Today I am going to be writing the beginning of the book of Proverbs. If you’ve studied scripture, you know that the book of Proverbs is a very distinct book of the Bible. First, let’s discuss the way it’s laid out. There are about 9 chapters which serve as a kind of introduction. Most of them are about the importance and supremacy of having wisdom. But two of the 9 verses are about the issue of Adultery and avoiding the temptations of an adulteress.Then in chapter 10-29 there are King Solomon’s proverbs. Chapter 30 is devoted to the sayings of Agur. Chapter 31 contains the sayings of King Lemuel, and then an epilogue about the wife of Noble Character. There is a LOT of material in Proverbs, and much of it is in the form of short 1 verse ideas. It’s almost like getting a few thousand fortune cookie papers at once. They aren’t all about the same topic. Some of them that are about the same topic seem to conflict with others. Most of them can be read in under a minute, but all of them could be thought about and considered for much longer. There are many recurring themes that seem to pop up over and over. There is a lot to learn from this book, but often churches won’t spend much time on it. It takes a good deal of organization and memory to sort through thousands of proverbs, pull together similar verses to preach on a certain topic. The other thing about proverbs is that they are very related to the here and now. The “Human condition”. They contain a lot of wisdom about how the world works. The theological and spiritual dimensions are there, but they are less apparent. On top of this, the Proverbs tend to be seen as rules about how to better behave or think or act. On the other hand, being a Christian, the concept of salvation by faith and not by works, all of the things we usually preach are focused on the fact that despite being the sinners that we are, God called us to forgiveness through the work of his Son Jesus on the cross. That is the most important thing to know and to remember. Our salvation is not about us following rules or law or procedure. Our Salvation is about what we believe. So are the Proverbs important ? Yes. But we need to understand that they are more than just a rule book. We need to understand that these short phrases and instruction each point to ideas and concepts much larger than just what they are saying. Eventually, when combined together, the bigger concepts help to describe God’s character, and in doing so, they also point to our shortcomings. When read properly, these Proverbs will magnify God and diminish us. They will take us to a place of worship where we can give even more glory to God. And as an added bonus, even if you are an agnostic doubter, or an atheistic denier of God. If you understand the wisdom of the Proverbs it will help you to live better and more at peace with your neighbor. You would just end up doubting or denying the reason why it works, but it would still work. With all those things in mind, I’d like to read from the very beginning of Proverbs 1:1-7

1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2 for gaining wisdom and instruction;
for understanding words of insight;
3 for receiving instruction in prudent behavior,
doing what is right and just and fair;
4 for giving prudence to those who are simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young—
5 let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance—
6 for understanding proverbs and parables,
the sayings and riddles of the wise.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

So first thing we see is that this book, these proverbs are attributed to Solomon. From this book and also other books of the Bible we know he was one of the sons of King David, and was very well known for his wisdom not only in Israel but throughout the region. He was in charge of Israel during a notably prosperous time for the nation. In 1 Kings 4-5 we learn about Solomon’s wisdom and the prosperity in the kingdom and the peace that Solomon extended to neighboring nations through trade and political treaties. So why are these Proverbs here? Verse 2. They are for Gaining wisdom and instruction, understanding words and insight. It’s not just about actions, it’s about understanding. This goes hand in hand with what it says in the New Testament. In Romans 12:2

2 Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be Transformed by the renewing of your mind.

We need to understand that our lives are not just about acting different. They are about thinking differently. The Bible tells us that there are rewards for wisdom and understanding. Romans 12:2 tells us we can learn what’s the will of God. Our spiritual growth, or “Christian walk”(race!) , our relationship with God. All these things describe our transformation. And our transformation occurs together with or alongside a mental renewal. So thinking about these Proverbs is a tool to help us change our mindset. Verse 3. By studying Proverbs, we learn what behavior is prudent. What behavior is right, What behavior is just, what behavior is fair. Again, we aren’t saved because we do the right things, but we need learn the difference between right and wrong. The New Testament tells us that we have been freed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We were set free. Galatians 5:13

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature

That freedom is supposed to be used to serve God and to serve one another, not to indulge our sinful nature. It’s like how Paul reasoned in 1 Corinthians 10:23:

Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible but not everything is constructive.

