4. The "fear of the Lord" occurs at least18 times in Proverbs ( Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 1:29; Proverbs 2:5; Proverbs 3:7; Proverbs 8:13; Proverbs 9:10; Proverbs 10:27; Proverbs 14:2; Proverbs 14:26-27; Proverbs 15:16; Proverbs 15:33; Proverbs 16:6; Proverbs 19:23; Proverbs 22:4; Proverbs 23:17; Proverbs 24:21; Proverbs 31:30). The spirit of antagonism between the different denominations has despoiled those symbols which were before the common objects of a mutual reverence. So, yet he is a fool, because void of God’s true fear. Now, it was seen that, although the “fear of the Lord” may be the “beginning of wisdom,” yet something better still may be aimed at: that “he that feareth is not made perfect in love;” and so the teaching of St. John, the last New Testament writer, is summed up in the words, “If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” (1John 4:11). Proverbs 1:1-7 Proverbs 1:1-7 [1] The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; [2] To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; [3] To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; [4] To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. "Beginning" does not mean that the fear of the Lord is where one starts learning Wisdom of Solomon, but then he or she can move away from it as from the starting line in a race. Similar calls (Pr 3:1-3; 4:10, &c.).Solomon again persuadeth to keep his laws, and delight in wisdom, Proverbs 7:1-5.A young man void of understanding is insnared by a harlot, Proverbs 7:6-9.A description of a harlot, Proverbs 7:10,11, from her practice, Proverbs 7:12,13. [Titus 1:16] Evil is Hebrew for a fool; Nebulo of Nabal; fool of Fαυλος. Just because we no longer reverence a king in the nation we do not reverence the King in the heavens. A quiet mind. Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge: [but] fools despise wisdom and instruction. That law which was given amid “blackness, and darkness, and tempest” was enforced by the threat, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Galatians 3:10). 4. That is to say, the fear of the Lord is the starting point as well as the chief part of true knowledge. This expression, “the fear of the Lord,” occurs thirteen times in the Proverbs, and plays a prominent part throughout the Old Testament. c. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way: The consequences of rejecting wisdom cannot be avoided. The prophet calls the fear of God "our treasure." Without love, there is no obedience; without reverence, there is neither caution, consistent conduct, nor perseverance in righteousness. The Proverbs of Solomon— Solomon is the first of the sacred writers whose name appears at the head of his works. And with this new message a new motive to obedience was preached. [Note: James L. Crenshaw, "The Acquisition of Knowledge in Israelite Wisdom Literature," Word & World7:3 (Summer1986):247-52.]. The fear of God will enable us to bear the trials and disappointments of life. Now, it was seen that, although the “fear of the Lord” may be the “beginning of wisdom,” yet something better still may be aimed at: that “he that feareth is not made perfect in love;” and so the teaching of St. John, the last New Testament writer, is summed up in the words, “If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” (1 John 4:11). None despise heavenly wisdom but such as know not the value of it. He knows nothing rightly who does not know God experimentally. (a) First Discourse:—Against Companionship in Robbery (Proverbs 1:7-19). the most excellent or principal part, the noblest or best wisdom. Other ancient Near Eastern countries produced wisdom literature in addition to what we have in our Old Testament. 7. [Note: See, for example, Cullen I. K. Story, "The Book of Proverbs and Northwest Semitic Literature," Journal of Biblical Literature64 (1945):319-37; Giovanni Pettinato, "The Royal Archives of Tell Mardikh-Ebla," Biblical Archaeologist39 (May1976):45; Edmund J. Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs: Glimpses of Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, pp24, 152; W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, pp92, 97, 222; James M. Lindenberger, "The Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar" (Ph.D. dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1974); Leo G. Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp28-61; and Waltke, The Book . “Knowledge” and “wisdom” are in effect synonymous--the best knowledge wisely used for the highest ends. PRINCIPLE #1 – FEAR THE LORD! “The fear of God is the fountain of life.” I think it is Goethe who has drawn the distinction between fear and reverence. