Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Proverbs 1:1-7 | Date: March 29, 2020 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

All right, well, welcome again to a webinar from Reformed Baptist Church. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter one. I’ve sent out the text if you would like, but you might want to keep your Bible with you handy as well, because we may be looking at some other verses in Proverbs along the way. But today we will begin again with Proverbs chapter one, verses one to seven. Our subject this morning is the beginning of wisdom.

Proverbs 1, beginning with verse 1:

The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. Let the wise hear and increase in learning and the one who understands obtain guidance. To understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Why Proverbs?

All right, let’s begin again with the big question. Why Proverbs? Why was this book written? I mentioned last time that we should understand the Bible’s wisdom literature as one means that God uses to transform us, to shape our lives, to honor him. But very specifically now, notice again in verses two to six, how the author himself states his goal. He states it some five times over. Notice the purpose clauses in verses two to six.

We have verse one: “The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.” That serves as the title for the book. And now the purposes for which the book was written: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing and righteousness and justice and equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. And then we have this parenthetical exhortation in verse five that introduces the last purpose clause: “Let the wise hear and understand in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.”

These five purpose clauses take in practical and moral dimensions, as well as some intellectual dimensions. We’ll talk about that another time. But they state in one way or another, all of them, the goal, and that is to impart wisdom. But the author wants to break it down and say it several different ways, each with its own particular significance that I think we’ll look at briefly next time. But we should note, at least in passing, the various synonyms for wisdom that we run into here and see that we use them all through Proverbs.

So notice in verse two, he speaks of wisdom, instruction, understanding, insight. And then verse four, he speaks of prudence, knowledge, discretion. Now in all of these terms that are used, there are some fine distinctions that we can make with all of them. And at some point along the way, I may do that with some of them, but in the main, they’re used as synonyms for wisdom.

Now wisdom, we saw last time, is the skill of living successfully under God—the skill of living successfully under God. And we also saw that wisdom is inseparable from righteousness. It is a very important observation in Proverbs that you must keep in mind: that wisdom is inseparable from righteousness. To be righteous is in your own best interests. And so doing what is right is the wise thing to do. It’s wise to be righteous. You will be better off for it. That’s a consistent emphasis in the book of Proverbs.

Now, verse two, part A, the first part of the verse, has these practical and moral overtones: “to know wisdom and instruction.” To know wisdom—that’s an unusual expression, but it has the idea of being skillful in living successfully under God. One who knows wisdom is one who recognizes God’s world and how it works, and so he knows how to avoid mistakes and how to keep from messing up his life.

Now let’s spend a little bit of time on verse four. Notice the specific goal, as he says it in verse four: “to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth.” Let’s talk about the simpleton in Proverbs. The simpleton in Proverbs is not a stupid person in an intellectual sense. The word means something like “open.” So the simple person is one who’s uncommitted. He’s unaware. He’s undiscerning. He’s naive. And so he’s easily led or misled. Notice the parallel in the next part of the verse: “To give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth.” So we have “simple” and “youth.” And then youth are simply the inexperienced, the one who lacks the know-how.

We all know Proverbs 22 verse 15: “foolishness is bound in the heart of the child.” We’re all born with a bent towards self-destructiveness. The sage here recognizes that. And so he wants very much to impart wisdom to his son before he ruins his life. Now it’s important to note also in Proverbs that the simpleton is not, although he’s not committed to either wisdom or folly, neither is he innocent. Remaining simple is culpable, because not choosing wisdom is already to have chosen folly.

Now, the simpleton in Proverbs is not quite the fool, and he’s not the mocker, and that’s a good thing. But if he continues in his naive simplicity, he’ll ruin his life just the same. But in Proverbs, there’s this one hopeful thing that we can say about the simpleton, and that is he is teachable. That’s not the case with the fool. As we see in verse seven, fools despise wisdom and instruction, but the simpleton is still teachable. He’s like a child. And the objective here is to teach him before he becomes a fool and before he makes decisions that will bring him harm and regret. So the hope is to make him aware of the world he lives in, to warn him of its dangers, and how to avoid running headlong into ruin. And what the sage then wants for his son is to see him mature and develop the ability to make well-considered decisions and not be driven by thoughtless impulses.

So Proverbs begins by offering this really very attractive prospect: I can teach you how to live so that you don’t have to learn from mistakes and regrets. Do you want to make a mess of your life? Or do you want to live successfully without regrets? Listen up, he says, it’s for your own good.

