Proverbs 8:14

STRONG SON OF GOD!

‘I am understanding; I have strength.’

Proverbs 8:14

Consider (1) the self-assertion of Christ; (2) the bearing of that self-assertion on certain difficulties of our day.

I. The self-assertion of Christ is exhibited in three ways:—(1) Christ claims a boundless power of satisfying human wants. (2) Christ claims for Himself the most transcendent ideals. (3) Christ claims the possession of absolute truth by the very form and mode as well as by the substance of His teaching.

II. Consider the bearing of this on the difficulty which seems to be felt with distressing poignancy by many just at present.—I mean the tone of much of the record in the Old Testament. (1) The Old Testament is a progressive system. (2) The Old Testament contains the pathology and diagnosis of sin. (3) After all, it is chiefly to the thought of the text that we turn for confirmation. The great self-assertion of the ‘Amen’ is our stay. We take the book as it is from the hand of Him Who says, ‘I am understanding.’

—Archbishop Alexander.

Illustration

‘There, in that Divine Man, in His gentle love, in His deep and weighty words, in His power to give them that find Him life, we have the highest embodiment of the wisdom of God, which was before all worlds, and yet stoops to each lowly and obedient heart. It is not enough then for us to seek knowledge and get understanding apart from Jesus, but to seek Him diligently and early, as we are bidden in Proverbs 8:17, sure that when we win Him, we shall possess all the wealth of truth and knowledge that we require for this life and the next. He is the Truth and the Life. Truth apart from Him neither nourishes nor inspires. But all truth, as it is in Jesus, is the food of souls.’