By: L. Adams
“If you really want to gain knowledge,
you have to begin by having respect for the Lord. But foolish people hate
wisdom and training.” (Proverbs 1:7, NIRV)
The Hebrew word used here for fear
suggests reverence and awe. A person seeking wisdom is willing to bow down to
God simply because of the awe and respect they feel for Him. This phrase also
suggests total dependence on God.
I am reminded of my relationship with my
earthly father. My Daddy was a wonderful man whom I loved with all my heart and
respected so much. He was the perfect example of a godly father. Highly
respected in our community, he was a fair and wise man. Yet I knew my
boundaries with him. I had a proper fear of him. Not the kind born of bad
experience (unless you would call the holy discipline of spanking ‘bad’), but
rather awe and respect for him. I loved him with all my heart and desired to
please him. This is the ‘fear’ of which the Bible speaks.
Our culture does not teach this kind of
fear or respect, therefore, it is a concept many people do not fully
understand. Respect means that I trust the other person and esteem them, or
hold them in high regard. It also means that I am willing to be submissive to
another person. Oh yes, the 'S' word--submit. To respect another causes one to
desire to please that person and perhaps even emulate them.
As Proverbs 1:7 tells us, a
fool does not feel the need to respect God and therefore lacks the wisdom and
knowledge that comes only from God. In fact, the fool chooses to go the
opposite direction from wisdom.
I like this quote from Walter Lippman:
"It requires wisdom to understand
wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf."
The fool is like a deaf audience. He has
no way to gain wisdom because he doesn’t understand or respect the way to
wisdom, which is the Lord. The fool refuses to submit to God because he doesn't
trust God.
When I fear the Lord and walk before Him
in respect, He makes me so much wiser than I should be. Really, I am a blonde
underneath the Miss Clairol on my head, so sometimes I am stunned by the wisdom
that God gives me.
I don’t want to be a fool!
How about you?
Let’s learn to respect, trust and submit
to God in order to get a dose of WISDOM.
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