Fear of the Lord, and Knowledge
Ok, so now that I've briefly stated a few verses, I'm going to expand upon them. I mentioned:
Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge."
Well, that's great and all, but what the heck does "fear of the Lord mean"? They use it all the time in the Old Testament, but not as much in the New Testament. I thought that we didn't have to fear the Lord... Well, this is what they mean when they say: "fear the Lord". I have taken this article from another website:
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Good evening. I've been reading in the Old Testament, and there's so much in it about the fear of the Lord. And you hear so little today about it. And what I've heard is often conflicting. And I wondered if you could spend a few minutes on it. And I'll take the answer on the air. How should we regard the phrase? What does it really mean to us?
HC: All right. I'll speak to that. The question is raised concerning the phrase, "the fear of the Lord." What does the Bible mean by this?
Now in the Old Testament we read, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." And then we also read that "the fear of the Lord is to depart from evil." The word fear is used in two senses in the Bible. But ultimately it is pointing to the same total conclusion.
We are to realize that the Lord is Eternal God, that He is His Divine Majesty, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and that we must answer to Him for all that we do. Now before we are saved, we ought to be in abject fear. We ought to be in terror of Him, because the Bible says that we are going to be condemned for our sins. We are going to come into the hands of an angry God and be cast into hell because of our sins. And so an unsaved person ought to really be in terror of Him.
Now God draws the curtain aside and gives us a look at Judgment Day, when Christ comes. And in Revelation 6 you see that the rich and the poor and the slaves and the free, and all men are calling to the rocks to crush them, and for the hills to hide them, because the day of God's wrath has come. The day of the wrath of the Lamb has come. They are in abject terror of God. They never showed any fear of God while they were living, because they disdained God. They were in rebellion against God. They would not recognize God. But ultimately they must recognize Him. And then that fear will be a horrible fear, because God's wrath will be poured out upon them.
Now this is the way that mankind ought to look at God, with just great fear and trembling, because of the fact that we have repudiated Him. We have disobeyed Him. We've rebelled against Him. And rightly we deserve His wrath. But God in His mercy, while He comes as a wrathful God, and His wrath is upon the unsaved, He also comes with a message of love, that whosoever will cry out to God in their spiritual bankruptcy, will admit their total inability to do right, and will repent of their sins and believe in God, that there is a way, through the Lord Jesus Christ, to have forgiveness.
Then we can know God's love, and we can know that the wrath of God has all been taken care of in our lives. Now the fear of the Lord, which before we were saved could have been one of abject terror, now is one of love and of friendship, but still of honor and respect incidentally, even before we're saved, the fear of the Lord ought to include these qualities of fear and respect and reverence. But of course, in the unsaved, this is not found, either.
But now that we are saved, there is this honor and this respect and this high regard for the holiness of God, for the person of His Majesty. But it is not the fear of God's wrath. That has all been taken away. We read in Romans 8:15: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery, to fall back into fear. But you have received the spirit of sonship, when we cry, Abba, Father. It is the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God." The terror is gone. The insecurity, the terrible feeling that something awful is going to happen should all be gone.
Now we are secure in Christ. But we still have the fear of the Lord in the sense that it is the beginning of wisdom. We have the desire to depart from evil. We have the desire to live God's way, because He is our King, and He is our Lord. Our fear has had eliminated from it all that is terror, all that is trauma. But that which is honor and respect and regard still remains.
I hope that this is at least somewhat of an outline of how the Bible looks at this question of the fear of the Lord.
------
So the fear of the Lord, is to depart from evil, and to desire to live God's way. Interesting. Now does this mean that people have to be Christians to learn anything at all? Hmmmmm well there are smart people in the world who know nothing of Christ. So it would be safe to assume no. So then why the heck is this verse in the Bible? I believe that Solomon meant SPIRITUAL knowledge. Not just everyday street smarts, or how much 2+2 equals. How do we know that only through God we can find God? I'll post more on that later.
