J Julius Wood
Proverbs 8:34. Blessed is the man that heareth Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors.
The Wisdom who speaks throughout this chapter, and in various other parts of the Book of Proverbs, is generally, and beyond question rightly, understood to be the Messiah. Wisdom is one of the Messiah’s names, and there is plainly good reason for that name to be given to Him; for the Scriptures tell us that in Him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom”. He reveals to us the character and the will of God and thus makes us wise unto salvation, and He is expressly called “the Wisdom of God”. It is Jesus Christ who speaks to us in all the Scriptures, whatever instrument is employed – whether a priest or a prophet or an evangelist or an apostle.
How then ought we to hear the instruction which Wisdom has revealed in the Word? Let the Messiah Himself answer: “Watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors”. The gates of the Messiah and the posts of His doors are any means which He has appointed for obtaining knowledge of His will, but chiefly they are the places of public worship and the ordinances in which people unite to praise the Lord and receive instruction from His Word. And how is attendance to be given there? “Blessed is the man that heareth Me,” says Jesus Christ, “watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors.”
Can the half-day hearer lay any claim to the blessedness of which the Messiah here speaks? It is quite enough, he says, to go to church once a day. He goes because he thinks it decent to go. He does not go to be made wiser or better, to enter into communion with God, to delight himself in Jesus and His salvation. Is there anything like watching at Wisdom’s gates in such attendance on ordinances, anything like waiting at the posts of Wisdom’s doors? Verily, of waiting and watching there is none. And consequently there can be none of the blessedness which Wisdom mentions.
But people may go a step farther in hearing and yet come short of the blessing which Messiah connects with hearing. They may attend all the Sabbath services, and there may be neither watching nor waiting. The Sabbath comes round, and as a matter of course they go out to occupy their accustomed pew in the house of God. But with that they rest satisfied. Some popular preacher may sometimes draw them out on a weekday. But to go to receive instruction or to worship God in Spirit and in truth on a
1Taken, with editing, from The Christian’s Daily Companion. Wood (1800-1877) was at this time minister of New Greyfriars’ church in Edinburgh.
weekday is something for which they have no inclination, and they deem it altogether unnecessary.
Can they claim the Messiah’s blessing – the blessing of those who hear Him, watching daily at His gates, waiting at the posts of His doors? Let them answer. Watching daily and waiting imply earnest desire and diligent endeavour. Where there is earnest desire, it will not be pent up within the limits of one day. It will embrace every opportunity of watching for its object. And while the believer chiefly honours the Lord’s Day, he will seek, as he has opportunity, his daily spiritual bread; he will certainly prefer an hour in the Lord’s house to one spent in worldly vanity, and he will redeem from his business a portion for his soul’s refreshment. When you look at the thin attendance at most weekday sermons and see the multitudes of idle people who then throng our streets, and the similar multitudes who, though occupied with business, might often redeem an hour for their soul’s good, do you think that the Messiah speaks of any of them when he says, “Blessed is the man that heareth Me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of My doors”?
But there are numbers who think that their acquaintance with Bible truth is great, and there remains little further for them to learn. When the things that the Messiah teaches, in the Word, are stated to them fully and plainly, they reply that they know it all. But do you have peace of conscience? Is your soul at rest? Have you found a satisfying portion? If not, there is something in the Scriptures which you have not yet learned. There is a knowledge to be drawn from them to which you have not yet attained. There is an acquaintance with the Bible to which you are yet a stranger.
How much carelessness and indifference there is among the ordinary hearers of the Word; many of them think there is little more for them to learn about divine truth! Yet such an opinion is utterly groundless. Who of the most learned has exhausted human knowledge, or any branch of it? Strange folly then to think of having learned all divine truth! In the Bible there is food for babes and strong meat for strong men. There are truths which those who have just been born of the Spirit can easily comprehend, and there are things into which the angels desire to look. Diligent waiting on ordinances, careful study, prayerful meditation and honest obedience lead to continued progress in divine knowledge, exercising a sanctifying influence on the affections and the life. Hence the blessedness of which the Messiah speaks, which consists in the life, the light, the vigour, the holiness, the happiness of the soul.
What is my character? Am I a half-day hearer and so think that I do very well? Or am I someone who confines my waiting on religious instruction to the Sabbath and have no relish or desire for spiritual refreshment at other times? Or do I think that I already know enough of these matters, and am
therefore indifferent about further knowledge? If this is my character, let me understand that the Messiah does not speak of me when He says, “Blessed is the man that heareth Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors.”