The idea is: The freedom to do something shouldn’t lead to you doing it. You can tell the maturity of someone based on their restraint of things that they can do, but don’t. That is called prudence, or discretion, or restraint or self control. That characteristic is praised throughout the Bible. It’s something that we as Christians need to foster. Why? Because our salvation is based on Grace, not works. That means that all behaviors are no longer tied to our eternal salvation; so we have this freedom. We could do whatever without affecting our salvation, but there are plenty of bad choices. So we need to care about the idea of discretion. We need to pay attention to our self-control. How is that developed? Two ways. The easy way and the hard way. The “easy way” is to learn by the mistakes or instruction of others. The “hard way” is to ignore instruction and make the mistakes yourself. In the short run, the “easy way” seems harder, if we are curious or stubborn or if we can’t show discretion or restraint. In the short run the “hard way” seems easier because we give into our desires and abandon self control. Studying these proverbs and taking the King’s advice will allow us to be prepared to learn from the instruction of others instead of from our own mistakes. Verse 4 explains that giving prudence is important for the simple and giving knowledge and discretion is important for the young. The young will benefit the most from learning from the mistakes of others. They haven’t experienced as many mistakes firsthand, so when they can heed advice and avoid those mistakes, they are free to grow and learn without going through the pain and suffering. It’s like playing a game, where you can skip ahead to the next level. Or like a class that you can test out of. The youth can benefit hugely from our mistakes. As a youth pastor, I try and teach the younger generation knowledge about God and what the Bible says. There’s only so much I can do in the 1 hour per week I teach (and with their attention spans, it’s usually more like 30-45 minutes.) As parents and guardians and elders, we should be ready to explain to our kids the importance of learning from the mistakes of others. We can do this in a personal and humble way, using our mistakes as an example. And explaining the negative consequences that happened in our lives. Of course the age of the child must be taken into consideration when choosing various examples or details but your honesty and communication are very important. Verse 5 explains that the wise listen and add to understanding. Wisdom means learning to avoid problems by listening and watching and discerning what’s good and bad. Discernment means looking at an action or a decision and deciding whether it’s good or bad. It’s kind of like judging, but a little different. We are not supposed to judge others, but we are called to discernment. Let’s give an example for clarification. Let’s say we read a story about some guy pulling out a gun and robbing a bank. Discernment means looking at the story and saying, “that’s wrong to steal people’s savings” “Even if the bank reimburses the people’s savings, the thief is still stealing from the bank and that’s wrong” “it’s not right to threaten people with weapons” “it’s dangerous to threaten people with a gun, because I could hurt somebody. “even if I don’t use it, someone who was there and also has a gun could shoot me out of fear or defense” “there are legal penalties like jail for people who do things like that”. Judgement looks at the story and makes a determination about the gunman, “that guy is a psycho and should be locked up” or “that guy was just trying to feed his family and should be free”. The truth is we don’t know the gunman’s heart. We don’t know if he behaves rationally, or if he’s crazy. We can’t judge the guy. Discernment is like judgement but not people centered. It’s action centered judgement, and it’s valuable for learning and wisdom. Verse 5 tells us that wise people listen to instruction and add to the things they already know. When you have discernment, you are given guidance about your decisions. Let’s read Verse 6. So one of the purposes of these proverbs in the Bible is in order to understanding proverbs and parables and riddles and sayings of the wise. So, one of the purposes of these proverbs is so that you can understand proverbs in general. Have you ever talked to somebody really wise? Even though they are speaking your language and you understand each word, you still don’t understand what they’re saying? The wise person is on a whole different level or wavelength than the simple person. It could happen if I talked to a Quantum Physics PhD. Or a trained specialist doctor. Without years of devoted study, I can’t understand what they’re really trying to say. Even if they use an example or parable that tries to compare it to something more easy to grasp, you still have to decipher or translate what they are saying into your own thoughts. In school, when we were learning something, we’d have a textbook, and then the workbook full of examples for better comprehension. Or there’s a lesson, and then there’s assignments or questions to make sure we understand and can apply what we have learned. Well the book of Proverbs is like that work book to practice understanding proverbs. Verse 6 says we read proverbs, so we can understand proverbs. Why do we need to understand proverbs and parables? Intangible concepts and ideas concerning an unseeable, immeasurable God often need parables. Throughout the bible, we see Prophets speaking in parables. And the most prominent example. Our Lord and Savior Jesus. He always spoke in parables. To understand Jesus’s teaching, it’s important to be familiar with how a proverb or parable can be used to teach. Jesus was asked why he always spoke in Parables, and he answered in Matthew 13:13 (In a parable, nonetheless! and a quote from Isaiah). How about verse 7? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

That first half is a quote of Psalm 111:10, and is repeated in Proverbs 9:10 and other places.

