“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” 1:7
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." 9:10 The two verses printed above are familiar to us and we often hear them quoted. They sound good, but I’m not sure that we understand what they really mean. At least, we do not understand their spiritual depth, nor do we understand what a difference heeding them can make in our lives. Without appearing to be all-wise, I want to share my thoughts on these verses when I read them this morning. Both of them begin with “the fear of the Lord…” This sounds ominous to people who are not familiar with the Bible. It is not telling us to merely be afraid of the Lord, but to hold Him in great reverence. This is illustrated for us in Exodus 3:5, where Moses encountered the Lord at the “Burning Bush.” He was told: “Draw not near here: put off your shoes from off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” The ground was holy because God was there. Moses was not told to run for his life, but he was to simply take off his shoes in reverence for God. I think that we can say that this means that we should never take God lightly, and that we are to always take Him seriously. We can make light of, and joke about many things, but God is never a joke and He is never to be taken lightly. Hey, He’s God! Both verses tell us what the fear of the Lord is the beginning of: 1:7 tells us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” 9:10 tells us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” In other words, if we do not fear and reverence God, we are not very smart. Wisdom is defined as “prudence and common sense” in The American Century Dictionary. The same dictionary defines knowledge as, “the sum of what is known.” It is possible to have a form of knowledge without wisdom. The fear of God takes both into account. This means that when we act counter to what we know about God, we are not acting in wisdom. Prudence and common sense would tell us that it is smart to have enough reverence and respect for God to take His will and His way into account in our actions. I don’t suppose that there is a person on this earth who acts in perfect knowledge and wisdom in obedience to God, but we need to try. The Bible is replete with stories about people who stepped outside of the wisdom and knowledge that they had of God, and paid a dear price for it. One glaring example is Israel. They were warned when they went into Canaan not to get caught up in the religions of the people who already lived there. First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings and First and Second Chronicles all remind us of the foolishness of not fearing God more than the desire to sin. Both verses close with words to the wise: 1:7 “…but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Obviously, the world’s definition of fools is different from the Bible’s. For example, to the world, Paul would have been a fool for continuing to preach Jesus and start churches in spite of persecution. The world would consider a person who stands on the word of God against public opinion, a foolish person. But according to 1:7, Paul was a wise person, for he stood on the wisdom and instruction of God. Fear of God has to trump fear of the world for one to be considered a wise person according to the Bible. 9:10 concludes: “….and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Do you see how these two verses, separated by eight chapters, fit together like hand and glove? A person who has understanding knows that he or she needs to be right with God. To not be right with God is to be foolish. To the world, this might be a matter of opinion, but in the Bible it is not. We can’t decide to live how we want to live and ignore the word of God. Most of us probably know this by experience. If you do not, thank God for it. Based on these verses, are you a wise or foolish person? Consider the importance of the wisdom and knowledge of God in your life. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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