Please Support the Bible Translation Work of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

$5.00

Role of Wisdom in Creation and Society

Proverbs 3:19-20 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

Wisdom Brings Security

¹⁹Jehovah by wisdom founded the earth;
by understanding he established the heavens;
²⁰by his knowledge the deeps broke open,
and the clouds drop down the dew.

Jehovah by wisdom founded the earth: God used wisdom to create all spiritual life outside of the physical universe and all physical life in the universe of Genesis 1, which is anticipated and expanded on in Proverbs 8:22-31. As we will find out further in Proverbs chapter 8 Jesus Christ is none other than the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24; 8:6).”^[1] John said, “In the beginning was the Word.” (John 1:1) However, he went on to say in verse 3, “All things came into being through him, and apart from him not one thing came into being that has come into being.” The Apostle Paul informs us that, “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation because all things in the heavens and on the earth were created by him.” (Col. 1:15-16) In Revelation 3:14, we read, “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the things that the Amen says, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation by God.” Wisdom was at the beginning of the creation as a master worker, carrying out the creation of the heavens and earth and the greatest creation, man.

Founded (יָסַד yasad) the earth infers the idea of laying a foundation, which in turn points us to Proverbs 8:27-29 where wisdom claims to have been there “before the beginning of the” creation of the earth (8:23), explicitly stating, “when he [wisdom] marked out the foundations of the earth” (8:29), the creation of the heavens and the earth. (Gen 1:1-10) Wisdom emphasizes the idea “that whoever abandons wisdom runs against the very structure by which the world was made.”[2] By understanding, he established the heavens: Creation declares that God is the perfect Organizer. We know only “the fringes of his [God’s] ways,” and “how faint is the word we hear of him!” (Job 26:14) However, the scarcity of what we know about planets, stars, galaxies, and universes moves us to accept that these heavenly bodies are very well organized.

By his knowledge: Knowledge (דַּעַת daath) is possession of information learned by personal experience, observation, or study. The Bible strongly urges us to seek and treasure accurate knowledge, as it is far superior to gold. (Prov. 8:10; 20:15) The Bible frequently links Jehovah and knowledge, calling him “a God of knowledge” and describing him as “perfect in knowledge.” (1 Sam. 2:3; Job 36:4; 37:14, 16) However, God does not acquire knowledge through personal experience, observation, or study. While Genesis 1:7 tells us of God making “a separation between the waters, which were under the expanse and between the waters, which were above the expanse,” the Hebrew words for the deeps broke open in Proverbs 3:20 are identical with “the great deep burst open,” the description of the flood in Genesis 7:11. Jehovah overflows in and provides us with both knowledge and wisdom. – Romans 11:33; James 1:5.

[1] Andrew Knowles, The Bible Guide, 1st Augsburg books ed. (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 2001), 253.

[2] Duane A. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1993), p. 83.