I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me (Proverbs 8:17).

Wisdom is not just a concept in the Proverbs of the Bible; it's a person.  It's a person with a physical presence, a bold and resonant voice which rises above the cacophony of Jerusalem's city streets and breath scented with spiced wine and roast beef.  This Wisdom of the Proverbs is far from an ethereal abstraction; s/he is highly personal -- even confrontational, in a good way.  Like a beloved grandparent who's not about to let you into their house for a visit without an affectionate embrace of welcome.

The more that I read the Proverbs, the more I am convinced that this personal manifestation of Wisdom is none other than a foreshadowing of Jesus himself.

There are such obvious parallel quotations, comparing lines from the Proverbs and lines from Jesus in the New Testament.  It's almost like some ingenious plot device that might never stand out to you unless your 12th grade English teacher points it out to you -- but when you finally see it, your mind is boggled.  Proverbs 8:17, for instance, is strongly echoed in a number of different New Testament passages.  Its themes of reciprocated love and success for seekers are picked up and amplified through the Gospels, the Epistles, and the book of Revelation.  In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."  Then, in 1 John 4:7-8, it says, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."  And again, in Revelation 3:20, Jesus calls out:  "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."  As you can see, all of these statements are reverberations of Proverbs 8:17, and in a sense they're all suggesting that Wisdom and Jesus are basically interchangeable.

Pretty cool, huh?  Even better than 12th grade English literature...