STAND STRONG
STAND STRONG
6.10 - First Things First, Part 1
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge..." In our pursuit of true knowledge and wisdom, the Proverbs are clear we need to start from and build upon the fear of the Lord – but what is the fear of the Lord? And how does that help us in our pursuit of wisdom?
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Paul and Noah both preach and teach with the Cedar Park church of Christ in Cedar Park, TX. You can visit our site at: https://www.cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/
Well, hello again, and welcome to all who are joining us today in this season six of our Proverbs project. We're dealing with text from the book of Proverbs, wisdom, or God's wisdom, I should say, Noah, that's going to help us live life with the least amount of difficulties. And I think today where we said we were going to go is first things first. So what episode is this?
Noah:Oh, yeah, it's episode 10 episode 10. And here we are first things first,
Paul:but you know, I'm going to read just a couple of Proverbs here and then I think the people that are listening can see why we gave the title of this one first things first So proverbs just starts out in chapter 1 proverbs chapter 1 number 7 the fear of the lord is the beginning And then Proverbs 10, again, the fear of the Lord is this time the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. So we've got the fear of the Lord being the beginning of knowledge and the fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom. So when we said first things first, That, that was just a fanciful way of, of us deciding that we wanted to talk about the fear of the Lord, what that language means, and it's used quite often, Noah, here in the Proverbs.
Noah:That's right. It is. And I think that it. Is stated so early in the book of Proverbs for a reason. I think in many ways, it is when we say first things first. Yeah, we laugh because we're, you know, maybe halfway through this season and we're, we're just now bringing it up, but it's not, it doesn't have to be first in chronology. It has to be first in foundation. It's fundamental is the idea. In fact, when I was, when I was getting ready for this and doing some studying and reading, I ran across this quote I'd never read before. I don't know anything about the person that said it, but I really liked this quote. Commenting on chapter 1 verse 7, they said, What the alphabet is to reading, notes to reading music, and numerals to mathematics, the fear of the Lord is to attaining the revealed knowledge of this book.
Paul:Ooh, I love that.
Noah:Yeah. I thought that was really helpful in the sense of establishing. What does it mean that it is the beginning of knowledge? Well, before you can read, you have to learn the alphabet before you can read music. You have to learn the notes before you can do math. You have to be able to count zero to nine or one to 10. You have to have the fear of the Lord. If you're going to actually understand the wisdom. Now, this guy said of the book of Proverbs, Personally, I would extend that beyond the book of the Proverbs, and I would say true wisdom that reflects the character of God is only going to be understood truly in the context of a fear of God.
Paul:That's excellent. Absolutely. I've got this down in the margin of one of my Bibles. When I was going through the Proverbs project for the first time, I put the central prerequisite in And I probably stole that from somewhere, but that lines up very well with what you said. So here's what we find out very early. What Solomon does or the Lord through Solomon, he states the purpose of Proverbs and that's to impart wisdom, but this cannot be done without the fear of the Lord. And so he starts in chapter one telling us about the fear of the Lord being the beginning of knowledge. He contrasts that with fools despising wisdom instruction. And then some 30 chapters later. He'll tell us about a woman of noble character in Proverbs 31 is one who fears the Lord. And if you, if you just sandwiched between, he starts with the fear of the Lord, he ends with the fear of the Lord and, and between chapter one and chapter 31, I think Proverbs gives two defining traits of those who fear the Lord. And that's kind of where we're going to go a little bit today. Those who fear the Lord, trust him instead of their own wisdom. That's chapter three. And those who fear the Lord hate evil and turn from it. And that's chapter eight, chapter 16. So it's just sandwiched between, like you have bookends about the fear of the Lord. Here's where I wanted us to go, Noah, I think it's a good thing for us to go today with this. What is the fear of the Lord? And what, what's what word fear is a big word. What are we talking about?
