12 The Value of Wisdom to the LORD (Proverbs 3:19-20)
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Last week we started the second and final section in Proverbs 3 titled ‘Blessed is the One Who Finds Wisdom’, and in that we looked at verses 13-18 where Solomon reveals in effect the value of wisdom to a human being. And today, as we move to verses 19-20, we will look at the value of wisdom to the LORD.
Verses 19 and 20:
‘The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens;20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew’.
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So last Friday I was at a place called the North Carolina Study Center here in Chapel Hill and I was baking cinnamon rolls with a good friend of mine.
Now I’ve made cinnamon rolls plenty of times, but this time was different and I don’t really know why. Like you ever just do stupid stuff and you just don’t understand why you really did it? No? Maybe that’s just me? Well anyways, on Friday I made a grave error making cinnamon rolls, and it had to do with the icing.
Preface: I by no means am a baker so these cinnamon rolls were store bought and not handmade, which means we didn’t have to make the icing because it just came with it. What we did have to do, however, was heat up the icing in the microwave.
And although that should be no biggie, the problem with that is I for some reason forgot that metal cannot go in the microwave…
So instead of taking the little metal top off of the icing and putting it in the microwave, I put the whole thing in.
And sure enough, about 10 seconds into me heating up the icing, we had a little explosion in the microwave, where icing went everywhere, and I mean everywhere, making the microwave absolutely disgusting and just a huge mess to clean up.
Now you could look at that event as a chef, which I am, and be embarrassed at your mistake, or you could look at that event as a podcaster, which I also am, and use it as content, and CLEARLY you can tell how I chose to view it.
You see microwaves were designed to work in a very certain way, and when you don’t use it according to its intended design, and you seek to put things in there that shouldn’t be in there, to use it in ways it wasn’t made to be used, well, as evidenced by my cinnamon roll mishap, bad things happen. And that leads into our text today, because our text shows us that there is a wise order to the world. It shows us that the world was designed to work in a very certain way; a way and an order which, when lived out rightly, brings life, BUT, when lived out wrongly, against the order and intended design, brings ruin.
Our text shows us that this order and this way I’m alluding to works according to the pattern and production of wisdom, which simply means that we can know this order, we can know this way, and we can live by it, so long as we possess wisdom.
‘The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; 20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.’
‘The LORD by wisdom founded the earth…by understanding he established the heavens’.
Now although we’ve been making the distinction that Jesus is wisdom over and over again in this series, this use of wisdom here in verse 19 likens it more as a tool than a person or companion (still saying wisdom is Jesus, just here is a different use of the word/imagery…we’ll get back to this at the end).
And I’ll say to me it is crazy to think that wisdom was so valuable to the LORD that He used it as a tool to create the heavens and the earth. I mean if the LORD, the King of Kings, God Almighty, if He with wisdom as his tool accomplished the wonders of creation - setting the earth on its foundations by splitting the seas and setting the heavens in their appointed place and watering the earth with dew from its clouds - I mean my goodness think of what his revealed wisdom will do in the lives of those who pursue and possess it!!!
Put it this way….if the LORD used wisdom to make the heavens and the earth, to make everything around you including you, don’t you think it would serve you and I well to pursue and possess wisdom for ourselves in all that we do? I certainly think so.
‘The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; 20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew’ (italics mine).
Now there are two things I want to point out here in this verse (verse 20), one specific and one collective, firstly beginning with the specific.
Looking at the second part of that verse, Solomon says ‘and the clouds drop down the dew’. That’s important. It’s important because in verse 19 and in verset A of verse 20, we’re looking at how God created the world by wisdom, but in the second part of verse 20, in verset B, we’re now shown that God not only created the world through wisdom, but that He also sustains the life in it through wisdom.
‘…the clouds drop down the dew.’
Now what does dew do? Haha. Well, dew nourishes. It hydrates. It sustains.
