FEAR OF THE LORD part 1
Job 28:28 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
28 “And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
And to depart from evil is understanding.’”
Psalm 111:10 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
A good understanding have all those who do His commandments;
His praise endures forever.
Proverbs 9:10 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
According to these verses, the fear of the Lord is supposed to be the beginning of wisdom. This is what we read in some of the Proverbs about wisdom:
Proverbs 4:7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
“The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding.
Proverbs 16:16 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver.
Proverbs 19:8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; He who keeps understanding will find good.
Proverbs 23:23 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.
Since we are exhorted in the Proverbs to get wisdom and understanding, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then it begs us to ask, “What exactly is the fear of the Lord?” Come with me on a journey to discover the answer or at least the beginnings of an answer to that question.
Our first stop is meant to help us understand the meaning of the phrase “fear of the Lord”. Looking up these words in a Strong’s concordance, we find the KJV translates Strong’s H6343 in the following manner: fear (40x), dread (3x), great (2x), terror (2x), dreadful (1x), greatly (1x). H6343 is the number assigned to this word. In Hebrew, this word is transliterated as pachad. It means: to fear, tremble, revere, dread, and be in awe or dread. You can find this online at:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H6342&t=NASB95
Since we are also instructed in scripture to fear not, then I would take this to mean revere or be in awe of the Lord. When we revere or are in awe of someone, we do what they ask us to do. This is exactly what we see in:
Ecclesiastes 12:13 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
13 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.
Join me next time for the next step in our journey to discover what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord.
Blessings!