What does it mean to fear the Lord? There is a lot of misunderstanding when we talk about fearing the Lord. The Fear of God is a respect for his power and awe of his majesty. It doesn’t necessarily mean a fear like being scared of a thug or a wild animal. In that case, we are scared because we aren’t in control and could be seriously harmed or killed. Now with God, what’s different?? We still aren’t in control. God is.. And God could take our lives whenever he wants. Jesus warned in Matthew 10:28 “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell” God has the power and the moral authority and justice to destroy our body and soul eternally. So by those two measures, it sounds like God is just like a thug or a wild animal. A. We aren’t in control, and B. He can destroy us.. He can destroy us even worse and more completely than a thug or wild animal. But there is a big difference. What is the difference? God’s character. He is Good. He is not a greedy or bloodthirsty thug. He is not an unpredictable wild animal. In C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lewis writes an allegory comparing the Christian theology and worldview to a magical fantasy world. In that fantasy world, the Christ figure is a lion named Aslan who is the King. Here’s a quote about Aslan, but it is meant to apply to God.

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…”Safe?” said Mr Beaver …”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Christians sometimes forget this fact about God. God is not Safe. He is more powerful and dangerous than anything we could possibly imagine. He controls not just our lives but our eternity. Everything you see, and everything you know and have ever known was created is owned by Him. God is not Safe. To call God “safe” is to misrepresent Him. God is not safe. But God is Good. That’s the difference between fear of God and a wild animal or thug. We can know God’s character. We can study his Character. From reading Scripture, we know He is VERY unsafe towards those who mock him. He is very unsafe for those who don’t believe in Him or in consequences. He unsafe to people who live as if He weren’t there. He is unsafe for the adulterers and thieves. He is unsafe for the greedy. He is unsafe for those who don’t treat the disabled and elderly well. He is unsafe for those who practice Evil. But our fear of God is not primarily because God is not safe. Our fear of God is because He is Good. And He is nothing like us. In the story, the girl Susan knew that at some point, she would encounter a lion. She had hoped to come face to face with something like her. But that’s not how God is. When we meet God face to face, and we all will, we won’t meet a being like us. God is holy and very different. We fear God because we are nothing like him. He is holy. He is good. And we are not Good. When we understand this and truly get this.. That’s the beginning of Knowledge. Then we understand who we are, and who God is. Only when we understand this, then we are prepared to gain wisdom and knowledge. The fools will despise this wisdom and instruction. But we will listen. We will think about all the ways we aren’t good. We will beg God for his help to take those things away from us. And He will. We know that He will, because of what we know about his character. We know that He will because He already has from a legal standpoint. Jesus died as a propitiation for our sins. Jesus took our evil and our sin, and covered them in his Blood. We are covered by the blood of the Lamb. By faith, not our works, we were made right. By the blood of Jesus, we were saved from a very unsafe wrath. To have the Fear of God means we understand the holiness of God. It means we understand our helpless state. That’s the beginning of wisdom.

William Eisenhower wrote an article in “Christianity Today” about the fear of God.

“Unfortunately, many of us presume that the world is the ultimate threat and that God’s function is to offset it. How different this is from the Biblical position that God is far scarier than the world …. When we assume that the world is the ultimate threat, we give it unwarranted power, for in truth, the world’s threats are temporary. When we expect God to balance the stress of the world, we reduce him to the world’s equal …. As I walk with the Lord, I discover that God poses an ominous threat to my ego, but not to me. He rescues me from my delusions, so he may reveal the truth that sets me free. He casts me down, only to lift me up again. He sits in judgment of my sin, but forgives me nevertheless. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but love from the Lord is its completion.”

Fear of the Lord is where our wisdom begins, but in HIS wisdom- in GOD’s wisdom- he sent his Son to die for us. Out of the depths of his love and his mercy. He made us right because of His love. And how do we know what love is? 1 John 3:16

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

We know what God’s wisdom is because of Jesus Christ.  Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but Grace and Mercy are the completion of wisdom.