The Fear of the Lord

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7 NIV

When we look at the book of Proverbs may I suggest that we can find a key verse in chapter one. This verse sets the tone for the rest of the book. “The fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge,”. What then does it mean to, “fear the Lord”? This phrase is used at least 18 times in Proverbs, it is the acknowledgement within our hearts, that God is Creator, Master and Father. Thus we are the creatures of His creation, the servants which serve and the Children of His family. This fear is a respect such as children should have for their parents, I say should have for in our day it is rarely seen.

One of the reason the family is so important is because the family was to model God’s design of our heavenly family. Our views of our earthly family directly effects our views on God. What I mean is that when we are told that God is our Heavenly Father, we can not help but think of our human family and our earthly father. If that relationship with our earthly father was bad or broken it reflects open how we will view our Heavenly Father. If our earthy relationship was positive we are more likely to view God as good, kind, caring and loving. We as parent are to teach our children to obey us, this then models and prepares our children to obey their Heavenly Father. God made and designed the family, its health is of the utmost importance to our Father.

So then the, “fear of the Lord” should reflect an affectionate reverence, with which we humbly bend our will and submit to our Father’s will. We recognize that living in God’s will is such a sweet and loving experience. In contrast living in our will brings on bitterness and pain. We should revere the Lord living in such a way that we dread the thought of coming up short. We should stand watch and guard our hearts against temptation and weakness less we fall and sin against our Father. For in fact no matter what you may think such thoughts as, I have wronged or hurt such and such person. When in fact your offense was against God. All sin is a direct transgression against our Heavenly Father. Yes, our sins also effect and hurt people in our lives but in the end it is between us and God.

“Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.” Psalms 51:4 NLT

Let us live our lives in such a way that we honor God, with our reverence and holy fear of the Lord God almighty.

“Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.” Proverbs 2:2-5 NLT

In these verses we see that we are to: Tune, concentrate, cry out, ask for, search and seek then we will understand what it means to fear the Lord. Obviously then this is something for which we must work diligently. But in so doing we will gain knowledge of our God.