Fear of the Lord Really is the Beginning of Knowledge
Six Pence Song - April 17 2023 - Includes Later Edits
Proverbs 1:7 (KJV 1900)
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge:
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
The above proverb is the very first proverb in the book of Proverbs in the Bible. As such, it sets the stage for all the proverbs that follow.
I had always felt I understood it: it spoke to the fear of the Lord having a special place where true fear of Him in trembling, not just awe or respect, had a special significance in the sanctification of the believer. One of my first articles on this website speaks much about it here.
However, as I was reading through my favorite verses, and reached this one. I read it, pondered it, went to the next in my compendium, then was drawn back to this one.
It struck me: I had never truly, viscerally, fully understood what was meant by this proverb, even though I thought about it a lot, prayed about it, and wrote quite a bit about fearing God.
I mainly took counsel about fear of God with the Psalms:
Psalm 2:11 (KJV 1900)
11 Serve the LORD with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
Psalm 56:4 (KJV 1900)
4 In God I will praise his word,
In God I have put my trust; I will not fear
What flesh can do unto me.
When you truly fear God, you find your sanctuary: trembling before God, on your knees in contrite humility, you will find your refuge in the Only Wise God, wholly and completely good, omnipotent and omniscient, wholly sovereign and immutable, always keeping His promises to us.
Realizing all this as you fear Him, if your faith is strong enough, if you really believe, if you genuinely fear, you truly will have no fear of man.
The above is all true, but the specific proverb referenced above is talking about something entirely different: I guess, as I pondered and prayed on it, God finally felt the time was right just now for me to truly understand it.
I recalled a time some years ago, around 2010 or 2011 best I can remember, after I had been baptized by the Holy Spirit and saved in 2007, my reaction to reading Matthew for the first time as I started reading the Bible.
My reaction was terror: as I read the Sermon on the Mount, about the indictments of the Pharisees, about so many lost people who would never know heaven, about the narrow way to heaven and its straight gate, and the broad way to hell where most would go, Matthew 24-25 about the rapture, tribulation, and end of the age, the horrific suffering of Jesus on the Cross, the powerful indictment of all of us broken men as sorry, sad, sinful creatures of the flesh, I was struck with sheer terror: how in the world could anyone, especially me, who had been a recalcitrant, prideful--nay, not just prideful, but right arrogant and rebellious blasphemer and sinner most of my adult life--hope to match up to the unattainable heights of righteousness and holiness demanded by God?
My first real reading of any book of the Bible, naturally Matthew being the "obvious choice" as the first book of the New Testament, was a journey in terror and it really got my attention. No wonder it became the first book in the New Testament! There is a lot to justify its place there, just as there is a lot to be said for the lead position of the first proverb of the book of Proverbs.
I had not yet really internalized the truth of God's loving, redemptive purposes through the saving blood of the Cross, even though I had heard of it many times: I just knew that I was a horrible, lost sinner and could never match up. How could I ever NOT go to hell?
Later, when I decided to remarry my ex-wife, the first reason I gave to her was that if I did not remarry her and thus cancel my sin of divorce with no proper biblical reason, I would go to hell! As you can see, I really believed all this Bible stuff, at least in my own, flawed, half-formed, misbegotten way at the time!
Fear was, indeed, the start of my long journey of Bible study, seeking wise counsel from godly men I trust, going to church and Sunday School, attending Bible studies, and eventually auditing classes in seminary: all of it. Fear was the beginning of all the knowledge I would come to know, the knowledge that really matters.
That verse speaks then to the beginning of knowledge, just as it so obviously says! We must continue in fear throughout our ever-so-brief slice of time on this earth as we do our chores, praising and worshipping God, helping bring souls to Christ, and loving and helping our neighbors sacrificially, but here, it is talking about the beginning of it all.
The knowledge found in the Bible is what really matters because it is God's self revelation first and foremost, but also the only truly immutable, inerrant, effective, sufficient, and truthful guide to relationship between God and man, relationship between Christians and heathens, relationship in marriage, God's wonderful design for human flourishing, God's glorious plan of redemption and salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and so much more: in a word, Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Once you have that fear and trembling as you kneel in awe at His majesty, power, and goodness, unvarnished and untainted by softening of the true words of the Bible as originally written to fit cultural sensitivities, and fully believed with childlike faith that God, Abba, Father, is real, and that the Bible is His glorious revelation to all mankind: only then can the real life in truth start.
The Bible is indeed the only absolute truth ever penned that we can ever truly trust this side of heaven, and true humility in fear starts that road to Christlikeness all Christians are to walk until brought home or Christ returns.
It was indeed my own witness, my own testimony, my own story and experiences in my walk with Christ, recalled by me today as I read that first of many proverbs, that God used to finally reveal to me its true meaning in all its fullness and glory.
