The Fear of The Lord - Proverbs 1

This morning I was struck by the idea of the fear of The Lord often repeated in the Bible but little mentioned in today's sermons.

Pro 1:7    The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Job 28:28    And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil isunderstanding.

Psa 111:10    The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

Isa 11:2    And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

Pro 1:20    Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

Pro 1:21    She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,

Pro 1:22    How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

Pro 1:23    Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

Pro 1:24    Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

Pro 1:25    But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

Pro 1:26    I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

Pro 1:27    When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

Pro 1:28    Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

Pro 1:29    For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

Pro 1:30    They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

Pro 1:31    Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

Pro 1:32    For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

Pro 1:33    But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

John Gill

Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,.... Here properly the book begins, and this is the first of the proverbs, and an excellent one; it is such an one as is not to be found in all the writings of the Heathens. By "the fear of the Lord" is not meant a servile fear, a fear of punishment, of hell, wrath, and damnation, which is the effect of the first work of the law upon the conscience; but a filial fear, and supposes knowledge of God as a father, of his love and grace in Christ, particularly of his forgiving love, from whence it arises, Psa 130:4; it is a holy, humble, fiducial fear of God; a reverential affection for him, and devotion to him; it includes the whole of religious worship, both internal and external; all that is contained in the first table of the law, and the manner of performing it, and principle of acting: this is the first of all sciences to be learned, and it is the principal one; it is the basis and foundation of all the rest, on which they depend; and it is the head, the fountain, the root an source, from whence they spring; and unless a man knows God, knows God in Christ, and worships him in his fear, in spirit and in truth, according to his revealed will, he knows nothing as he ought to know; and all his knowledge will be of no avail and profit to him; this is the first and chief thing in spiritual and evangelical knowledge, and without which all natural knowledge will signify nothing; see Job 28:28;

but fools despise wisdom and instruction; the same with "knowledge" before; they do not desire the knowledge of God, and of his ways and worship, but despise it, make no account of it, but treat it with contempt; especially the knowledge of God in Christ, in which lies the highest wisdom, for this is "life eternal",Joh 17:3; they despise Christ "the Wisdom of God", and the Gospel, and the truths of it, which are "the hidden wisdom" of God; and all "instruction" into it, and the means of it; they despise the Scriptures, which are able to make a man "wise unto salvation"; and the ministry of the word, and the ministers of it: such sort of "discipline" (n) was this, as the word signifies, they dislike and abhor; and especially "correction" or "chastisement" (o), which is also the sense of it; suffering reproach and affliction for the sake of wisdom, a profession of Christ and his Gospel; and they are fools with a witness that despise all this; such fools are atheists, deists, and all profane and wicked men. The Septuagint render it, "the ungodly"; and such sort of men are all along meant by "fools" in this book.

(n) מוסר "disciplinam", Tigurine version, Piscator, Cocceius, Schultens, (o) "Castigationem, correctionem", Vatablus.

Proverbs 1:29

For that they hated knowledge,.... Spiritual and evangelical; the knowledge of the Scriptures, of the promises and prophecies of them respecting the Messiah, though they were called upon and exhorted to "search" them; the knowledge of the Messiah, his person, offices, and grace; the knowledge of his Gospel, and the doctrines of it; see Pro 1:22;

and did not choose the fear of the Lord; which is the beginning of knowledge, Pro 1:7; instead of choosing, they cast off the fear of the Lord; and by their rejection of the Messiah, and their usage of him, it plainly appeared that the fear of God was not before their eyes nor upon their hearts; nor did they choose or care for the pure, spiritual, and evangelical worship of God, introduced in the Gospel dispensation; the ordinances of Christ they did not choose to submit to; and would neither go into he kingdom of God or Gospel church state themselves, nor suffer those that were entering to go in, Mat 23:13; but rather chose their superstition and will worship, according to the tradition of the elders, by which they made the word and worship of God of none effect.