My Delights Were with the Sons of Men Proverbs 8 = Pre-Incarnate Jesus
My Delights Were with the Sons of Men - Pre-Incarnate Jesus on the Earth
“Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.”
Pro 8:30-31
The first part of the verse: “I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him,” parallels Jhn 1:1-4, and refer to Jesus and the Father, and their relationship in eternity past; I am not writing about that in this Blog.
The second part of the verse: “rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men,”interaction with Cain and Abel. refer to Jesus interaction with men here on earth.
I want to show that Jesus had a very real interaction with men, here on the earth, prior to the Flood.
We will consider four (4) points:
Wisdom is Jesus
He was on the earth
He delighted in the physical creation
He delighted in his people
Firstly, Wisdom is a person. He says “I”. This not the attribute of wisdom, personified. This is Wisdom, the Hebrew word equivalent to the Greek word Logos: the Word, the 2nd person of the Trinity: Jhn 1:1-4; this Wisdom is Jesus!
These 2 names of Jesus, Wisdom and Word, both convey the idea of communication. How do you know what I am thinking? I communicate it to you. So too with God, the 2nd person of the Trinity is the one who communicates about God to Mankind. He tells us who God is; he reveals God to us.
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” Heb 1:1-2
Jesus Christ:
is the image of God: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Col 1:15,
who was, and still is eternally with the Father, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” Jhn 1:1-2
who alone knows the Father: “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” Mat 11:27
He is the only one who can tell us about the Father, hence he is called Wisdom and Word.
As a side note, but one worth mentioning, if you are Jewish, and therefore believe the Old Testament, Question: Who is this one in Proverbs 8 who is doing all these things? While you may not want to say Jesus, you must at least acknowledge there is another person here, not GOD in a Mono-Theistic understanding, but another one who is equal with that GOD, himself GOD, who says, “I was his delight;” there are 2 people here!
Proverbs 8 is a strong proof that GOD is not a “Mono-Person,” but a “Multi-Person.”
Secondly, Wisdom says he delighted in 2 things: he delighted in the habitable parts of God’s creation, and he delighted in having interaction with God’s people.
This means that the Pre-Incarnate Lord Jesus was at least a regular visitor to the physical earth, if not a continual resident.
He says he rejoiced in the habitable parts of God’s creation, this would require him to be walking around on the earth, and “sons” is plural, so this cannot be refer to the regular afternoon talks he had with Adam and Eve, this would require him to be present on the earth after the fall, which we in fact see in his interaction with Cain and Abel, Enoch, and Noah.
Granted, it seems like a contradiction to say the Pre-Incarnate Lord Jesus, i.e. Jesus before he was born of Mary and took on flesh, did physical activities and was physically present on the earth; how can a pre-incarnate person be physically on earth, BUT the verse clearly say that.
John Calvin said this was all Anthropomorphic language, but I think Calvin over played that argument.
Luther too was uncomfortable saying God was on the earth. He said Cain and Abel brought their sacrifices to Adam, who was God’s priest; but that seems quite wrong; Genesis 4 clearly says God spoke face to face with Cain, and put a visible mark on him.
The historic protestant hermeneutic (how we understand what is written) is to take the Bible at its most straight forward meaning: the words mean, what the words say; the Historical-Grammatical Method.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical-grammatical_method
Using that hermeneutic, the below verses are very clear and can only mean Jesus was actually present on the earth:
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” Gen 2:7-8
“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man” Gen 2:15-16
“And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” Gen 2:18-19
“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.” Gen 2:21-22
“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: And the LORD God called unto Adam” Gen 3:8-9
“And the LORD God said unto the woman,” Gen 3:13
“And the LORD God said unto the serpent” Gen 3:14
“Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim” Gen 3:23-24
“And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?” Gen 4:3-6
“And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?” Gen 4:9
“And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him seven fold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD,” Gen 4:15-16
“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Gen 5:24
“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,” Gen 6:5
Note, here is Gen 6, it simply says “the Lord saw”, but later in Gen 11, which is about the Tower of Babel, the Lord says, “Let us go down;” after the Flood, he was no longer on the earth, after he saw, he “had” to go down.
“And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Gen 6:13
“And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.” Gen 7:15-16
Thirdly, having shown above that Jesus was on the earth, let us now look at what he himself says he enjoyed while on the earth.
He says, “I was rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth.”
He enjoyed what he had created. Remember, all things were created by Jesus, and he planted the Garden of Eden.
“And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” Gen 2:8
Plant is a very concrete, hands-on word. It is the regular word for planting things. Jesus worked with dirt, planting a garden.
Jesus enjoyed being in the Garden of Eden: he rejoiced in it. He walked around in the Garden, he had an intimate knowledge of it. Gardeners, think how you know all the garden beds and individual plants and trees of your garden; Jesus was the same.
This has several implications for us:
Matter is good! The ancient Greeks thought that matter was a lesser thing, evil, which was the basis of some saying the Christ did not come in the flesh (1Jh 5). It was also why some struggled with the teaching that we will again have bodies (1Co 15). But God made matter, and it is good, and Jesus rejoiced in it.
This tells us to treat God’s creation with care. Now while much of environmentalism today is “worship of the creature” (Rom 1), and therefore sinful, yet the earth is the handiwork of God, specifically Jesus, and we should treat it with care. Would we go into someone’s house and mess it up?
The new heavens and earth will be physical, and will be inhabited by people who have BODIES, we will not be disembodied spirits. Paul speaks about that in 2Co 5.
Fourthly, he delighted in “the sons of men.”
As I said, because “sons” is plural, it cannot mean just the time before the Fall, when he came to talk with Adam and Eve; his presence on earth did not stop after the Fall, it continued.
He had real, personal, face-to-face interaction with Cain and Abel, and he rejoiced in Abel and his sacrifice!
He enjoyed walking and talking with Enoch, so much so, that he “translated” Enoch’s body, changed it into the new body which we will all later receive at the resurrection (1Co 15), and brought him to heaven.
And he enjoyed talking with Noah, and told Noah what he saw, how he felt about it (the sin and wickedness), what he would do about it, and how he would preserve Noah. This was all face-to-face conversation!
And then he shuts the door of the Arc!
I would say, that not only did Jesus enjoy walking and talking with these three individuals, but with the godly line of Seth in general.
From this we get a glimpse of what heaven will be like: it will be a time of great joy: personal interaction with Jesus. Remember, he is the Bride Groom, waiting for his Bride, Us! At the Last Day, what now we see will go away, and what we currently do not see will be manifest: the permanent, eternal cosmos.
“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” 2Co 4:18
I cautiously say, when Adam sinned, Jesus lost a source of great enjoyment. He had to deal with that sin, cursing his creation as punishment, but he always intended to restore things so that not only we, but he too will have an eternity of joy; we interacting with him, and he with us.
“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” Mat 25:34
“But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.” Mat 26:29
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luk 12:32
“And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” Rev 19:9
Heaven will be a great place, where we sinners, who have been saved by grace, will enjoy endless fellowship with Jesus; and he will again be able to say “my delights were are with the sons of men.”
5 July 2024