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. CHAPTER 7. Such reverent fear presupposes the knowledge of how infinite in power, majesty, and goodness God is. The fear of the Lord is an abiding and reverent sense of the presence of God and of accountableness to Him: For this to exist God must be that real, personal Being which we have every reason to believe God has revealed Himself to be: such in character, as to love, holiness, and justice, as He has declared Himself in His Word. The Biblical Illustrator. [Isaiah 33:6], But fools despise.] “The words ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge’ (Proverbs 1:7 Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. "Fools" are those who "know not God," and who are "wise to do evil, but to do good have no knowledge" (Jeremiah 4:22). And what is the soul? It implies a knowledge of the true God, of his existence, attributes, and works, and also of his relations to us as far as these several things were revealed in that day. The Congregationalist has sneered at the ritual of the Episcopalian, and the Episcopalian has shrugged his shoulders over the non-ritual of the Congregationalist. H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. (n) "disciplinam", Tigurine version, Piscator, Cocceius, Schultens, (o) "Castigationem, correctionem", Vatablus. But this and not love is the “beginning of wisdom.” Through successive stages and by the discipline of life, love blends with it and makes it perfect. 3. Because knowledge is the food of the soul. It is the spirit that leads one to say, “I am the greatest and the best.” There are many conditions in our life which tend to produce the spirit of self-conceit and tend to counteract the spirit of reverence. the initial step or starting point at which every one who wishes to follow true... (2) As caput; i.e. It is the absence of the spirit that looks up to anything above us. This must come into our hearts to take the place of the older and narrower conception of holy places. Ver. We ask sick men refusing physic if they make no account of their lives. We are to recognise Christ in all truth. III. Psalms 111:10. fools. Across the ocean, in the Old World, we stand in cathedrals a thousand years or more old, in the presence of customs hoary-headed with antiquity; we walk by the city walls which have seen many a battle between liberty and despotism; and these old cathedrals, these old cities, these old customs, awaken in us some spirit of reverence. We can learn the really important lessons in life only this way. The book of Proverbs is the quintessential book of “Wisdom” in the Old Testament. The prudence of the flesh, the policy of the world, knowledge raised from the things of earth, the barren science of the curiosities of nature; all this is not wisdom, because it may be without the fear of God, and true wisdom is founded only upon this fear. But what is religion? We find it difficult, many of us, to have any reverence for the events that are taking place in America, and the leaders who are participating in them. True wisdom is to justify God and condemn oneself. There is many a man who has reverence for the book and none for the truth that is in the book. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. This is the foundation on which all other wise sayings stand. Men had to be taught how hateful sin was to God, and the lesson was for the most part instilled into them by the fear of immediate punishment. A clear reputation. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. Neglect of the means of grace is a real slighting of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. 1. fools — the stupid and indifferent to God‘s character and government; hence the wicked. We will not allow any mysteries. They spent a lot of time together and finally one evening he proposed, asking her to marry him. ◄ Proverbs 1:7 ► (1) As initium, the beginning; i.e. The love of God, and the love of man; the former producing all obedience to the Divine will; the latter, every act of benevolence to one's fellows. You cannot have reverence on Sunday and irreverence in the week; reverence in the church and irreverence in the daily life. (L. Abbott, D. D.). (Note: In Sirach 1:14, 16, the Syr. Mark well this sentence, reader: all wisdom, which is not founded in religion, in the true and genuine fear of God, is empty and unprofitable, and will be found such in the time of affliction, in the hour of death, and at the day of judgment. The “fear of the Lord” was now superseded by the higher duty of the “love of God,” and of man, for His sake. James 1:5.). Now, if it be true that reverence is a fountain of life, and reverence is a beginning of wisdom, how in this age, under these circumstances, are we to develop reverence in ourselves, in our churches, and in our children? It is an affectionate reverence that results in humbly bowing to the Father"s will. That law which was given amid “blackness, and darkness, and tempest” was enforced by the