Proverbs 1:1-7 - The Beginning of Knowledge

The Spirit has enabled you to begin eternity here and now!

Proverbs 1:1–7 (NASB95)

1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:

² To know wisdom and instruction,

To discern the sayings of understanding,

³ To receive instruction in wise behavior,

Righteousness, justice and equity;

⁴ To give prudence to the naive,

To the youth knowledge and discretion,

⁵ A wise man will hear and increase in learning,

And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

⁶ To understand a proverb and a figure,

The words of the wise and their riddles.

⁷ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 94

Q. What does the Lord require in the first commandment?

A. That I, not wanting to endanger my very salvation,

avoid and shun

all idolatry, magic, superstitious rites,

and prayer to saints or to other creatures.

That I sincerely acknowledge the only true God,

trust him alone,

look to him for every good thing

humbly

and patiently,

love him,

fear him, and honor him

with all my heart.

In short,

that I give up anything

rather than go against his will in any way

Summary

We're taking a step back chronologically this week as we read through the Bible together. For the past month and a half, we've been reading through some of the darkest days God's people faced as the Israelites fell away from God and into exile. We read the prophecy that both warned them of it and comforted them through it and narratives from Daniel and later Ezra and Nehemiah that showed that the LORD always kept them in His hand.

This week we're going back to the Bible's books of poetry (of course we've already been taking a slice of the Psalms each Friday). But this poetry isn't just abstract verbal art - it has a very important purpose, which is made clear in today's opening words. These proverbs of Solomon are given that we might know wisdom and instruction - the elements that are always lacking when God's people wander away from truth in pursuit of the world's lies - the very wisdom that Adam and Eve forfeited when they ate from the tree of knowledge, and the actual instruction that the Israelites abandoned that resulted in their exile.

So the Bible's poetry does much more than just hit you in the feels. As you receive its instruction in wise behavior, then generally righteousness, justice and equity will follow. You'll gain the exact attributes that so much of this broken world is missing! The Bible's poetry is immensely practical!

And the wisdom that Biblical poetry provides is for all ages. It makes sense that our naive kids need to hear and read it, for the youth need knowledge and discretion. But even a wise man - people who've been around the block a time or two and who have lots of life experience - even they need to continually hear and increase their learning and seek out the Bible's wise counsel.

  Dig Deeper  

Right off the bat, the Bible's wisdom makes a very important distinction. While knowledge certainly depends on instruction and understanding, it can't be learned didactically, the way you came to know the alphabet, multiplication tables, basic Bible stories or other tidbits of data. Rather, true knowledge is rooted in attitude. It's a product of fear:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning [root] of knowledge...

Nineteenth century commenter Albert Barnes explains well how fear is the starting point of all true wisdom, writing, "The beginning of wisdom is found in the temper of reverence and awe - the fear of the finite in the presence of the Infinite, of the sinful in the presence of the Holy."

Allen Ross adds, "Such fear is not a trembling dread that paralyzes action, but neither is it a polite reverence. The fear of the LORD ultimately expresses reverential submission to the LORD’s will and thus characterizes a true worshiper. In this context it is the first and controlling principle of knowledge (beginning can refer to the first thing, the chief thing, or the principal thing)."

In other words, before you can truly know or understand anything, you must truly know the LORD; for to know Him is to fear Him. And the only way to truly know the LORD is for His Spirit to free your mind from its slavery to sin, for:

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Your desire to truly know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness justice and equity is evidence of the Holy Spirit's breathing new life into your once foolish soul. This is why Jesus' primary command to those who follow Him is to repent - a word that literally means to change your thinking.

In other words, as a Christian, you can truly begin to learn true, eternal knowledge. And according to Jesus, this is what you'll spend the rest of eternity adding to! So start (or keep going) today!

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who through His Spirit has enabled the wise to fear Him;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that, having had your mind freed from sin, that your eternal purpose - starting now - will be to grow in the knowledge, wisdom and instruction of the LORD;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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