Bible Verse of the Day Wednesday July 6th, 2022

 

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

When I was in the Scouting Program as a young boy, we often went on camping outings. It was always a good time, and we all always looked forward to these good times of fellowship and learning. One of the favorite amusements of the older scouts was to scare the younger scouts with scary campfire stories. Many adults today like frightening TV shows and horror stories in books. Strangely, they like the sensation of the jittery feeling from being scared.

This fear is not the same one the Bible speaks of here in this verse, in Proverbs, and in other places in The Bible. The foundation of the Hebrew word “fool” here in Proverbs and other sites in the Old Testament signifies a person with moral deficiency. Therefore, the idea behind the wording in this verse of the day, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” and “Fear God and keep his commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13), does not mean we should cringe and tremble. 

Instead, the fear of the Lord means we are to obey His commands ingrained in a bond with God and a profound admiration and worship for who He is and all He does for us. For a few years growing up, we lived in a house right on the water. My father told me, my brother, and our younger sister never to go out in water over our heads. Well, one day, we kept going out closer and close to deeper waters, and all of a sudden, our little sister stepped out too far and could not touch the bottom. My brother grabbed her and brought her back to safe waters. We all gleaned a very valuable lesson that day; our dad told us to stay in shallow water to keep us safe. Our human fathers may not always lead us down the right path, but our Heavenly Father can see ahead, so He knows when we are getting too close to deep waters.

When we read about the fear of the Lord or fearing God, it might invoke some negative concept in the eyes of certain people. Therefore, we would be well advised to understand “fear of the Lord” in its proper context. To fear God means we are in great awe of and deeply respect who He is in all His eternal power and greatness.

Psalm 8:3-4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

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