“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but
fools despise wisdom and discipline.” (Proverbs 1:7, NIV)
Throughout the book of Proverbs, Solomon wrote about fear. Fear,
as Solomon used it, means to be in awe of and to revere. This awe and reverence
occur because of who God is—omnipotent, omniscient, holy, omnipresent,
faithful, good, majestic, etc. It also refers to God’s wisdom given to people
and their obedience to Him based on what God tells them. Once a person becomes
aware of God, that person can either reject Him or accept and obey Him.
Two ways exist to acknowledge the fear of the LORD:
rejecting and accepting. (LORD is YAHWEH in Hebrew.) If a person rejects the
LORD, then chaos and disharmony enter his heart and life and the world around him.
When people acknowledge the LORD and fear Him, they accept Him as God and LORD.
Order and calm occur. This order and calm shows by all creation working together
with peace. Because God created all that exists, God’s knowledge is ultimate.
His wisdom is the greatest. Accepting God as LORD means accepting God and His
wisdom and knowledge. It also means living in harmony and peace with God within
His ultimate plan of peace, calm, order, and harmony.
Fearing the LORD is the “beginning of knowledge,” Solomon
wrote. Since God created all that exists to work at its best and in harmony
with the rest of creation, seeking God’s wisdom and learning from Him causes us
to gain the best knowledge. This knowledge from God, when obeyed, will cause
the best outcome. Fear of the LORD—knowing Him and actively listening to Him—is
from where we learn best. We humans can learn by seeking knowledge by reading,
listening, watching, and doing. In each of these ways, God can teach us when we
seek Him and His wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.
God wants us to seek Him, which we do when we revere Him and
recognize He is sovereign. In our seeking, He will teach us as we listen to Him
and then live out that new knowledge in our lives. Only God teaches the best
lessons by which to live. Living in this way causes us to seek and revere God
more, and may lead us to believe in Jesus, His Son. When we trust in Jesus as our
Savior, He washes our sins from us, gives us eternal life, and gives us an
eternal relationship with God.
Solomon contrasted the person who fears the LORD and
receives knowledge and wisdom from Him. He called a fool the person who does
not fear God. What fools did Solomon write about? Since he contrasted them with
those who revere, learn from and live with wisdom from God, a fool is a person
who does not do these things. The fool’s life causes chaos and discord in his
life, the lives of people around him, and in his relationship with his Creator—the
LORD God.
Solomon taught more about this fool. He said the fool
despises wisdom and discipline. He looks down on the wisdom and discipline a wise
person gets from God. The fool considers the LORD and His children are
insignificant. Because he disconnects himself from God, the source of truth and
good, he is amoral. The fool is selfish, disregarding others and harming
creation. By doing that, he declares these people have no worth to him; he does
not care about them. The fool disconnects himself from God and other people. He
cares not for his social or legal standing in the community. The fool chooses
not to live by the values and judgments of society, which mirror many of God’s
values, ethics, and judgments. This fool possesses self-created wisdom.
Solomon compared the person seeking true wisdom from its
source, God, with the person who does not. He called this person a fool. The seeker
of God gains true wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. He cultivates
discipline, benefiting humanity and nature. The person who seeks God helps keep
calm, harmony, and order in his community and the world. He gains a closer
relationship with God, then comes to believe in His Son, Jesus. This seeker of
God gains his heart’s desire and eternal reward of living with and being in a close
relationship with God. The fool becomes surrounded by discord and chaos. His
wisdom and knowledge will often fail him and others because it comes from the
mind of a fallible. The fool strays from God; intimacy with God eludes him.
What is the remedy for the fool about whom Solomon wrote? Solomon's
recording at the beginning of this verse reads, "Fear the Lord." Yes,
this fear can include fearing judgment for our sins, but it should not stay
that way. For a fool to change, he must arrive at the point of revering God,
seeking Him and His ways, and seeking change in his life. He must come to the
point of confessing and repenting of his sin and believing in Jesus, the Son of
God, as His Savior. When the fool seeks God for His life, he receives calm,
peace, and harmony. The past fool will live in communion with his community
while caring for them and God’s creation. The once foolish man will fear God,
gain wisdom, knowledge, and understanding from its fount—God, and experience
peace within himself and with others. He will be God's child, enjoying eternal
closeness with God.
God should be foremost in our thoughts. Seeking God will
affect our actions, words, and attitude. Taking from Solomon’s thoughts:
1.
Choose to make God and His ways your primary
thoughts and let those affect your words, actions, and thoughts.
2.
Gain knowledge of and from God. Grow in His
wisdom, a gift He gives to those who follow Him.
3.
Give these gifts back to Him as a service
offering.
Your obedience to God
is your offering back to Him from His good gifts of salvation, wisdom,
knowledge, and understanding.
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these (good) things will be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33, BSB)
