Bible Study Seattle

“YHWH made me as the beginning of his way, the first of his ancient works.  I was appointed before the world, before the start, before the earth’s beginnings.  When I was brought forth, there were no ocean depths, no springs brimming with water.  I was brought forth before the hills, before the mountains had settled in place; he had not yet made the earth, the fields, or even the earth’s first grains of dust.  When he established the heavens, I was there.  When he drew the horizon’s circle on the deep, when he set the skies above in place, when the fountains of the deep poured forth, when he prescribed boundaries for the sea, so that its water would not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, I was with him as someone he could trust.  For me, every day was pure delight, as I played in his presence all the time, playing everywhere on his earth, and delighting to be with humankind.  “Therefore, children, listen to me: happy are those who keep my ways.  Hear instruction, and grow wise; do not refuse it.  How happy the person who listens to me, who watches daily at my gates and waits outside my doors.  For he who finds me finds life and obtains the favor of YHWH.  But he who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”  Proverbs 8:22-36

Chapter 8 is the personification of wisdom.  But does wisdom play like a child in YHWH’s presence?  No; this section is Jesus himself explaining his heavenly childhood.  It explains that Jesus was the first person YHWH created, as does Colossians 1:15: “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”

This explains how Jesus died at the cross.  An immortal God cannot die.  But God’s mortal Son can.  That’s not to say he’s not powerful!  He created the universe alongside his father: “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”  Colossians 1:16-20