

What does it mean that the Lord keeps us?

It means that God cares for us, protects us, tends to us,

watches over us, keeps his eye on us.

That word shows up much earlier in the Bible.

In the Garden of Eden,

Adam and Eve are given the job of tilling and keeping the garden

(Gen 2:15).

Again, the same Hebrew word shamar for keep.

Even as the Lord blesses us and keeps us,

we have the task of blessing and keeping his Creation,

of caring for it, protecting it, tending to it, watching over it.

The only way we can do this well is

by listening to the voice of wisdom and

keeping the way of wisdom.

That is the picture the Bible gives:

God, the Creator,

delighting in us his people,

as we delight in both our Creator and his Creation.

That is the dance we dance

Creator, Creatures, Creation

all dancing this wonderful dance of blessing,

delighting in one another,

being blessed by one another.

May the dance continue.

Amen

1. See Al Wolters, Creation Regained, pp. 30-31 for an elaboration of this view of wisdom. The Jewish TANACH Stone Edition also refers to this as the Blueprint, but identifies the Blueprint as the Torah. ↑