Noah:Yeah, there's I think sometimes there's some confusion about it. There's certainly an, an a, abundance of discussion around this idea. And I think too often we try to distill the concept of the fear of the Lord. This phrase, like you said, it is a repeated phrase. There's almost a sense in which you could say it's idiomatic where it's, it's not the literal meaning is not simply fear of the Lord, but it has taken on its own meaning in the, in the words of the authors. So, yeah. Oftentimes, we try to distill it probably too much down into either, well, it's fear as in awe or reverence, or it's, it's fear as in a healthy respect, or it's fear as in it's, you know, you're groveling on the ground before, you know, the greatest power you've ever met. And it can only be one of those things. And I think as we read through the Proverbs, what we see is this fear of the Lord. It's all of those things, to one degree or another, that understanding who God is should produce in us all of that in the context of fear. We should have a reverence, we should have a respect, and we should have a fear, in the more typical English word, way we use that word.
Paul:Right.
Noah:Of God.
Paul:Yeah. Yeah. I think that's, that's well said. And we could go outside of Proverbs because again, to understand a concept in scripture, you've got to get all that scripture says about it. But we could go outside of the context of Proverbs. Hebrews 12 talks about serving God acceptably with reverence and godly fear or awe. Yeah. Hebrews 12 Philippians two, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And you, and you, you understand in, in those two passages, along with even concepts in the Old Testament, there ought to be a terror that is within us at the thought of being displeasing to God. Our God is a consuming fire. There's a sense in which there is great respect for who He is. He is God. I am not God.
Noah:Right.
Paul:His power is unmatched. If you just, even if you just had a discussion about His holiness,
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:You know, but yes, but then I liked where you went with this. It's, there's not this slavish fear shrinking back like, Oh man, God's just looking, you know, to get me this cosmic cop up in heaven. But there is a sense in when, when we get to know him. That's why it's the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of knowledge. It's, it's a journey to get to know God better, to understand his character, who he is. And when we come to understand and to know him, there naturally is a reverence, respect and awe or a loving. Respect we should say for who he is. Yeah, his person, but also his promises.
Noah:Yes. And that's, it's important to start here because where we're going to end up going is we're going to talk about what does that produce? Okay. So if, if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, How does it produce that knowledge? How in us and what else does it produce in us? But before we get to that again, we don't want to get the cart before the horse. If this is the beginning, then let's spend some time appreciating, making sure that we understand what that is. And so I really like what you said just a moment ago, as far as kind of fleshing out what that fear, how that fear can be seen in us, the attitudes and the relationship that's implied there to understand that this fear is going to produce something in us is something that's helpful for understanding what the fear is. Because if we, like we've said a couple different ways now, if we are coming to grips with. God, as he presents himself, his character, his nature, then we should fear him. So, when we see God in all of his power, we should feel awe. Right. Right. We should feel awe. This this sense of wonder at the immense power when we see the character of god as it's demonstrated in his love We should also be struck with awe But it's a different kind of awe the fact that a god with all of that power Is using that power to demonstrate his love towards me. That is that is awesome And it humbles us. So we can see how what really comes to is when we're for lack of a better term off the top of my head, assessing God's character, the fear of the Lord is coming to an accurate understanding of who he is, his nature, and appreciating the response that that should evoke in us.
Paul:Right. You know, one of the, one of the texts in Proverbs, I mean, very early, it's in chapter two, that helped me, Noah, was When it mentions the fear of the Lord and it makes a very close connection to the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God. In fact, it's, what I think it's saying is the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God are reciprocal. They're complementary. They are obviously connected. So let me just read you the first five verses in Proverbs 2. And there's a lot being said here, but Proverbs 2, the first five verses. Proverbs 2. Turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding. And if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you search for wisdom as for silver or a hidden treasure, here's the point, verse 5, then you will understand the fear of the Lord, okay, and find the knowledge of God. Well, to understand the fear of the Lord and to find the knowledge of God, and those are reciprocal, They're absolutely connected and complimentary one to the other. That's not going to happen unless I incline my heart to wisdom, unless I want to accept the word. If I'm not listening, I'm not going to hear. If I don't have eyes to see, I'm not going to see. So we want to understand. The things that you and I have been talking about that have to do with this fear of the Lord, and we want to find the knowledge of God. And I would suggest that Proverbs 2 is telling us that when we find the knowledge of God, it's the result of a heart that's wanting to seek Him in reverence and in awe.
