Jordan explains, “First she speaks in the city; in the
streets to the leaders of the nation. Then she withdraws herself and talks in
private. She builds herself a house and goes into her own chamber and talks to
just the people who are willing to come into her house. And then she sends her
emissaries out into the city to invite other people into the house.
“There’s going to come a time in Israel when Wisdom will cry
in the streets and do what she does in the latter part of Chapter 1 (beginning
in verse 20), which is to talk to the religious leaders of the nation and say,
‘Come and repent because the wrath of God’s coming, and if you don’t get right
and hearken to me, the wrath of Almighty God is going to destroy you.’
“When they don’t hearken,
Wisdom cries again (in Chapter 8). It’s from her house that she cries
and invites people, ‘Psst! C’mon over here, I want to talk to you!’ and they go
in the house.
*****
“Of course, all of that is exactly what happens in the
earthly ministry of Christ. He starts out publicly in the streets calling the
nation to repentance. Then, in the middle part of His ministry, about Matthew
11 and 12, He withdraws, and just at the point in Matthew 12 when the Pharisees
and Sadducees—the religious leaders—begin to develop a plot to kill Him, He
withdraws Himself from them.
“In Matthew 16, Peter says, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God.’ Jesus says, ‘You’re right; don’t tell anybody.’ Isn’t that
strange? He goes up on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James and John
and is transfigured from them, and they see His kingdom glory and majesty and,
as they’re coming down from the mountain, He says, ‘Now you guys have seen it,
but don’t tell anybody.’
“Wait a minute! Before,
they’d been going around saying, ‘Hey, He’s here! He’s here! Trust him!’ Now
He’s saying, ‘Psst! Come over here guys. Let’s regroup.’
“When He does go outside to talk to people, He says, ‘From
now on I’m only going to talk in parables so you guys can’t understand it. People
in my house over here, they can understand it.’
“And He says ‘the kingdom’s going to be taken from you,’
meaning it’s going to be taken from the religious leaders of Israel and given to
a nation that brings forth the fruit thereof.
"He says, ‘Fear not, little flock, it’s your Father’s good pleasure to
give you the kingdom,’ and He literally builds within the nation Israel a new
nation; within the house of Israel, a new house. A house where wisdom’s going
live.
“And then, as in Proverbs 1, He sends His spirit down on
them and then He sends His emissaries out of that house in the early Acts
period to cry once again and to entreat. And in Proverbs 9, they go out and
say, ‘Hey, there’s dinner at home. Come and dine. All is ready.’
"You have
parables in Matthew about the feast and the dinner that’s there, and you have
them going out on the highways and in the hinterlands.
*****
“David personifies wisdom as a person, and when it speaks in Israel it’s going to follow this pattern so that when you get over to Matthew, and that generation that Proverbs 30 says is going to show up—there is a generation that does these things—when they show up, John the Baptist identifies them and then you see wisdom cry in the streets, then go into the house, then send out the apostles and the ‘little flock.’
“It’s that prophetic sense that Proverbs 30:1 and 31:1 are talking about; in the day when Wisdom speaks in their midst that this book will come into its own.”
*****
David gives four purposes the proverbs were collected
together to accomplish. The first purpose, which is to know wisdom and
instruction, is amplified in Chapter 1: 7-9. The second purpose, to perceive
the words of understanding, is amplified in Chapter 1:10 to the end of chapter.
The third purpose, to receive guidance in judgment and equity, can be found in
Chapter 2. The fourth purpose is “to give subtlety to the simple, to the young
man knowledge and discretion.”
“Beginning in Chapter 3, all the way down to the end of
Chapter 9, or at least to the end of Chapter 7 (chapters 8 and 9 is a monologue
where Wisdom speaks again), you have the focus on that fourth purpose,” says
Jordan. “David was the most concerned .
. . You know when you give your kids instruction, you got some things you want
them to know about. You tell them to do this, this and this, and, ‘This one
here, man, we need to talk about!’
“The most demanding one of these things—the one that David
wanted Solomon to know the most about—is the one that God through David and
Solomon wanted the ‘believing remnant’ in the last days to know the most about.
Have subtlety. Have the ability to know and have knowledge and discretion.
“And that’s the reason that all through Chapters 3-7 . . .
that’s where that stuff about that ‘strange woman’ comes up. That strange
woman, folks, in Revelation 17, is that religious system.
“That apostate religious system that starts back in Genesis
and is introduced to the nation Israel through the tribe of Dan and is called
Baal worship goes all down through the Bible and becomes the religion of the
Antichrist. Part of the seduction is that thing in Revelation 2:14 and 20 where
that woman Jezebel seduces the servants of God to commit fornication in the
context of religion.
“These proverbs are designed to equip these people to be aware of the problems and these (four purposes) are going to give the ability not to be seduced. You and I today face that same religious system. It doesn’t make any difference what God’s doing, Satan has his religious system out there and it adapts; it doesn’t change what it’s doing, it just adapts its tactics.
“What the Proverbs were going to do for Israel, and what
they will do for the believers in Israel, is give them the capacity to stay out
of the trap and not step in the snare of the Adversary. That’s what Paul’s
epistles do for us. (II Timothy 2:24)
(Editor’s note: I finally make the trek to Chicago tomorrow
morning. It’s been quite an unexpected delay due to the ongoing bad weather. Will post a new article in a
few days)
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