When we go back to the account of creation as it is given in Genesis, we encounter this statement repeatedly, "And God said let there be...and there was." Obviously, this is function beyond human capability. If man purposes to erect something he must first acquire the necessary raw material. That material must be shaped and formed into suitable components and means must be provided to attach the various pieces to their proper place, etc., but God is not confined to such detail. He conceived the desired commodity in His mind, spoke His visualized intent, and the product appeared. No other power known to human intelligence is capable of physical construction whose only implement in use is verbal expression. Now, if verbal command is given, and identifiable "something" becomes evident where nothing had been before, a beginning had to take place. We call it creation. The Scripture says, "And the earth was without form and void." By His continued speaking the original "void" took on shape and its various functions began to operate in accordance with His issued command. All of this came into being and began to perform in direct response to God's spoken Word. This allows us to identify a traceable pattern. It is only intelligent being---capable of comprehensive thought and design. It is the almighty God, the great I Am, who conceived the idea of a created world, and it was that same majestic God who began to speak and His creation began to take form. Thus we can see that before the world was, the Word was, and before the Word was, an active, performing, intelligent Being existed. The second verse of the ninetieth Psalm declares, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." This is the God who spoke and the world appeared.

Verbal expression, or spoken word, within itself is nothing more than an implement that is serviceable to convey abstract thought. Words may be formed so that commonly accepted sounds convey commonly recognized thought, so intelligent beings are able to communicate with one another. When the apostle stated that "the Word was with God" he was indicating that available to God, as an intelligent Being, was this means of verbal communication. Obviously that medium of contact reaches to recipients other than human, for when He spoke, something, somewhere, comprehended and responded. He said, "Let there be...and there was." The Scripture tells us that He is able to converse with angels and with Satan of the spirit world, and who knows what all else it may include?

Next the apostle presents a statement that conveys an entirely different concept. He said, "And the Word was God." Here at the beginning, on the verge of creation, where mortal intelligence is about to come into existence and be exposed to the Being whose image it will ultimately bear, that Being, by means of divine inspiration, declares, "And the Word was God." This lets us know by positive declaration that whatever communication flows from God to man will always be the exact portrayal of what He is, what He has been, and what He always will be. God's word to man will always convey the exact personification of Himself.

This proclaimed uniting of verbal expression and Divine entity puts the Word, in an entirely different setting. It is no longer a simple vehicle or implement of communication, it is made an integral part of an active, dynamic, intelligent, living Being. Wisdom, speaking of itself, declared, "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old." Proverbs 8:22. This describes exactly the pattern portrayed when our God embraced "the Word" to Himself and they became one together.

Let us pause a few moments here and take note of some of the contribution wisdom is able to offer to intelligent beings. Proverbs 8, verse 1; It cries to all and provides understanding. Verse 2; She occupies the peak of moral excellence, the highest level known to man, and she makes her ways available in the haunts of humanity. Verse 3; She heralds to all men the path of entrance into the celestial city. Verse 4; Her appeal is to man, for it is man who has sinned and who has the mental capacity to comprehend a plan of recovery. Verse 6; The utterance of her lips are always right things. Verse 7; True wisdom speaks only truth, and wickedness she abhors. Verse 8; She speaks only righteousness. Verse 11; She exceeds every other commodity in value. Verse 12; Wisdom is the companion of prudence. Verse 13; The wisdom God embraces abhors all evil. Verse 14; Wisdom can advise, for it is understanding and it possesses strength. Verse 21; She will provide her sub scribers with durable substance and she will make them wealthy with her riches. Verse 35; To find wisdom is to find the favor of the Lord.

