Transcript

Podcast Introduction

Today our reading is Proverbs 14-15. Afterwards, I’ll have some thoughts to share with you, and I’m calling today’s episode “Shelter From the Storm.”

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In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence and his children have a refuge.Proverbs 14:26  HCSB

In doing background study on these chapters that are so full of wisdom, I came upon some notes by Joseph Parker in “The People’s Bible” about this verse.

The Fear of the Lord

“In no book probably is the fear of the Lord so elaborately described as to its nature and its application as the book of Proverbs. Throughout the whole of the Bible the fear of the Lord is declared to be the beginning of wisdom. It is not a servile fear; the worshiper here is not a croucher, waiting in an abject position in order to be noticed by a tyrannical despot: fear means reference, veneration, awe, a sense of the grandeur and majesty of the Lord, not only as that term stands for infinity, brilliance, and attributes of an intellectual kind, but as it stands for holiness, truth, purity, justice, and every expression that indicates moral supremacy. 

Not Afraid

He who fears the Lord is strong in the confidence of ultimate justice; he is confident also in the final exposition of Providence, being assured that the way of God to man will be so revealed at last that it will be seen to have been the right way, the only true way, notwithstanding the varieties of the road, the steep hills, the bleak deserts, the stony paths, the cold rivers that had to be crossed in the dark night, the afflictions that had to be endured when the heart and flesh had failed and strength had been exhausted —at the last it will be seen that God has not given one stroke too much, taken away one treasure too many, or dug one grave too deep; the righteous will be the first to confess that God has done all things wisely, well, and lovingly.

A Loving Father

A beautiful expression is “his children.” Here in the very midst of the Proverbs we find the sublime doctrine of the fatherhood of God. Here too we find that God's children need a place of refuge; they have often to flee from the storm, from the wrath of man, and from an apparently angry nature, for every law seems to fight against them; blessed be God, when all outward things are marked by an excitement of an apparently uncontrollable kind, are heaving and tossing as if shaken by an earthquake, the children of God can go not to law but to the lawmaker himself, yea, to the very heart of God, and there can rest in hope and confidence, and while the storm howls without around the rock of the sanctuary, that holy place can be filled with sacred and triumphant song. Have we really endeavored to find a refuge in God?”

There are many places where the fear of the Lord is spoken of. Remember Joseph Parker’s beautiful words the next time you read the phrase “the fear of the Lord.”

Today's Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today's episode: Ch. 14-15 HCSB

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