Noah:Absolutely. That's such an important point for us to, to Hit on here in this part of the discussion, because sometimes when we hear the words knowledge or wisdom, we automatically think in terms of intelligence. And I mean, there's no doubt that God is supremely intelligent, more so than any human can ever fathom. But when we start thinking in terms of simply intelligence. Smartness, you know, intelligence, then we've disconnected true knowledge and true wisdom from its source intelligence as far as you know, what a person might be capable of mentally is not connected to this true knowledge. It's not connected to this true wisdom. If you continue reading there in Proverbs chapter two, immediately following what you said it says for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding he stores up sound wisdom for the upright he is a shield to those who walk in integrity guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his Saints between Proverbs 1 7 and the first eight verses of Proverbs chapter 2 what we have to keep bear in mind is it doesn't matter how intelligent we are if we do not fear God and And we do not listen to instruction and correction, and we do not humble ourselves before him. It doesn't matter how intelligent we are, we're dumb.
Paul:Ooh, okay. So Proverbs 15 and verse 13, The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom. So, what kind of wisdom are we talking about? Right. You can be smart and dumb at the same time.
Noah:Exactly.
Paul:It's not just what we know, it's who we are seeking to know that then defines for us our true identity and our true purpose. If Proverbs is stated to help us to understand something about wisdom and living life with the least amount of difficulties, that's only possible.
Noah:And that's going to frame, that perspective is going to frame how we read the book of Proverbs, how we interact with wisdom literature in general, and it's going to affect how we read scripture at large. I mean, if we, and this is where maybe first things first chronologically also would have been helpful, but if you think about the past nine episodes that we've talked about, if, if we. If we can recognize that when we've turned, and I think we've tried to emphasize this, when we open the book of Proverbs, if we're simply opening it as an academic exercise to exercise, stimulate our mental processes and engage in some intellectualism, I mean, something good may come of that. But that's not the purpose of the Proverbs. The purpose of the Proverbs is to seek the face of the Lord and to fear him and to, to therefore receive the wisdom, the knowledge of the Lord that you talked about there in Proverbs chapter 2. This is gonna, it should affect how we read scripture and how we understand and apply scripture, because it's not just an academic pursuit. It's a pursuit of a relationship with God. And the wisdom that we find therein.
Paul:Yeah, I love it. We had already decided that this was going to end up being two parts. So if you're listening today, you think y'all hadn't even started digging into the actual text where we find the fear of the Lord. We're getting there, but I wanted to state this in the, in the first part of this first things first, what it means to fear the Lord. When we get past this, and I think, I think you and I have done a pretty good job talking about what is the fear of the Lord. Once we get past that discussion, then we need to appreciate from the Word of God that this is something that God expects parents to teach their children. That this fear of the Lord is something that is taught.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:It's something that is taught. Psalm 34 and verse 11, come you children, listen to me. I will teach you, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Perhaps most noted is the text in Deuteronomy 4, Moses giving a discourse to Israel, preparing them in the Promised Land, but just two passages in Deuteronomy 4, Noah verses 9 and 10. I love this translation, Deuteronomy 4, 9 and 10, but watch out, he says, be very careful never to forget what you have seen the Lord do for you. Don't forget what you've seen the Lord do for you. Do not let these things escape from your mind as long as you live. And be sure. He says, be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren. Tell them especially about the day when you stood before the Lord your God at Mount Sinai where he told you, summon the people before me and I will instruct them that way. Moses says that way they will learn. That is, learn to fear Yahweh as long as they live, and then they will be able to teach God's laws to their children. You can't teach what you don't know, but as you've been saying, this is more than just an academic exercise, passing on right information. It's parents that learn to fear the Lord. And what helps us to learn a fear of the Lord? He says, don't forget what you've seen the Lord do. You've seen his power. You've seen his grace. You've seen His holiness an on and on week ago. You have seen His steadfast love that endures forever. And so ultimately, you've seen Him. You know Him. So you have a fear of the Lord. And so you are to teach that, you're to pass that on to your children. So as we go through Proverbs, and we're talking about this, Noah, about the fear of the Lord, this is something that, yes, we want to take into our hearts. And make it real and a part of our everyday lives, but we also want to feed that to our children
Noah:Yes, and I think that that's something that's going to be worth highlighting as we go through here Talking about what does the fear of the Lord produce in our lives? How how should we view the fear of the Lord? How should we evaluate the fear of the Lord? All of these things there's a natural There's a natural correlation you To the extent that we find value in the fear of the Lord, our kids will or will not find value in the fear of the Lord. I mean, it's not always going to be a one to one. Kids are humans. They're individuals and they'll make their own decisions. But there's so much to be said for setting the example for what it looks like to fear the Lord when it comes to our children.
