From Godly Wife to the Holy Trinity

“Does not wisdom call, and understanding lift up her voice? On top of the heights beside the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates, at the opening to the city, at the entrance of the doors, she cries out: ‘...now therefore, O sons, listen to me, for blessed are they who keep my ways. Heed instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts. For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD’” (Proverbs 8:1-3,32-35).

The godly wife is a picture of God’s gracious gift of wisdom:

• “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD” (Proverbs 18:22).
• “House and wealth are an inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD” (Proverbs 19:14).

Proverbs is written in the format of a drama: a father and mother are sending their adult son out into the world with a summation of godly advice and counsel. To make sure the young man really hears their words, the parents describe wisdom as something this young man naturally has at the top of his list: finding a wife. Wisdom, the perfect godly woman, is a regularly-reoccurring theme throughout Proverbs. She is set in opposition to the strange woman (“strange,” or adulterous, describing her place outside of the covenant with God), Foolishness.

The godly wife is an arrow pointing to God’s perfect wisdom for the man of God. That’s not the end of the meditation, though. God’s wisdom is not an abstract idea. He is a Person.

• “The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42).
• “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, Who became to us wisdom from God...so that, just as it is written, ‘LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD’” (1 Corinthians 1:30,31).

Husband, as you love your wife in Christ, see her as the reflection of the Wisdom of the Father: God the Son, Jesus Christ. Husband, as you love your wife in Christ, see her as the gift of God, a reflection of the perfect gift of the Father, the “Spirit of wisdom” (Isaiah 11:2). May the Father's gift of the Spirit help us draw closer to the Son, the true and perfect wisdom of God, through the wisdom of our gracious and prudent wife of the covenant.

Love her, and may her wisdom draw your heart closer to the Wisdom of the Father (the Son, "Who became to us the wisdom of God"), and the Father's Gift, (the Spirit of Wisdom).