threat, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Galatians 3:10). We are to see God in every man, and in all of life. The fear of the Lord — the principle of true piety (compare Proverbs 2:5; Proverbs 14:26, Proverbs 14:27; Job 28:28; Psalm 34:11; Psalm 111:10; Acts 9:31). ; Job xxviii. Deuteronomy 28) But when the lesson had been learnt, and when mankind had found by experience that they were unable to keep the law of God by their own strength, then the new covenant of mercy was revealed from Calvary, even free justification “by God’s grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). Filial reverence is meant by “fear.” Reverence implies two things, a recognition of Divine greatness, and a recognition of Divine goodness. 2. Micah 1:13 with Job 19:28). Or, The chief and principal point (a) of wisdom, as the word here signified; yea, wisdom itself. The Septuagint render it, "the ungodly"; and such sort of men are all along meant by "fools" in this book. “When God of old came down from heaven. For it we are to substitute this larger, grander, more awe-inspiring conception--that every place is holy place, every ground is holy ground, and God is in all Nature. We cannot recover it. Rather, the fear of the Lord is the controlling principle, the foundation, on which one must build a life of wisdom. In this book three Hebrew words are rendered "fools": (1) "evil = lax or careless habit of mind and body. “When God of old came down from heaven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So when a people burst the first and greatest bond--when a people cast off the fear of God, the family relations, with all their beauty and benefit, disappear. We have analysed until all great things have been picked to pieces in our laboratory. 3. All wisdom which is not founded in religion, in the fear of God, is vain: piety, religion, the fear of God, are here synonimous. A healthful body. There is but one personal Agent whose influence and presence can abide through life, can alike excite hope, and fear, and love in the infant, in the child, in the youth, in the man, in the aged, and on the bed of death; and that One is God Himself. All men reason in a circle, or begin by assumptions. It quickens the intellect, and sustains its activity. The subject continued, by a delineation of the arts of strange women, as a caution to the unwary. (Francis Taylor.). The fear of the Lord [is] the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 8:1-7. Despise wisdom and instruction; are so far from attaining true wisdom, that they despise it, and all the means of getting it; which fully proves what he now said, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge which is to feed and train the soul must begin, continue, and end, in the apprehension of Him. 2. The excellency of it is so great, that it would allure men to look after it, had they spiritual eyes to see it. Preaching text: Proverbs 1:1-7; 3:1-8. We account so in outward things. of בּזה would be בּזוּ or בּזיוּ. Try it free for 30 days! Jo. (2) kesil = fat, and then dense, or stupid, which comes of it, showing itself in impiety. Thus we arrive at charity. And did not choose the fear of the Lord: Since this fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge (Proverbs 1:7, Job 28:28, Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 9:10, and Ecclesiastes 12:13), to reject this respect of God is to reject wisdom. This sense is adopted in the... (3) As the principium (Vulgate); i.e. Occurs nineteen times in Proverbs, viz. 5. Their knowledge and wisdom depend on their assumptions. . No man can ever become truly wise, who does not begin with God, the fountain of knowledge; and he whose mind is influenced by the fear and love of God will learn more in a month than others will in a year. 9: often inculcates it; shewing, that fear prepares the way for the love of justice, which is perfect wisdom. “We love Him because He first loved us,” writes St. John. The devil is intelligent. Commentary on Proverbs 7:6-27 (Read Proverbs 7:6-27) Here is an affecting example of the danger of youthful lusts. Deuteronomy 28) But when the lesson had been learnt, and when mankind had found by experience that they were unable to keep the law of God by their own strength, then the new covenant of mercy was revealed from Calvary, even free justification “by God’s grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). 12:9), along with some proverbs of others whom Solomon likely influenced. Even though many unbelievers have acquired much information without the fear of God, true knowledge rests on a relationship to God that revelation supports. (Homilist. To love one's neighbor as himself is the second great commandment; and as love worketh no ill to one's neighbor, therefore it is said to be the fulfilling of the law. A third and no less powerful reason is this: knowledge, understood as the mere accumulation of facts, is inoperative upon life. What does this mean? Moreover, the glorious idea of God in the mind is a quickening, elevating, and impelling element, that gives life, dignity, and force to mental action. Proverbs 15:33), Job 28:28, and in Psalm 111:10 (whence the lxx has interpolated here two lines). [Jeremiah 8:9]. Proverbs 1:7. (7) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.