Just as fear set the stage for my entire story in Christ, and has a hefty hand in keeping me on the narrow way to rewards in heaven, so this first of proverbs sets the stage for all the rest, and, indeed, gives us the proper attitude, in fear and trembling, reverently and in humility, with childlike faith, strong and untainted by cultural equivocation, to read and heed all of scripture.
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After I wrote this article and emailed the link to a few family members and friends, I got an email back that prompted me to re-read and re-think the above article. I answered that letter, and decided to just add my reply below instead of trying to rework my entire article with it in mind: it seemed to be better than my original article above anyway.
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[edited]
Dear _______,
I realize my article needs some perspective. I wanted to share this perspective with more of the family, and will use it in my article later.
Thanks for your reply and making this happen.
A quick survey of the history of mankind will show to the thoughtful and honest soul the true depravity of man against man during almost his entire existence on earth.
Only then can one appreciate the necessity of such verses to effectively get the natural man's attention and start him on the road to God's grace and mercy, faith, hope, and love.
One just cannot truly understand until placing one's faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and with the Holy Spirit inside guiding and illuminating, read the Bible and search it diligently and prayerfully, alone and with others, with trust, and without cynicism or preconceived notions that it is evil rather than good.
The doctrine of fear of God is a harsh saying, but when one comes to know the absolute, pure, and untainted goodness of God, and His tender mercies, gifts of grace and mercy unmerited, His loving purposes, and desire to redeem all mankind from their sin nature, and conquer once and for all even death, only then can one see that these words, the truths in them, must be revealed and spoken to: they reflect the unfortunate true nature of fallen men in a broken world.
Look at America right now, rent asunder perhaps mortally down the middle by lies fomenting hatred, and possibly heading for bloody civil war, and mass-murdering living, viable, innocent, and helpless unborn children by the tens of millions every year simply to willfully help advance the perverse and sinful sexual revolution; Russia and China where tens of millions were murdered as communist regimes consolidated power and banished God; the Middle East and all of the Ancient Near East with her story of war, brutality, torture, and genocide going back to pre-history; Vlad the Impaler; Genghis Kahn and the Mongol Horde which led China to build The Great Wall of China in an unsuccessful attempt at self defense; the endless cycle of war in Western Europe that seemed to leave little hope for an end to unsufferable, almost constant conflict.
WWI with chemical and trench warfare that was so horrific it gave rise to global rules of engagement for future wars; German Nazis, Japan, Italy, and Russia during WWII, evil so absolute it hearkens back to the netherworld of pagan, brutish, pre-historic man; the forgotten war in Korea whose legacy left intact one of the most oppressive and brutal communist regimes in history in North Korea; the brutality of the French Revolution where God was banished and the blood of innocents flowed furiously red from the guillotines; the depravity, brutality, and oppression of ancient Rome; the absolute, unutterable evil and reveling in torture of the ancient Assyrians; the unrestrained perversity and oppressive brutality of ancient democratic Greece.
Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, and the killing fields of Cambodia; the ancient, repeated cycles of war and brutality in southeast Asia and Vietnam; the long, brutal history of tribal warfare still happening even today in the dark continent, Africa; the long, sad saga of most of ancient mankind of child and adult sacrifice (often young virgins) and cult prostitution, torture, real genocide, and cannibalism; the hydrogen bomb.
The long, brutal histories of every continent where man drew breath going back beyond pre-history.
Would it really help for God to sugarcoat that true reality? Isn't it best to call out the true brutality of fallen man to properly get man's attention so he turns to God in humility and knowledge of his true sin nature: to learn a better way, to free himself from the bondage in chains of sin once and for all to soar high and free on the wings of eagles starting at the foot of the cross?
Fear redeemed my marriage, but not just fear: faith, hope, and love were the true reasons in the end. Blinded by the lies of Satan, it took fear to start the process: fear of God first banished the lies and opened my eyes to my sin, but God's plan of love, mercy, and redemption in holy matrimony is what brought us truly back together.
God's miracles, truth, and love saved my life, literally, many times, just like it saved my marriage.
The voluntary sacrifice of His only begotten Son on the Cross for the salvation of me and all believers paid once for all the ransom I could never pay to free myself from the true penalty of my sinful nature and seal me as a believer unto the day when all things are made brand new and death and evil once and for all banished for all who repent of their sin and confess the risen Christ as Lord and Savior.
I owe Him everything I have, even my own life: how can I not share that, and not only the good parts, but also the difficult parts to give the whole truth so others can benefit from my story, come to Christ, and have eternal life in ecstasy in heaven rather than eternal death in agony burning in a lake of fire and sulphur in hell?
Praise God. Thanks be to God.