Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share The Fear of the Lord is central (WW#8/Prov 1:7)
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
The Fear of the Lord is central (WW#8/Prov 1:7)
Prayer
Father in heaven, I praise you for this day, and for your manifold mercies. I praise you for fresh life today, that you preserved me through the night, and that your enduring patience and mercy has sustained me in Christ Jesus my Saviour. Father, I praise you that I belong to you, and I pray that you would be continually merciful to me for my many sins and failings. Lord, I am sorry for reserving space in my heart for the sins that I have loved, please help me to live in the true fear of you and turn away from sin unto Christ. May you bless your word to me now, please unite my heart to fear your name. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reading
Proverbs 1:7.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge...”
Meditation
The Fear of the LORD is central to wisdom. If we don’t understand the fear of the LORD, we will not understand the Book of Proverbs, and we will not get wisdom. It comes up again and again. Verse seven brings this key theme to us for the first time in the book, and where it sits in the book of Proverbs as a whole says a lot. The Book of Proverbs basically divides into two sections. In chapters one through nine, we have this collection of speeches from a father to his son. These speeches lay the foundations of wisdom. Chapters 10 through 31 then lay out the proverbs proper, the body and collection of wisdom sayings given for our growth in wisdom.
With that bigger picture in mind, zooming in we find that Proverbs 1:1-6 serves as the introduction to the book, and verse seven comes to us as the central thesis. We know that, in the first place, because the verse itself makes that clear: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge”. Without the fear of the LORD there is no starting point! In Proverbs 9:10 (at the conclusion of the first section of the book) we find a similar statement: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight”. Placed at the end of chapter nine, it brackets the entire first section of the book with the fear of the LORD, which shows us it’s importance. My thesis here is explicitly and implicitly confirmed frequently in the rest of the book – the fear of the LORD is the central, unifying concept of wisdom. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, another wisdom book of the Old Testament, we find further proof. In Ecclesiastes 12:13 we read: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
Let me try and illustrate what I mean here by stealing an analogy from another pastor I know of (thank you Pastor Brian Borgman!). The fear of the LORD is to wisdom what the ABCs are to language. Letters in our language are so basic that we all know them, and yet without them there is no language! The fear of the LORD is similar when it comes to wisdom. In Job 28:28, Job himself rightly said: “the Fear of the LORD is wisdom.” So too in Proverbs 15:33 we read “The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom.” If you don’t understand the Fear of the LORD, by definition you can’t understand wisdom. To have wisdom is to fear God.
Now having said all of that, because fear of the Lord so central to Proverbs and wisdom, we need to give this topic some special attention, which we will do across the course of the next few meditations, so be sure to pay close attention.
Be ye doers of the word…
How much thought have you given to the fear of the Lord? I have a simple challenge of application for you today: read John Bunyan’s small volume entitled “the Fear of God.” You can even listen to the audio version available on www.sermonaudio.com Being a fairly short book, it is not overly onerous, and it will do us good to read it. SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Lord my God, unite my heart to fear your name. I do exhibit areas of living where I am not fearing you, but am rather pursuing my own desires. Please forgive me for my brazen self-worship. Lord teach me truly to fear you. I am yours, save me. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe
View all episodes
By Reformed devotions from all of scripture.Prayer
Father in heaven, I praise you for this day, and for your manifold mercies. I praise you for fresh life today, that you preserved me through the night, and that your enduring patience and mercy has sustained me in Christ Jesus my Saviour. Father, I praise you that I belong to you, and I pray that you would be continually merciful to me for my many sins and failings. Lord, I am sorry for reserving space in my heart for the sins that I have loved, please help me to live in the true fear of you and turn away from sin unto Christ. May you bless your word to me now, please unite my heart to fear your name. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reading
Proverbs 1:7.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge...”
Meditation
The Fear of the LORD is central to wisdom. If we don’t understand the fear of the LORD, we will not understand the Book of Proverbs, and we will not get wisdom. It comes up again and again. Verse seven brings this key theme to us for the first time in the book, and where it sits in the book of Proverbs as a whole says a lot. The Book of Proverbs basically divides into two sections. In chapters one through nine, we have this collection of speeches from a father to his son. These speeches lay the foundations of wisdom. Chapters 10 through 31 then lay out the proverbs proper, the body and collection of wisdom sayings given for our growth in wisdom.
With that bigger picture in mind, zooming in we find that Proverbs 1:1-6 serves as the introduction to the book, and verse seven comes to us as the central thesis. We know that, in the first place, because the verse itself makes that clear: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge”. Without the fear of the LORD there is no starting point! In Proverbs 9:10 (at the conclusion of the first section of the book) we find a similar statement: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight”. Placed at the end of chapter nine, it brackets the entire first section of the book with the fear of the LORD, which shows us it’s importance. My thesis here is explicitly and implicitly confirmed frequently in the rest of the book – the fear of the LORD is the central, unifying concept of wisdom. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, another wisdom book of the Old Testament, we find further proof. In Ecclesiastes 12:13 we read: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
Let me try and illustrate what I mean here by stealing an analogy from another pastor I know of (thank you Pastor Brian Borgman!). The fear of the LORD is to wisdom what the ABCs are to language. Letters in our language are so basic that we all know them, and yet without them there is no language! The fear of the LORD is similar when it comes to wisdom. In Job 28:28, Job himself rightly said: “the Fear of the LORD is wisdom.” So too in Proverbs 15:33 we read “The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom.” If you don’t understand the Fear of the LORD, by definition you can’t understand wisdom. To have wisdom is to fear God.
Now having said all of that, because fear of the Lord so central to Proverbs and wisdom, we need to give this topic some special attention, which we will do across the course of the next few meditations, so be sure to pay close attention.
Be ye doers of the word…
How much thought have you given to the fear of the Lord? I have a simple challenge of application for you today: read John Bunyan’s small volume entitled “the Fear of God.” You can even listen to the audio version available on www.sermonaudio.com Being a fairly short book, it is not overly onerous, and it will do us good to read it. SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Lord my God, unite my heart to fear your name. I do exhibit areas of living where I am not fearing you, but am rather pursuing my own desires. Please forgive me for my brazen self-worship. Lord teach me truly to fear you. I am yours, save me. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe