How is knowledge of the Holy One understanding (Proverbs 9:10)?

The secret of it all is plain. "The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding." Creature intelligence is of no value for the soul, for eternity, for relationship with God. It begins, and must begin with fearing Him, the True and the Good, the Righteous and the Holy. There is repentance no less than faith, and therefore trembling at His Word, the direct reverse of judging it and trusting in self, justifying ourselves instead of God. But growth belongs to life in our present condition; and growth is by the right knowledge of God, who has communicated it in His Word for this purpose. The Christian readily knows why "Holy" should be in the plural, without allowing that it means "holy things." The knowledge of such things is not the intelligence that grows from the enlarging knowledge of God.

it is well for us to be constantly reminded that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (v. 10). When this genuine, reverential fear is present, it is indeed a basis for every aspect of wisdom. For this involves "the knowledge of the Holy One," reminding us that holiness is a most prominent characteristic of God, who loves good and hates evil. If we lack such character, we shall lack understanding. May we rather deeply appreciate the holiness of our God.

Job in his ninth and last discourse, which occupies six chapters, speaks of the excellency of wisdom (Job 28:12-28). Having spoken of men's skill in mining and engineering (at that early date), and their diligent search for the treasures of the earth, he exclaimed, "But where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding." The bowels of the earth will not reveal it, and its value far exceeds that of gold and rubies. God alone can declare its true nature and value, "and to man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." Solomon added to this later: "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding" (Prov. 9:10). Therefore until God gets His rightful place in a man's mind and heart he is incapable of viewing anything wisely. His thoughts are out of centre. His beginning is all wrong.

(7) What then is the true wisdom? What does God declare it to be? It is most significant that it it is not mere truth, but truth applied to the conscience, truth which puts man in his true place, and thus fits and enables him to receive what God has to say. The fear of the Lord (Adonai, the supreme Ruler and Master) is wisdom — the bowing in humiliation before Him in whose presence seraphim veil their faces, before whom Isaiah cried, "Woe is me, for I am undone." This fear is not mere dread, but reverence, submission, worship. It includes repentance, as evidenced in the words of the thief: "Dost not thou fear God?" To know God thus is preparatory to and inclusive of the knowledge of His mercy and grace for us the full knowledge of the gospel, and accompanying Christian revelation. It is not knowledge of God, but being brought to Him, and learning His grace and love. This is more than mere knowledge; it is the key to it; it is eternal life.

But now for the Proverbs. You will find seven times in this book what the fear of the Lord is stated to be. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Prov. 1:7). The fear of the Lord is the first step to knowledge and progress. Now pass on to the eighth chapter. "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate" (Prov. 8:13). Things which He hates, we should, or His fear is not in us. Next we get, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding" (Prov. 9:10). There is a great difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge may puff me up, but wisdom will never puff me up. Knowledge is the apprehension of the truth, but wisdom is the capacity of using the truth. It is the way in which the soul, led of God, can use what it has rightly, and divinely. Then, "The fear of the Lord prolongs days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened" (Prov. 10:27). It is very similar in its tone to what we shall find in our Psalm. Next we read, "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death" (Prov. 14:27). A sure way of escaping Satan's snares is of priceless value. Sixthly, we read, "The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility" (Prov. 15:33). Wisdom is always willing to learn, it is only fools who need no instruction. And now lastly, "The fear of the Lord tends to life; and he that has it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil" (Prov. 19:23). Abiding satisfaction is a sweet fruit of this holy fear. You will find now that this verse chimes in with our Psalm most beautifully. If you want these points illustrated they are all visible in the dying thief on the cross" (see Luke 23:40-43).

But it is in holiness God's way is, and "the knowledge of the Holy is understanding": therefore we enter into His mind as His mind enters into us. And then indeed shall we realize: "who is the mighty one (El) so great as God?" And if He be thus necessarily hidden by. His own perfection, yet is He not outside the knowledge of men everywhere: for "Thou art the Mighty One that doeth wonders: Thou hast made known Thy strength among the peoples." And here especially in Israel — through His relationship to these — He is made known, and in the grace which this declares: "with Thine arm hast Thou redeemed Thy people, the sons of Jacob and of Joseph."

The moral character of such guidance distinguishes it from the mere working of the natural intellect. "The knowledge of the holy" it is that "is understanding" (Prov. 9:10). And so here: "all the paths of Jehovah are mercy and truth toward those who observe His covenant and His testimonies."

The mind, thus active, has great need for self-judgement; for its error is not refusing or misapprehending the will of God, but in attempting to promote and secure it, by its own unaided efforts. Now, when this is the case, the Lord allows His servant to find, by sorrowful experience, the fruits of his own plans. And though the purposes of His love remain the same, they must be reached by the intelligently wilful, in circumstances which declare, that He who blesses, and addeth no sorrow to it, has not been the undisturbed agent in the scene. "The fear of the Lord is wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy, that is understanding." If I have not God before my eyes, I never can, with a natural mind and in a world of evil, walk wisely: for God is the fountain of wisdom. Therefore mere knowledge in itself is nothing; that is, it never leads a man to walk with God.

In the fourth place, Iron, "fearing," speaks of that which grace, beyond nature or the terrors Of law, awakens in the creature brought thus nigh to God. How can it be otherwise? But this does not put at a distance, or make us desire distance: it is simply the creature conscious of creaturehood, as where else should it be so conscious? and which is its safeguard. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom": for God is kept in His place, and man in his; and this is the simple key to true understanding.

Why do we thus speak of all true education and culture being dependent upon the Scriptures? It is because all knowledge apart from God leads into the darkness. We see this in the science of the day. How infinitely pathetic and solemn it is to think of learned men spreading out before us a vast area of facts as to the heavens above and the earth beneath our feet, and being absolutely ignorant and blind to the fact which the babe in Christ exults in — that all has been created by Christ and for Him! "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" and "the knowledge of the Holy is understanding." If the glory of God is not seen in the heavens, all that science can tell us about heavenly distances, sizes, laws, and all else, is comparatively worthless; and so, too, with every other department of human knowledge.