Paul:Yeah. So let's, let's do this. Let's get one or two real quick in this first episode so we could make it official. Yes. So in Proverbs, we're looking at. What does the fear of the Lord produce in our lives? How does it change the way we think, impact the way we live, so we can pass that on to others? It can make a difference in our life. Here's some low hanging fruit. I'm going to give two passages in Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 8 and verse 13. All who fear the Lord, Proverbs 8 and verse 13. will hate evil. So that is why I hate, and he talks about pride and arrogance and evil behavior and speech that is perverted. Here's the low hanging fruit, Noah, all who fear the Lord will hate evil. And then connected to that is Proverbs chapter 16 in verse six, evil is avoided by fear of the Lord.
Noah:Yes. Yeah, that it is low hanging fruit, but it's so incredibly important that the fear of the Lord would produce in us. values in alignment with God that we would want to not only avoid evil, but, but despise what it does and despise the results that come from it because we fear the Lord and we, we respect his way of doing things. You referenced Proverbs three earlier and it in verses six and eight or six to eight, I believe he says something along the lines of be not wise in your own eyes, Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. And there specifically, and we'll probably talk about this more next episode, it will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Mm-Hmm, that's such a powerful concept for us to, to consider. But for this episode, just tack onto what you had there in Proverbs chapter eight, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Just don't go down that way.
Paul:Yeah. Yeah. You know, if you try to relate, and this is such a big subject, man, whenever you talk about God, it's such a big subject. If you try to make it so usable, one of the things I think about, all right, so we're talking about the fear of the Lord, and we've defined that earlier as, I think you said, loving respect or
Noah:I think we combined, got to there.
Paul:And look, that, that, that is a key motivating fact. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Perfect love casts out fear, the Apostle John. So we're looking for this kind of a love. We love him because he first loved us. So let me illustrate this fear of the Lord that helps us to hate evil, avoid evil, depart from evil. You know, how do I love the Lord? Now, I can think about my wife of 33 years. And, you know, as I've grown in my love for her, I make decisions on a regular basis to say no, to avoid certain things that perhaps would try to compromise or attack that love, separate us one from the other. And I say no to things that are not good for me out of love for her. And I think people get that. They really do. I mean, we, we love our brethren. We avoid things because of love and respect for someone else. We would, we would not want to intentionally do something that would be hurtful to the other person. Now move that into an area with God. I mean, think about where he's trying to move us in the Proverbs project with this, how we see God, what kind of relationship we have with God. I mean, can we grieve the Holy Spirit? Yeah. Who are we talking about? God.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:I mean, God hurts when his children sin against him, rebel against him, walk away from him. He has feeling. And one of the things that will help us, should help us, is I would not want to intentionally make a choice that would, would, would hurt God.
Noah:Yeah. Yeah, that's a, that is an excellent thought as we will continue in the next episode for us to keep in mind. Because as we go into the next episode next week, we're going to be talking about all of the ways that the fear of the Lord produces new ways and new thoughts and new attitudes in us. And really what that's doing is it's, it's going to be changing us so that we don't want to do that. Even more, we, we do not want to grieve God, but we want to, to love him, and show him respect, and Go ahead. I think you had something. No,
Paul:I just, I thought, I think that's a great way to wind this down. I mean, that's what, back to our title in this first things first.
Noah:Yeah.
Paul:What are we talking about? The fear of the Lord. First things first. Well, Noah, thanks for today. We want to remind you that this is just part one. There is a part two. We want you to try to get these together. There's a week, so Lord willing, next week, next Monday, pull this up. And we're going to talk more about the fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of knowledge an understanding of the Holy one, our, our desire in all of this is just to do what the Lord wants us to do, to live life with the least amount of difficulties. And in doing that, let's do it together. Let's stand strong together.
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