The Fear Of The Lord Is The Beginning Of Knowledge

All right, so Proverbs offers this great prospect: I can teach you how to live successfully. Now to impart that wisdom, beginning in chapter one in verse eight, and all the way through the end of the chapter, he gives these extended lectures—chapters one to eight—exhorting his son to pursue wisdom. And then from chapter 10, verse one onwards, he gives us the specific Proverbs, the sayings that are wisdom in specific life applications.

But before he gets to any of that, and this is where we’ll spend our time today, before he gets to any of that, he gives the whole in sum. And that’s verse seven. Notice verse seven. This is the motto, the basic creed of the book of Proverbs: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” This is his motto, his theme. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. If you want to live successfully, you must fear God.

Now, one way the biblical writers often emphasize a point is to state it up front and then again at the end, as well as many times in between. And this stating your point up front and then again at the end is called an inclusio. It’s kind of literary brackets that frame the whole discussion. And the author of Proverbs uses the inclusio to emphasize his theme of fear of the Lord.

So here in chapter one, verse seven, right up front, he states his motto: “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Then you’ll notice, if you’d like, chapter nine, as he brings his lectures to a close, he says it again. Look at Proverbs nine, verse 10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” And in fact, he brings the whole book to a close with the same. You might remember in chapter 31, as we bring the book of Proverbs to a conclusion, he gives this famous description of the virtuous woman. And he writes, “charm is deceitful, beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

So he states it up front. He states it at the end of the lectures. He states it at the end of the book. And then of course, he states it again and again throughout the book, more than a dozen or so times. And all that to stress the point: if you want to live wisely, start here. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

What Does It Mean To Fear The Lord?

Now then, that raises the question, what does it mean to fear the Lord? Probably all of you are aware that this word “fear” in the Bible is often in newer versions translated “reverence” or “awe.” Fear in the contemporary mind just doesn’t seem appropriate with reference to God, at least for many. But the ideas of reverence and awe are certainly involved. But the word that we have here in the Hebrew is very clear: it’s fear. And I can’t find any warrant to dumb it down.

Let me talk about that for a few minutes. First of all, all that said, there’s fear and there’s fear. There are different kinds of fear. If you are swimming in a Florida lake and come across a 15-foot alligator, yeah, that’s one kind of fear. But there are other kinds of fear. For example, God blessed me with good parents. Dad and mom were good to us. We had a very happy home. The atmosphere of love was obvious. And I never had to fear that my dad would come into the room in a rage and kick me and beat me. That just could never happen. I was not afraid of him in that sense. But at the same time, I have to say that my dad was the very last person on earth that I wanted to cross. Reverence? Yeah. Awe? Sure. But the psychology of fear remained.

And so, for example, taking this now to an infinitely higher level, when Moses met with God on the mountain, it says he trembled with fear. That’s not just reverence. That’s not just awe. Although it was at least that. It was fear—the kind of fear that makes your knees knock. Now, it’s true that in 1 John 4, verse 18, the apostle John tells us, “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” But he explains what he means: “For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”

So he says, that kind of fear, the fear of punishment—that’s behind us when, through Christ, we become God’s children. Christ has taken our punishment for us. That’s the heart of the gospel. And we no longer fear God in that sense. But God is still God and we are still his creatures. And the fear of God remains a Christian virtue as the New Testament bears out. And in fact, the ideas of love and acceptance on the one hand and fear on the other are not incompatible.

My favorite example of this in the Bible is Psalm 2 verse 11. We read there, “serve the Lord with fear and”—get this—”serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.” Rejoice with trembling. There’s no contradiction. It’s real fear and it’s real joy. There’s reason for fear. God is God. He’s a consuming fire. He’s unapproachable light. He’s supremely majestic. And yet there’s reason for real joy as well, because the same God has covenanted himself in love to us in Christ.

So there’s fear and there’s fear. And this fear of God for the believer may not be the kind of fear that makes you want to run away, but it is the kind of fear that makes you bow. It overwhelms and it humbles us. And—and here we come to our point—it commands submission. And that, he tells us in verse seven, is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

The First And Controlling Principle

Well, now we have to ask that question again. What does that mean? What does it mean, “the beginning of knowledge”? Well, “beginning”—that word can take a temporal or chronological sense, meaning something like it’s the starting point of knowledge. And “beginning” can take a more logical sense, meaning something like “foundation” or “the most important thing.” And here I’m convinced it’s impossible to choose from one or the other ideas. It’s obviously both.

The fear of the Lord is the starting point of wisdom in a chronological sense, but it’s certainly not something that we start with and then leave behind us. There are certain value connotations that are obviously in view as well. And so the idea here is something like “first and controlling principle.” The fear of the Lord is the first and controlling principle of knowledge. So what the alphabet is to reading and writing, what notes are to music, what numbers are to mathematics, the fear of the Lord is to life and wisdom and knowledge. It’s the first step, it’s the foundation stone, and it’s the all-controlling principle.

