Pondering His Holy Word

The command “fear the Lord” or “Fear God” appears several times in the bible. Proverbs 9:10 even says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. This passage appears several times in proverbs in some form or another (1:7, 2:5, 8:13, 10:27, 14:26, 14:27, 15:16, 15:33, 19:9, 19:23). Clearly, God expects us to fear him to gain wisdom. Now, what does it mean to fear the LORD? Moreover, what wisdom comes from this fear?

Let’s take a look at the word fear. When most speaking people think of the end word fear, we sometimes replace the word fear with synonyms such as scared or afraid. These synonyms may lead us to believe that we should be afraid of the LORD, like we should be afraid of strangers, spiders, and snakes. Yet in Hebrew, fear is translated into the words Yirah and Pachad. For instance, Jeremiah states, “And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it” (33:9). The pachad, the stronger of the two words, means to stand in awe, make to shake or tremble. 

Proverbs 9:10 uses the term yirah to mean respect, reverence, terror, and awe (Blue Letter Bible). We, as Christians, have a terror of standing in judgment and found lacking. Yet, we also know that Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sins, and he will intercede on our behalf. For that reason, we can rest assured that we will not face the full brunt of God’s righteous wrath because he has given us grace. As a believer, we have a fear of disappointing God which can lead to us trying to hide from him. We still fear disappointing God, and we know that we fall short because of our sinful human condition. We stand in awe because we can never fully understand God’s ways or his absolute awesomeness, and we accept him as the ruler and creator of everything.

Now, let’s look at the word “Wisdom”. When many people think of the English phrase wisdom, they think of the Merriam-Webster definition, which means “Good Sense” or “the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships. In this sense, we develop wisdom as we grow older (usually). However, the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) explains that the English translation of wisdom is derived from the Hebrew noun Chokhmah. In fact, Chokhmah does not have an exact English equivalent; wisdom is the closest translation. The ISBE defines chokhmah as “the art of reaching one’s end by the use of the right means.” Dr. Douglas Stuart gives a similar yet more precise definition, which is “the desire and ability to make Godly choices.” That being said, the word wisdom does not quite do justice for the Hebrew word Chokhmah.

So what does this mean to us? It means that we cannot merely be intelligent and be wise. Insightfulness does not make us wise. Moreover, ages does not guarantee wisdom. One must have the ability and desire to make Godly choices.

So how do we make Godly choices? As Proverbs 9:10 says, in order to gain the ability to make godly choices, we must fear the LORD. We must stand in absolute Awe of God’s presence in our life. We must revere and respect God. We must be thankful that Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sins. We must feel blessed that God created a redemption plan for historically disobedient people. He poured his spirit in Jesus Christ to not only serve as a model of how to revere and respect the LORD, but Jesus gave himself as the perfect sin offering. Jesus poured his spirit into those who accepted.
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Furthermore, the Holy Spirit guides us to make godly choices and do the will of God, yet it is up to us to revere and respect God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us.