Job 28:12; Proverbs 1:20-22; Proverbs 2:10;11; 4:7; 3:13; Exodus 14:15
Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee…Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding…Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “Go forward!” Is not this a timely word for each of us as we enter a new year?
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Consistency in religion is by no means an easy attainment. Certain duties may be performed with zeal, whilst others of a more difficult and self-denying nature are shamefully neglected…However the past year may have been spent, bethink yourselves now what work you have to do for Him, and how you may perfect it with expedition and care.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Let us pause here a minute and let each of us, as we begin a new year, ask this question—How far has Christ’s purpose of sanctifying me been answered in my own case? I know that in one sense I am completely sanctified, but, in another sense, I still feel my imperfections and infirmities. How far have I progressed in sanctification during the past year? How much has my faith increased during the year? How many of my corruptions have I overcome? Have I more power in prayer? Am I more careful in my life? Is my spirit more loving than it used to be? Am I more decisive for that which is right? At the same time, am I more meek in standing up for it?
A. W. PINK: We need to clearly realize there is no such thing as remaining stationary in the spiritual life: if we do not progress—we inevitably retrograde.
HENRY SMITH (1560-1591?): When a man begins to apply his heart unto wisdom, he learneth more in a month after than he did in a year before, nay, more than ever he did in his life. Even as you see the wicked, because they apply their hearts to wickedness, how fast they proceed, how easily and how quickly they become perfect swearers, expert drunkards, cunning deceivers, so if ye could apply your hearts as thoroughly to knowledge and goodness, you might become like He which teacheth you.
WILLIAM BROWN KEER: (1827-1898): “Our hearts.” In both the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, the term “heart” is applied alike to the mind that thinks, to the spirit that feels, and the will that acts. And it here stands for the whole mental and moral nature of man, and implies that the whole soul and spirit, with all their might, are to be applied in the service of wisdom.
HENRY SMITH: Therefore, when Solomon shews men how to come by wisdom, he speaks often of the heart, as “Give thine heart to wisdom, let wisdom enter into thine heart.” “Get wisdom, keep wisdom, embrace wisdom,” Proverbs 2:10; Proverbs 4:5—as though a man went a wooing for wisdom. Wisdom is like God’s daughter, that he gives to the man that loves her, and sues for her, and means to set her at his heart. Thus we have learned how to apply knowledge that it may do us good; not to our ears, like them which hear sermons only, nor to our tongues like them which make table-talk of religion, but to our hearts, that we may say with the virgin, “My heart doth magnify the Lord,” Luke 1:46—and the heart will apply it to the ear and to the tongue, as Christ saith, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” Matthew 12:34.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Valuable, however, as were Solomon’s maxims for their own wisdom, they claim our reverence upon infinitely higher ground. “Behold! A greater than Solomon is here,” Matthew 12:42. Often does Solomon speak in the personification of wisdom, Proverbs 8:1-36—and always under the inspiration of “the wisdom of God,” 2 Timothy 3:16; so that his sayings are truly “Divine sentences in the lips of the King,” Proverbs 16:10. Wisdom—the Son of God Himself—now invites us, in all the plenitude of His Divine authority and grace.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Observe, in 1 Corinthians 1:30, how blessedly Christ is spoken of by the Holy Ghost, as made all these things to His people, and that by God Himself. It is not only said, that Christ is the “wisdom,” and the “righteousness,” and the “sanctification,” and the “redemption” of His Church, but that God hath made Him so. Here, indeed, is the blessedness of the whole.
THE EDITOR: Jesus is our Prophet, Priest, and King—our complete Saviour.
PHILIP DODDRIDGE (1702-1751): Amidst our ignorance and folly, He is a source of wisdom; and through Him, guilty as we are, we receive righteousness or justification; polluted as we are, we obtain sanctification, and, enslaved as we naturally are to the power of lusts and the dominion of Satan, the faithful obtain by Him complete redemption.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Thus the Lord leads awakened and inquiring souls to the right way of salvation; to Christ, who is “the way, the truth, and the life,” John 14:6; and directs and enables them to believe in Him, to walk by faith, and to continue to walk in Him, as they have received Him.
CHARLES BRIDGES: The dark question long before asked, “Where shall wisdom be found?” is now answered. In the Son of God Himself “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” Colossians 2:3; all these treasures in Him are laid up for the righteous. Oh let us draw upon this infinite treasure daily, hourly, for light to direct an upright walk.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): When a new year begins, we should think of serving God more—and better than we did the year before.
C. H. SPURGEON: How much nearer am I living to Christ now, than on the first Sabbath of last year? How much closer do I approach in my likeness to Him? Am I, in all respects, more like my Master than I was a year ago? Or, on the other hand, have I been going backward? Stand still, I cannot—I must either go forward in Grace or go backward!
A. W. PINK: How that solemn fact should search our hearts! Christian, your history this year will be either one of going forward—or backsliding. This new year will mark either an increased fruitfulness in your soul and life—to the glory of Him whose name you bear; or increased leanness and barrenness—to His reproach! It will witness either a growing in grace—or a decline in your spirituality. It will record an increased love for the Word, use of the Throne of Grace, strictness of walk and closer communion with Christ—or a growing coldness and a following of Him afar off.
ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE (1813-1843): What the coming year is to bring forth, who can tell?
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): It will probably be the last on earth for some of us. It will probably contain great sorrows for some of us, and great joys for others. It will probably be comparatively uneventful for others. It may make great outward changes for us, or it may leave us much as it found us. But, at all events, God will be in it, and work for Him should be in it. “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord.” Romans 14:8. So let us front this New Year, with all its hidden possibilities, with quiet, brave hearts, resolved on present duty.