All that is to say that all right learning—we’ve got to get this—all right learning must proceed from a proper recognition of God and a right response to him. I’ll say it again: all right learning must proceed from a proper recognition of God and a right response to him. You can understand yourself and the world that you live in and thus steer your life successfully only as you proceed in the knowledge and the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord produces a whole new way of looking at life.

Now there are some important intellectual connotations to the fear of God. They are very important. Simply stated, it is this: if we fear God, there is no room for autonomous reasoning. We’ll never imagine that we know better. That was the era of modernism. Postmodernism, as we discussed in Sunday School very much last year—postmodernism denies all certainty of knowledge. You have your truth; I have mine. And we learn to live with the contradictions. They’re all true. The older modernism acknowledged the idea of absolute truth, but it had such an utter confidence in the abilities of the human mind to discern truth that it had no room at all for the ideas of revelation or external authority. Everything could be subjected to the human mind. Rationalism, we called it.

Some of you may have had a course in philosophy along the way and were introduced to the area of epistemology. Epistemology is the study of the foundations of knowledge, how we know what we know. Well, this is the Bible’s theory of knowing in a nutshell: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. All knowledge begins with God and his revelation. All that in turn has implications for contemporary apologetics, postmodernist questions regarding the nature of truth, and so on.

But what it means on an everyday practical level is that we will never think that we know better. If we fear God, we will never harbor feelings of self-sufficiency or independence in the myriad of determinations and decisions and choices that we make. It means that we will reject those sneaking feelings that we have it all together. And we’ll instead recognize God and revere his word. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. As Proverbs 28:26 tells us, “he who trusts his own heart is a fool.”

Now that idea is reflected in Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6, which many of you have memorized. Pastor Greg pointed this out to us last week. Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And notice, do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.” That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think. But it means that if we fear and trust God, we will submit our thinking to his. We will follow his direction, his word, in making decisions and determining the course of life. And to borrow from James, we will follow the wisdom that is from above.

Now, if that’s the case, then this is not at all merely an intellectual exercise. We can’t miss the ethical connotations of it. If we fear God, we will submit to his instruction. We will recognize our obligation to him and our dependence on him and our accountability to him. And so we’ll submit to his word. And we will never, like Eve, decide that we know better. Proverbs 3, verse 7 says that exactly: “Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.”

Be not wise in your own eyes. You may have it all figured out why this thing in this instance is right for you to do, even though God says otherwise. But if we fear God, we will never presume to know better. We will submit to his law. “Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.” Well, this is where wisdom and successful living begin: the fear of the Lord. If we fear God, we will never entertain a thought that we know better. We will bow and we will obey. And with that, we will have begun a life that is wise and rewarding.

Let me say a word to you parents with children still at home. You must, you must, you must teach this to your children. You must warn them ahead of time that they will always find plenty of people telling them otherwise. They’ll find plenty of people running the other direction and there’ll be peer pressure. They’ll find plenty of people in the neighborhood, in the school, maybe in the extended family, maybe even at church. There’ll be peer pressure and your children must be warned about it up front. Above all considerations, what must guide us in the choices we make is the fear of God. Say it again: above all other considerations, what must guide us in the choices we make is the fear of the Lord.

And what we must teach our children: don’t be a fool. Fear God. If your mind is not rightly oriented to God, you will mess up your life. Wisdom, the skill of living successfully under God, has practical and moral dimensions—knowing how to act, knowing how to respond, knowing how to make good choices, knowing how to avoid ruining your life. It has those practical and moral dimensions to it. But it all starts here on a theological and a devotional level. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Despise that and you’re a fool.

Now, of course, the ultimate expression of a right fear of God is when we bow before the Lord Jesus Christ, go broken and helpless to him for rescue, and submit to his rule. And that’s precisely our Lord’s great invitation that we’ve seen recently in Sunday mornings together: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me.” Here’s the one who is not only the great wisdom teacher, he’s the redeemer who has taken our sin to himself that we may be saved, so that we can be forgiven, so that now we can live unto God.

And interestingly, coming to God through Christ, the fear of the Lord remains. He’s still God. We are still his creatures and we recognize that now more than ever. But that aspect of fear that we call dread or terror because of the fear of punishment, that’s been removed and it’s been replaced by a great sense of acceptance and love. Proceeding from there, we learn how to live well for his honor and our good. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

All right. Again, I’d like to open it up for any discussion about Proverbs—not discussion generally, but any discussion about what we’ve seen here this morning.