The Fear Of The Lord Is The Beginning of Wisdom
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Psalm 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.
James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
Proverbs 2:1-22 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life. Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
I asked the Lord what He wanted us to study next and after going through a number of different things, I finally came to this subject and it seems to be what He desires for us to look at. I’d like to attempt to do this a little differently though. I’d really like this to be “interactive” if you’re willing to participate, rather then just me writing what I discover in His Word. So at the end of each part of the study, I’d like to take a day to discuss what we have already done as well as what we can or feel that we should be doing in the future to apply what we learn here. I’d also appreciate it if you would each share any insights the Lord has given you about the subject.
Now, let’s look at see what the Bible says about the fear of the Lord. I’ve noticed this term cropping up in a number of the studies we’ve done lately, so it makes sense for us to take a closer look at it. I think the very first thing that comes to mind when we talk about the fear of the Lord is a verse I’m sure we’re all very familiar with, which says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (Psalm 111:10) and in another which says it is the beginning of knowledge. (Proverbs 1:7)
The word translated, “beginning” is actually Rē’šîṯ and means “the start” as well as the “capstone or essence” of something. To me that says that God is the essence of wisdom and knowledge. We know that those who do not have the Holy Spirit, cannot understand the things of God, (1 Cor 2:10-16) so it must be fruitless to simply seek wisdom without first seeking the One who is the very essence of it.
In Psalm 111:10 it says: “all who follow his precepts have good understanding.” A precept is a command or principal, and this seems to be indicating that the fear of the Lord also causes you to obey and follow His commands and live by His principals.
Then in Proverbs 1:7 it says: “but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” This then also brings discipline into the picture. We’ve seen in our other studies that discipline comes up quite a bit in God’s Word too. In fact, for us who are born again, the Bible says:
2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
The word translated “self-discipline” (or sound mind in the KJV) is actually sōphronismos which means disciplined or self-controlled. It often hits me how God’s ways are so much the opposite of what the world teaches us. This is true even of being disciplined. God tells us throughout His Word how only fools say there is no God and talks about people who have gained what we would consider worldly knowledge, really know nothing at all, even though they think they are vastly more intelligent then we are. Let me include some of those verses for us as well:
1 Corinthians 3:18-20 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
1 Corinthians 1:19-21 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
1 Corinthians 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
To me that says there is no true knowledge or wisdom to be had apart from that which we can only get from the Lord. This world is really stuck on education and prides itself on how educated the people of the world are. Even churches have leaned toward only accepting pastors that have passed certain of the worlds standards for education, regardless of whether or not the Lord has called someone to preach! Yet the Lord tells us that all true knowledge and wisdom comes only from Him, not from our schools! All true knowledge and wisdom comes only from Him and we can only receive that knowledge and wisdom under certain conditions. The first condition He has given is that we must first “fear Him”. The verse from James and the one from Proverbs 2 tells us what the other condition is: we must seek Him and ask Him for it. I especially like how the passage in proverbs puts it because what it is really describing isn’t how we seek wisdom, but how we need to seek the Lord Himself. Compare what it says with these other verses:
Proverbs 2:3-6 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Luke 11:9-10 “So I say to you: 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; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
For us, during this age of Grace or Church age as it is sometimes called, the first requirement for wisdom is that we be saved. For it is only through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we can understand the things of God. Again though, salvation is just the beginning of the journey. It appears that our wisdom can only grow as much as our fear of the Lord grows. The fear of the Lord only grows as much as we are willing to put into our search of understanding Him. The more we seek Him, the closer we try to be to Him, the more our fear will grow and the more wisdom we will attain.
Very quickly before we end, I’d like to share an example of the “fear of the Lord”, just to make sure we are all on the same page when we’re talking about it:
Genesis 22:12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
I’m sure we’re all very familiar with this story. It’s a really good example of someone who “feared the Lord”, someone who really did put God above everything and everyone else in his life. What an amazing faith Abraham had! It’s my desire to have that kind of faith. It is that kind of faith that brings wisdom. He must have been one amazing man to know and I can’t wait to have a chance to talk to him when we get to heaven!
For the rest of today and tomorrow then, let’s discuss what all this means to us now; how we either have already applied it to our lives, and/or how we can apply it now; as well as any other insights the Lord has given us about this subject—and it’s a big one too! We’ve already mentioned some of the elements we’ve found about the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, as being, discipline, seeking Him, being saved, obedience, etc. May the Lord guide us each as we share with each other and learn what He has to teach us!