—The first discourse is prefaced by a distich, which serves as a key-note to all the teaching of the book. "Fear" includes not only a correct way of thinking about God but a correct relationship with Yahweh. (Comp. (See under Proverbs 1:2.) 4:32; Eccl. We cannot cure that irreverence towards leaders and politicians by pretending respect for a man whom we do not respect, who has won his way to office by dishonourable and disreputable methods. The inverted placing of the words 7b imports that the wisdom and discipline which one obtains in the way of the fear of God is only despised by the אוילים, i.e., the hard, thick, stupid; see regarding the root-word אול, coalescere, cohaerere, incrassari, der Prophet Jesaia, p. 424, and at Psalm 73:4. 1-4. Many a youth “living after the flesh,” caring only for the things of the flesh, having no relish for other than sensual pleasures, neglects and rejects opportunities of mental improvement; but let him come under the dominion of religious feeling and principle — let him attain to the fear of God, or, as Christianity has taught us to say, the love of God — and his soul is immediately athirst for all useful knowledge. See note on Job 28:28, and Compare Proverbs 9:10. tract. ראשׁית combines in itself, as ἀρχή, the ideas of initium (accordingly J. H. Michaelis: initium cognitionis, a quo quisquis recte philosophari cupit auspicium facere debet) and principium, i.e., the basis, thus the root (cf. It is next to reverence for God. Occurs forty-nine times in Proverbs, viz. I am aware of a formatting issue in the NIV '84 edition. The fool despises God"s revealed order for life and the instruction that would lead him or her into it ( Proverbs 1:7 b). Bible Commentary Proverbs 1:1-7 Part 3. Add to my study list. 28., &c.) This fear includes religion, but not barren speculations. To be habitually conversant in the exercises of piety is an instance of the truest and most considerate wisdom, because it is the most effectual means to promote our happiness and well-being in this life. It is not "wisdom" itself. Proverbs 1:6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark … . vii., p. 1. The man who has a just conception of God and his relations to him can think of nothing that is not somehow related to this great theme, either as being in accordance with God’s will or contrary to that will — as being forbidden or allowed. Hence all right learning and true science tends to honour God, as it tends to cultivate man. V. They that slight the means of knowledge slight knowledge itself. In the Book of Job 28:28 it appears as an oracle accompanied by the noblest poetry. (cf. Fools (’evîlîm).—Self-willed, headstrong persons, who will listen to no advice. 2. יראת יהוה is reverential subordination to the All-directing, and since designedly יהוה is used, and not אלהים (ה), to the One God, the Creator and Governor of the world, who gave His law unto Israel, and also beyond Israel left not His holy will unattested; the reverse side of the fear of Jahve as the Most Holy One is שׂנאת רע, Proverbs 8:13 (post-biblical יראת חטא). All others, which a man really wise pursues, are subordinate to this, and comprehended in it. If you would be worth anything to society, worth anything to your own families, worth anything to yourselves, the fear of God must come first in your thoughts and lives. but fools despise wisdom and instruction; the same with "knowledge" before; they do not desire the knowledge of God, and of his ways and worship, but despise it, make no account of it, but treat it with contempt; especially the knowledge of God in Christ, in which lies the highest wisdom, for this is "life eternal", John 17:3; they despise Christ "the Wisdom of God", and the Gospel, and the truths of it, which are "the hidden wisdom" of God; and all "instruction" into it, and the means of it; they despise the Scriptures, which are able to make a man "wise unto salvation"; and the ministry of the word, and the ministers of it: such sort of "discipline" (n) was this, as the word signifies, they dislike and abhor; and especially "correction" or "chastisement" (o), which is also the sense of it; suffering reproach and affliction for the sake of wisdom, a profession of Christ and his Gospel; and they are fools with a witness that despise all this; such fools are atheists, deists, and all profane and wicked men. 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