Thought from today’s Bible reading from Proverbs 1-3.
The book of Proverbs is a book about wisdom. Wisdom, as we often point out, is the application of knowledge. So in discussing wisdom, we need to have the proper foundation of knowledge. But how do we begin to acquire knowledge. Solomon gives us a starting point:
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7).
If we want to acquire the knowledge that will enable us to gain the wisdom that God desires us to have, we must have an appropriate fear of the Lord. There are a few reasons for this:
- The fear of the Lord gives us the right direction. We will seek knowledge of God’s word that leads to the wisdom that comes from above rather than following after the wisdom of the world.
- The fear of the Lord gives us the right motivation. We will not make a half-hearted effort to seek the knowledge and wisdom from above but will diligently pursue it.
- The fear of the Lord gives us the right attitude. Once we know what is right, we will be of the mind that we will then do what is right.
If we hope to increase in knowledge and wisdom of the Lord, we must fear Him. That fear is what will keep us on the right path.
Tomorrow’s reading: Proverbs 4-6
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