So by saying that by God’s knowledge the clouds drop down the dew, Solomon is telling us that the Lord nourishes, hydrates, and sustains His creation.
And that word drop used there in that verse may be translated as ‘drip’ or ‘dripped’ in other translations of this verse, but regardless that word drop or drip used in the verse means more than just a little trickle. The Hebrew word there is used a few other times in the Bible, and each time it's used in Job 36:28, in Psalm 65:11-12, in Isaiah 45:8, it signifies a pouring down, or a flow.
Simply, that means is that God sustains His creation. He takes real good care of it.
And you and I are living proof of that.
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Now the second thing I want to point out, the collective here, are the three components used in the LORD’s building of creation; the poetry and the connections here are just incredible.
God’s building of the three components of creation: the world’s earth, heavens, and seas, is done through wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.
‘The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; 20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew’.
By wisdom, by understanding, by knowledge, the LORD created the earth, the heavens, and the seas. Those were His three building blocks:
Wisdom
Understanding
Knowledge
And what’s so interesting about that, as Raymond Van Leeuwen points out, is that those same three building blocks were used in Bezalel's building of the tabernacle in Exodus 31:1-3, and also in chapter 35:30-31. Those same building blocks were used for Hiram's construction of the temple in 1 Kings 7:14, and lastly those same three building blocks are used for the believer’s house (which we see in Proverbs 24:3-4).
With that in mind, Van Leeuwen draws the conclusion that our work should be modeled after and determined by God's work, that we should be 'in tune with God's cosmic house, to preserve and restore the creation as God's glory to dwell in, and make God's glory manifest in human culture'.
Put in a more simple way,
Since God’s work was founded on wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, our work should be too.
Everything we do, from the way we steward our jobs, to the way we steward our families and our friendships, everything we do should be done on a foundation of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.
And all that brings me back to the cinnamon rolls.
These verses are clear that God created the whole of the cosmos by means of wisdom. God created the world and its order by means of wisdom. So what does that mean? Well that means if you want to live life the way it is intended to be, to live according to its design and its order, you absolutely need wisdom. And it also means that without wisdom you are living against God’s created order, you are swimming upstream; it means you’re putting the metal top for the icing in the microwave…and let me tell you firsthand, that my friends will not go well for you.
Now to tie it all together, isn’t it beautiful that all of creation and its created order is centered on wisdom??…O yeah and who is wisdom again? O yeah that’s right. It's Jesus.
And what does that mean for us?
Well since the created order is centered on Christ, that means you and I must know him in order to perceive and live according to that order.
We must know Jesus to live life the way it was intended to be lived.
And there are some of you reading right now who haven’t been living life the way Jesus intended it to be lived, and this may be a moment where He’s drawing you back to Himself.
And there also may be some of you listening right now who have been living life the way Jesus intended it to be lived, and this may be a moment where you need to be encouraged to keep on keeping on. You go girl! You go brother!
To that brother or sister I also want you to think of those who aren’t living life the way it was intended to be lived…think of the people who don’t have Christ in their lives.
They are like my icing in that microwave, they’re about to explode! How miserable they must be!
And I can imagine it because I’ve been there. Life without Christ is awful. No purpose and certainly no living life the way God intended. So to the one who has Jesus don’t keep the good news from those who don’t! They need to hear and I pray this podcast moves you to share it.
And lastly, if you’re reading and you by chance are not a believer, man o man the gift of salvation that God has so graciously offered to you through the blood of His Son Jesus on a cross for your sins awaits. It does. Life with Christ and ONLY with Christ brings life in full. You won’t find fulifllment, you won’t find real purpose anywhere else. You may think you have for a little while, just like how I thought my icing was fine for the first few seconds, but after a little while, you’ll explode. You’ll realize the places you found fulfillment and purpose were not fulfilling or purposeful. You’ll realize you’ve been living life the way it was not intended to be lived, and I want you to realize that now.
Give your life to Jesus, follow Him.
Thank you all for reading.
I love you.
God bless.
