How is the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom?

I have already spoken of wisdom as that quality in man by which he understands the true nature of things, and their relationship to one another. Now where a man has in power in his soul the consciousness that he is an intelligent creature of God, responsible to yield to Him implicit and unquestioning obedience, that God is holy and righteous, unable, because of these attributes, to forgo His claims upon His creature, that death lies upon Him as the righteous judgment of God, and that he has no hope of evading that judgment, or of being able to render to God an equivalent for his sinful life; then the fear of God enters his soul, and compels him to hearken to God’s terms of salvation. This is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10).

(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.

That Job could speak thus, shows that he had in some measure this wisdom, could not therefore be classed with the wicked. But how feebly had he grasped the great fact of which he had spoken. A little later this fear of the Lord will lead him indeed "to depart from evil" — from an evil heart and from himself. That was for him, as it is for us, the true wisdom. With this wisdom we can pass over the earth, or search beneath its depths, can cross the seas, or soar towards heaven, only to find God and His witness everywhere.

Is this knowledge? No. The reasoning on facts, even without God, even in that which is the legitimate sphere of experimental science, is only the leaving man to the wandering of his own mind, who never will, and never can, know creation without knowing a Creator; that is, without that faith which believes that the worlds were framed by the word of God, and that the things which are seen were not made of the things which do appear. When we turn to moral things and intellectual philosophy, it is evident there can be no knowledge without the fear of God; for then I enter on the sphere of relationships and obligations; and how can I be right, when I leave out the first and principal one? I cannot think of mind and find it sufficient for itself within itself. In point of fact, it has aspirations, and longings, and thoughts of a Being above us, power out of our reach, goodness, good and evil - of an end of our being, which is not apparent. If mind cannot suffice for itself, is it to turn to what is below it and exercise merely its powers? If above, what is God? what are my relationships with Him? where do they end, how begin? Will they end? I must know God to be at rest, God must have His place. Now putting God in His true place - that is the fear of God - is the true beginning of all knowledge.

There is here a modification of this. It is the fear of Jehovah; that is, it was a known relationship which man had with God, and it is living in that relationship as so known, for example, putting Him in mind and conscience in His true place as in that revealed relationship. Inconsiderate persons, running wildly after their own will, despise wisdom and instruction the experience and judgment of mature, experienced mind, or the warning and discipline which may apply to what is not such. But there is a subordinate principle to the fear of the Lord - subjection in these relationships in which He has established authority in the first instance and immediately over the movements of man's nature: that is, the father and the mother. God has established this as the first and original bond of authority; will is in subjection, and honour, obligation, respect, come in. The parent is the source of the path of the child in contrast with his own will. It is not a law to meet and break his will (if he be not wilful), but to instruct, form, guide, but with authority; yet as honoured by the child and respected, as holding God's place, and with affections which produce willingness instead of will; still it is authority. Here we have therefore instruction, guidance by warning, discipline, and even by chastisement (paidia; Heb. 12:5). So he is not to forsake the precepts and admonitions of his mother, those early influences which first bend the mind to good. This is a deeply important principle. It is not, like marriage, first instituted of all. It begins with authority, but authority in relationship of love, the source that forms and fashions as well as controls the character, the name that God takes in highest grace towards us; not a lawgiver, but an authority, but whose word is law, where it is a question between that and our own will.

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.

Look at the case of Solomon, He wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). Wisdom without the fear of the Lord is not the wisdom that is “better than rubies.” Without the fear of the Lord the very A.B.C. of wisdom has not been learned. A man may be accounted wise in the learning of the schools, or in diplomacy, or in military strategy, but if he has not the fear of the Lord, he has no true wisdom. He is out of touch with what really matters. He has not adjusted himself to God. He is building on sand and not on the rock. His efforts end with fitful time, and enter not into eternity.

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.

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.

"The fear of Jehovah (is) the beginning of knowledge: fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law [or teaching] of thy mother; for they (shall be) a garland of grace for thy head, and chains about thy neck." vv. 7-9.

In Psalm 111:10 the fear of Jehovah is declared to be the beginning of wisdom, as here of knowledge. Both are equally true, and each important in its place, though wisdom be the higher of the two, as built on the experience of the divine word and ways, which "knowledge" does not necessarily presuppose.

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).

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.