For now, I need to keep on reading.
Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge."
Well, that's great and all, but what the heck does "fear of the Lord mean"? They use it all the time in the Old Testament, but not as much in the New Testament. I thought that we didn't have to fear the Lord... Well, this is what they mean when they say: "fear the Lord". I have taken this article from another website:
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Good evening. I've been reading in the Old Testament, and there's so much in it about the fear of the Lord. And you hear so little today about it. And what I've heard is often conflicting. And I wondered if you could spend a few minutes on it. And I'll take the answer on the air. How should we regard the phrase? What does it really mean to us?
HC: All right. I'll speak to that. The question is raised concerning the phrase, "the fear of the Lord." What does the Bible mean by this?
Now in the Old Testament we read, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." And then we also read that "the fear of the Lord is to depart from evil." The word fear is used in two senses in the Bible. But ultimately it is pointing to the same total conclusion.
We are to realize that the Lord is Eternal God, that He is His Divine Majesty, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and that we must answer to Him for all that we do. Now before we are saved, we ought to be in abject fear. We ought to be in terror of Him, because the Bible says that we are going to be condemned for our sins. We are going to come into the hands of an angry God and be cast into hell because of our sins. And so an unsaved person ought to really be in terror of Him.
Now God draws the curtain aside and gives us a look at Judgment Day, when Christ comes. And in Revelation 6 you see that the rich and the poor and the slaves and the free, and all men are calling to the rocks to crush them, and for the hills to hide them, because the day of God's wrath has come. The day of the wrath of the Lamb has come. They are in abject terror of God. They never showed any fear of God while they were living, because they disdained God. They were in rebellion against God. They would not recognize God. But ultimately they must recognize Him. And then that fear will be a horrible fear, because God's wrath will be poured out upon them.
Now this is the way that mankind ought to look at God, with just great fear and trembling, because of the fact that we have repudiated Him. We have disobeyed Him. We've rebelled against Him. And rightly we deserve His wrath. But God in His mercy, while He comes as a wrathful God, and His wrath is upon the unsaved, He also comes with a message of love, that whosoever will cry out to God in their spiritual bankruptcy, will admit their total inability to do right, and will repent of their sins and believe in God, that there is a way, through the Lord Jesus Christ, to have forgiveness.
Then we can know God's love, and we can know that the wrath of God has all been taken care of in our lives. Now the fear of the Lord, which before we were saved could have been one of abject terror, now is one of love and of friendship, but still of honor and respect incidentally, even before we're saved, the fear of the Lord ought to include these qualities of fear and respect and reverence. But of course, in the unsaved, this is not found, either.
But now that we are saved, there is this honor and this respect and this high regard for the holiness of God, for the person of His Majesty. But it is not the fear of God's wrath. That has all been taken away. We read in Romans 8:15: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery, to fall back into fear. But you have received the spirit of sonship, when we cry, Abba, Father. It is the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God." The terror is gone. The insecurity, the terrible feeling that something awful is going to happen should all be gone.
Now we are secure in Christ. But we still have the fear of the Lord in the sense that it is the beginning of wisdom. We have the desire to depart from evil. We have the desire to live God's way, because He is our King, and He is our Lord. Our fear has had eliminated from it all that is terror, all that is trauma. But that which is honor and respect and regard still remains.
I hope that this is at least somewhat of an outline of how the Bible looks at this question of the fear of the Lord.
------
So the fear of the Lord, is to depart from evil, and to desire to live God's way. Interesting. Now does this mean that people have to be Christians to learn anything at all? Hmmmmm well there are smart people in the world who know nothing of Christ. So it would be safe to assume no. So then why the heck is this verse in the Bible? I believe that Solomon meant SPIRITUAL knowledge. Not just everyday street smarts, or how much 2+2 equals. How do we know that only through God we can find God? I'll post more on that later.
For now, I need to keep on reading.
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on Wednesday, April 06, 2005 at 1:30 PM.
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