Wisdom's Fear
- Strength For Life
- 5 minutes ago
- 4 min read
If you are reading the proverb that corresponds to the day of the month, then today you are reading Proverbs 14. I encourage all believers to make reading the Proverbs this way a habit. The Holy Spirit will reveal something new every time you read, so even reading them habitually will not make them grow old. God’s Word is a living book.
How should one begin to get wisdom? Proverbs 9:10 answers this question: “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” Learn to fear the LORD, and you will learn to apply wisdom to life. Proverbs 14 speaks of fearing the Lord more than most proverbs. Four times in this chapter, Solomon speaks of the benefits of the fear of the Lord. For this reason, I have entitled Proverbs 14 “Wisdom’s Fear.”
A wise person fears the Lord. Unlike some unwise and unjustified fears, this attitude is justified. God has the power and the right to judge us, and so we fear Him. We may either fear Him with dread or with reverence, depending on our relationship with Him. A dread-filled fear looks up at Him with hands over the face and fear in the heart, because each person is a hell-deserving sinner. You are guilty before the holy God. That thought brings fear and puts me in mind of Philippians 2:12 where the Bible says to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” The word “fear” in that verse is the frightful, afraid, scared, and alarmed attitude.
At the same time, if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, the fear of the Lord is more reverential than terrifying. You, child of God, are robed in Christ’s righteousness. In light of the saving work of Christ, the fear of the Lord becomes a bowing before Him in awe and gratitude.
Both of these types of fear are featured in the chapter under consideration. As we dig into Proverbs 14, we first notice in verse 2 the walk of the person who fears the Lord; it is walking in uprightness. By contrast, “he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him.” The perverse man has no fear of the Lord, and his behavior demonstrates it. But, if you fear the Lord, you will walk in uprightness.
Second, consider the departure of verse 16. That verse speaks of the way “a wise man feareth, and departeth from evil.” The man that fears the Lord does not just walk in uprightness; he also departs from evil. He leaves evil things behind!
Third, notice in verse 26 that “in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. Wisdom’s fear involves walking uprightly and departing from evil, but doing it with a “strong confidence.” Instead of making timid men, fearing God imparts a spiritual swagger to the way you walk. It provides a God-confidence. When storms or trying times come into our life, we as His children will always have a place of refuge in Him. The truth of unchanging protection is what produces that strong confidence. To say it in a New Testament way, come what may, if God be for us then who can be against us? After all, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. This is the type of confidence that fear of the Lord produces.
Fourth, consider the fountain of life described in verse 27. If our confidence is in Christ, and He is our refuge, then we are the present possessors of eternal life. Jesus is the “well of living water, springing up into everlasting life” to whom John 4:14 refers. Because of Christ, believers are able to choose the life of God and “depart from the snares of death.”
In one sense righteousness is synonymous with the fear of the Lord. Certainly the two are linked. It is righteousness, or the fear of the Lord, that exalts a nation; it is sin, or lack of the fear of the Lord, that is a reproach to any people (v. 34). If America is to be spared God’s judgment, America must return to the fear of the Lord.
This truth applies not only on the national level, but also on the residential or familial level. Proverbs 14:1 says, “Every wise woman” (she’s wise because she fears the Lord)is the woman who “buildeth her house. That connection is no accident. But the woman who lacks the fear of the Lord is the foolish woman of verse 1, who pluk=cks down her house with her hands.
Wisdom’s fear not only makes a national difference, and a familial difference, but also an individual difference. Verse 9 says “fools make a mock at sin.“ Why? They do not fear the Lord. The verse does on to say that “among the righteous there is favor.“ The righteous receive favor because they fear the Lord. This is Wisdom’s Fear. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the HOLY [the Holy One] is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).
The above article was written by Pastor James C. Johnson. He is the pastor of NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fl. To offer him your feedback, comment below or email us at strengthforlife461@gmail.com.
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