I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
In Proverbs 8, Wisdom speaks in the first person and promises love in return for love. Two questions follow: who is this Speaker, and what does it take to find Him?
A Speaker Who Can Love
The verse turns on something an abstract idea cannot do. Wisdom does not just describe itself. It says it loves.
VariousIt is possible for a person to love a quality. A man may love truth, honesty, beauty, and so on. But a quality cannot love. Here Wisdom says, "I love those who love Me." Wisdom can love. Wisdom has a heart of affection. A quality is an abstract idea. It becomes real only when someone puts it into practice. A quality cannot love; a Person can. Thank God, we are not left here with a mere abstraction. We meet a real living Person.
The Identity Behind the Voice
Later in the chapter, the same Speaker makes a claim about His own origin that settles who He must be.
A J PollockSolomon traces it to a time when there was no beginning. He writes as if Wisdom personified were speaking: "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth existed" (chap. 8:23). Only One who is God could say that. It is Deity who speaks here.
Love That Answers Love
God's love reaches everyone. This verse describes something narrower, and it has a dark reverse side.
L M Grant"I love those who love Me, and those who seek me diligently shall find Me" (v. 17). God's love is so great that "He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Yet the Lord Jesus shows a special character of love toward those who respond to His love. On the other hand, His very nature is to hate wickedness. So those who foolishly choose wickedness place themselves under the same hatred as their choice.
Loved for Its Own Sake
Love and diligent seeking go together in this verse. One writer traces both back to the heart itself.
J. N. DarbyBut there is another point that applies to all hearts: loving wisdom for its own sake, and seeking it with diligence of heart. That means real delight in God's wisdom itself, and the sense that we are bound to live it out. Wisdom is loved for its own sake, and diligence of heart seeks it as a duty laid on us.
A Promise That Never Fails
The promise is not held back for rulers and great men. It reaches anyone who prizes wisdom, and it comes with a guarantee. (Older translations read "seek me early" where the ESV has "seek me diligently".)
William KellyBut wisdom goes out far beyond rulers and the great, even to all that seek and prize it. "I love those who love me; and those who seek me earnestly will find me." This is always the way in divine pursuits. Those that are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. God has no blanks for the real.
Rising Early
Writers read "early" in more than one sense. Some take it as earnestness in the search. One takes it plainly: the first hours of the day, and first place in daily habits.
William J HockingAlways remember that throughout your lives first things belong to God. Be out early in the morning, while the dew is still on the ground. Then you can gather your own daily portion of the fresh manna given for that day. Remember also that however early you rise to seek the meeting place, the Lord will be there first. His meal will be ready and waiting for you.
The same writer links this promise to a later word of Christ, so that finding Him becomes real experience.
William J HockingThe Lord does not deny His own word. And Christ, the wisdom of God, said long ago, "I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me early shall find Me" (Prov. 8:17). He has further promised those that keep His commandments that He will manifest Himself to them as He does not to the world (John 14:21).
Summary
- Person — a quality cannot love, yet Wisdom says it loves; so the Speaker here is a living Person.
- Deity — the same Speaker claims to be from everlasting, before the earth existed. Only God could say that.
- Answer — God's love reaches everyone. Christ shows a special love to those who love Him back.
- Diligence — love wisdom for its own sake and seek it with diligence of heart, not for what it pays.
- Certainty — the promise reaches every seeker who prizes wisdom. God has no blanks for the real, and however early you rise, He is there first.