Reflect for a moment on the qualities and characteristics ascribed to wisdom, and we recognize immediately the attributes of our God. By embracing wisdom to Himself as an attribute, He is able to possess life; yea, even eternal life, for He has never known anything else. Wisdom is the embodiment of knowledge and understanding, and so by embracing wisdom in its fullness God is able to proclaim Himself Omniscient, or all-wise. Wisdom testified of itself that it had strength; therefore God, by embracing wisdom, is able to proclaim to all that He is Omnipotent, or all-powerful. The only thing known to man that is able to separate an intelligent being from perpetual life is the fact of sin. True wisdom occupies the highest positions where virtue dwells and where righteousness prevails. So completely has God embraced this aspect of wisdom until He boldly proclaims Himself the embodiment of Holiness. We are informed that He cannot even be tempted with sin. It is sin and its ways that rot, mold, rust, decay, deceive and destroy. It is the ways of purity, virtue, honesty and integrity that constitute righteousness, and these attributes are capable of perpetual duration. Having embraced these virtuous attributes to Himself, God is able to declare Himself eternal. All of these, along with a great deal more that could be listed, are present and functional in our God because He has embraced to Himself these attributes of wisdom. He is the personification of it.

The writer's presentation of wisdom in Proverbs 8 would make it easy to feel that wisdom is an attribute that God was at one time without. Since wisdom is an abstract attribute, requiring an agent in order to perform, and recognizing in God the great I Am, the first Cause, the all Cause, the Originator of everything, then it would seem likely that by His own intelligence He devised the excellence of what wisdom embraces, so He made His own concept the director of His own being. Thus He is the original Author of true wisdom.

Let us go back and pick up the idea of "the Word" that was embraced into God's own Being. His declarations from henceforth would be something more than a mere pronouncement of verbal expression, for He is the embodiment of what His Word proclaims. Language structure is still the framework, which conveys the issued message, but when that message is prompted from, and accentuated by, the intelligence, the concepts, the sentiments, of a divine Being, it will automatically reflect the prevailing disposition of its source. It springs from a level that is infinitely superior to human concept. Its understanding far surpasses human ability to comprehend. Its attributes are impeccable, for it embraces nothing but the utmost in moral performance. Its sentiments are the reflection of that heavenly atmosphere where total, divine influence prevails. Its inflections and insinuations will convey hearing and intent that is entirely foreign to unregenerate humanity.

Now, here is a realization that at first glance is rather startling: regardless of the vast difference that exists between this world and that divine realm, this medium of "Word" communication is the agency our Lord has selected to bring the two back into compatibility with each other.

This helps us understand why the apostle John went clear back to the beginning to start his gospel presentation. Experience had already taught him that words that are void of divine inspiration and that lack Holy Ghost unction are empty words and are useless for the needs of the soul. The words, expressions and experiences he was preparing to record, in obedience to the impulse of the Holy Spirit, he wanted all who read to know that they were not the result of his own human ability at all, but the divine prompting of "the Word that became God" at the beginning. That divinely prompted Word, when it was faithfully conveyed to human intelligence and believed and obeyed, would be able to lift men up and out of the pits of sin to the plain of God's holiness. Praise our God forever! We note that His own Son, in delivering the message He was sent to convey, insisted repeatedly that the words He spoke were the words He received from His Father. We spent some time observing wisdom's contribution to divine purpose; let us notice a bit of contribution supplied by the Word. "All scripture [Word] is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." II Timothy 3:16-17. All of this is delivered to human understanding through the faculty of the inspired Word.

But this is only the beginning. Isaiah 46:9-10 presents this: "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." James 1:17 offers this: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." These are words sent to man out of the mouth of the very God whose Word is an integral part of Himself, which He has proposed to use in an effort to recover His sin-blighted creation. Take note of some of its pleading: Proverbs 2:1-12, "My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; ...If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest...the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of His saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: to deliver thee from the way of the evil man,..."

Who but an all-wise, all-powerful, Holy God, who is alive and active, could issue such an invitation as this to sinful man and carry it out in reality? This is the work of "the Word of the beginning" that was made God. Little wonder, then, the Psalmist said, "Thy word have I hid in my heart." Oh, precious Lord, may it dwell in us of today! [ The End ]