Wise in a Foolish World


It’s simple …

Wisdom DOES NOT come from this WORLD

Proverbs is a book filled with comparison between folly and wisdom.

This book begins by telling us WHERE wisdom comes from ~ it comes from having a fear of God.  Solomon, who wrote most of the proverbs, writes this in the very first chapter … he writes …

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

 New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Pr 1:7). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

What Is ‘Fear of the Lord’?

I’m gonna be honest … I’ve struggled to understand this a bit myself.

I know and have been taught that this kind of fear is about honor and reverence to the Lord. But this all really hit home one day when I was listening to a radio program in my car. The gentleman was talking about fear of the Lord and he talked about there being stages to it.

As a new believer and a young Christian, he talks that there should be some type of true ‘fear’ of God.  The actual “I am afraid” of God kind of fear.  But then we must move on to the fear of the Lord that Solomon talks about here ~ the kind that says “I know and understand the You, oh Lord. You are Pure.  You are Just. You are Sovereign over ALL things. You are a HOLY God that has a standard and You demand that I live by it.  This and much more, I will choose to honor and revere.”

When we KNOW Him and all of His attributes … His glory …. we begin to fear, honor, revere this One and Only Creator God.

LOVE This …

This is how one of my commentaries laid verse 7 out:

The form of this verse in Hebrew may be set out as follows:

Fear-of-the-Lord [is] beginning-of-knowledge (1)
Wisdom and-instruction fools despise (2)

There is a clear contrast between the two lines of this saying: “knowledge” or the person who wants to gain knowledge (line 1) is contrasted with “fools” who do not care for it (line 2). This contrast is where the essential meaning and impact of the saying lie. The parallel expressions that come at the beginning of each of the lines, however, are equivalent in meaning; that is, “wisdom and instruction” are an expression of “fear” or honor towards “the Lord.” This is the essential outlook of the Wisdom school.

Reyburn, W. D., & Fry, E. M. (2000). A handbook on Proverbs (p. 29). New York: United Bible Societies.

Have You Joined ‘The Wisdom School’ Yet?

Begin to get to KNOW and UNDERSTAND God, His promises, His commands and His demonstration of His love for us through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus.

Once we understand that He is a just God  …  and then APPLY that knowledge to our lives (meaning that we truly live it out) … we will begin to live wisely.

Once we truly understand that He is a holy God …. and then APPLY that knowledge to our lives … we will begin to live wisely.

We have lots of choices to make in all of this ~ choose to study these things.  Choose to live out what we learn.  Choose to follow Him and His ways … even when we don’t FEEL like it … This is when we begin to truly honor Him.

This pleases Him and our passion for Him grows … even if we do not notice it ourselves.

Oh, sweet sisters! That we could live like this!  Would you join me in trying to live this way?

Blessings,

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