Our next job is to study the text of Proverbs chapter 8, where we find Wisdom speaking. It is a passage that has evoked considerable interest amongst Bible students through the years, and is well known for its beauty.
Proverbs 8:22-31 “Jehovah possessed me in the beginning (ROSH) of His way, before His works from then. From ancient days (OLAM) I was established, from the beginning (ROSH), from ancient times of the earth. When there were no depths, I travailed. When there were no springs heavy with water; before the mountains were sunk; before the hills, I travailed. While He had not made the earth and the fields, and the highest part of the dust of the world, in His preparing the heavens, I was there. In His inscribing a circle upon the face of the deep; when He set the clouds above; in making strong the fountains of the deep; in His setting a limit on the sea, that the waters should not pass beyond His command; in decreeing earth’s foundations, then I was at His side as a worker, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him continually, rejoicing in the world, His earth, and my delights were with the sons of men.” [Translation from the Hebrew Interlinear Bible by Jay P. Green Snr, Baker Book House]
The usual interpretation is that the speaker is none other than the Lord Jesus, without Whom “nothing was made that was made,” as John said in his Gospel. But as I have explained elsewhere, I believe the speaker to be the Holy Spirit, the Mother figure in the Godhead. Hence the word “travailed” being used twice in this context.
But leaving this matter aside, just look at the last verse. The Speaker was delighting in the sons of men. When? Before . . . before . . .before . . .yes,before the time mentioned in the first couple of verses of Genesis chapter 1. How can that possibly be, unless God had created “the heavens” before He created “the earth”? And in those heavenly regions, or dimensions, were all the sons of men.
This is where we return to the subject of Part 3 in this series. “The Feast of Remembrance of Shouting”, on the first day of the first (civil) month in the year, in memory of “the sons of God shouting for joy” when they witnessed creation. The subject of pre-existence is beginning to hold together, now that all these separate items can be considered as parts of a whole, rather than just isolated thoughts that might otherwise be explained away.
In Genesis 2:5 we read “and every shrub of the field, while not yet on the earth . . .” The shrubs had been created before God planted them on the earth. They existed in the heavens, like everything else. And be assured that all the plants, animals, birds, and other creatures that have become extinct, are still there in the heavens, and when it suits the Almighty, He will plant them, or bring them to life, once again. We, as human beings, may have been responsible for the extinction of some species, due to our abuse of natural resources, poisonous sprays, and other unnatural methods of agriculture. But a day will come when those who are mainly responsible will find themselves under God’s judgment. He comes to “destroy those who destroy the earth.” (But please understand the use of the word “destroy” here. Just as extinct plants have not been destroyed for ever, but now reside in the heavenly dimension, so also men who are “destroyed” will be eliminated from the blessings of the earth in the Millennial reign, having to wait their time of judgment and rehabilitation later.)
