Take a moment and contemplate Solomon’s statement in Proverbs 8.23: “I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth was made.”

If someone were to ask you what God created first, you would probably look at Genesis and say that “light” was the first created thing. And, when it comes to the creation of the physical universe that is true (Gen. 1.3-5). However, in another sense there was something “brought forth” long before God created the earth. In Proverbs we see “wisdom” personified: “When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth; while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the beginning of the dust of the world.  When he established the heavens, I was there” (Prov. 8.24-27).

Sadly, some fallaciously teach that Proverbs 8 is a description of Christ and have concluded that He was a created being. Christ was not created, but is eternal, and in fact, the Creator of everything! (See John 1.1-3; Col. 1.15-16; Heb. 1.1-3)

This should not come as a surprise to us. Wisdom, God’s moral system for the whole universe, has always been there. God didn’t think it up after He created Adam and Eve or after their transgression. It didn’t come to His mind when He had to destroy the earth by flood because of humanity’s wickedness. Nor did God have to create it or think it up when He gave His people the Ten Commandments.

Wisdom is a part of God’s divine nature. Just as He is all knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent), and present everywhere (omnipresent), so He has all wisdom. God’s moral nature is eternal. The moral laws that come from God are more important than the physical laws that He gave to govern the universe. Our physical earth and everything in it will pass away, but the laws of God will abide forever (Matt. 24.35).

What does this mean for us? Only God and His Word are important in this life. Wisdom concludes by saying,

For whoso finds me finds life . . . but he that sins against me wrongs his own soul; all they that hate me love death (Prov. 8.35-36)

 As John wrote,

And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2.17)

[-Adapted, BTW]