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selah
Registered Member

Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1210

Posted 10/30/2005 8:44 AM (GMT -6)

Pr 9:10 - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom...

Will someone please help me understand what this means?
(for those who know me, yes, I am being serious. I haven't a clue...well, maybe JUST a clue

but that's it! )

thanks!

love,
selah

Similitude
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 4968

Posted 10/30/2005 9:33 AM (GMT -6)

Selah, I think it's saying that the proper appreciation for the fact that we exist for Him and not the other way around is foundational to all other moral wisdom and knowledge. And since that fact has implications about accountability, that fear is quintessentially rational.

As we mature in both self-control and knowledge, our motivations become more rooted in love, affection, etc. Analogously, as children, we obey authorities more out of fear of consequences than when we are adults. But in both cases, the fear is grounded in reality.

One Love
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888

Posted 10/30/2005 9:36 AM (GMT -6)

Another VERY brief thought.

It's a theme of the whole "book" of Proverbs, beginning at 1:7. According to the author, a reverential, honest attitude towards God is key to a wise life. It's key to understand that, contra lots of modern theologians today, the Hebrew word (yir'ah) used DOES have connotations of terror, awe, and dread along with reverential piety. But is this so hard to understand. These people have a history of the God who blackened the tops of mountains, opened chasms in the earth, and caused plagues! In another direction, if God is the "supreme being" who is holy , what could a finite, profane being feel BUT some level of anxiety and dread? (Note the allusion)

Partly because proper orientation to God leads to a healthier way of viewing one's relations to self, others, and the world around them. In other words, only then does a person have a healthy perspective for moral and practical deliberation.

The "fool" (1:7) who is utterly irreverent to God (as known by the authors) will by no means have the right orientation to self (leading to egoism and narcissism), others (leading to emotional utilitarianism or even, general sociopathy), or the world (leading to nihilism and exploitation). Think about it. If someone is bold enough to give GOD the proverbial middle finger, what makes you think they'll give you or anyone ELSE due reverence or concern?

Wisdom is more about right orientation than just "intellect" or "abstract knowledge"

Hope that helps.

The newest mantra:

God graciously FINDS us meaningful when God doesn't need to do it and we, in ourselves, can't do it.

"Hmm. Why not? What the hell. Let's try it."
--God

Corey
Five with a Four-wing

Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893

Posted 10/30/2005 1:03 PM (GMT -6)

I've been pondering this a lot, too, recently. I think it's more than "reverence" as I hear a lot of people say. I'm sure I haven't gotten it all put together yet.

I've been going with the idea that the fear of the God is living in the light that he is Truth, he is Life, he is the Way. To go against God will reap really terrible, fearful, consequences: Deception, Death, and Lostness. Straight-up FEAR it.

But this sticks a little funny with me in that it isn't so much fearing God as it is fearing non-God...

Post Edited (Corey) : 10/30/2005 12:06:42 PM (GMT-6)

selah
Registered Member

Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1210

Posted 11/1/2005 5:31 AM (GMT -6)

Thanks for the responses everyone. Good food for thought.
I'm still a bit confused, but that's nothing new

Sir_Edward
Registered Member

Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 66

Posted 11/2/2005 3:05 PM (GMT -6)

Fear in this context would be the idea of terror mixed with love. Kind of how I feel standing on a tall building -- I love the view but my fear of falling paralizes me.

It is awe, wonder, terror and admiration all in one.

Blessings.

Sir_Edward -- Knight of the Theological Roundtable - 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Starkman
Registered Member

Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747

Posted 11/5/2005 5:39 PM (GMT -6)

Note, that it is "The BEGINNING of wisdom..." One must begin with God as the source of all. Otherwise, you end up starting somewhere after that fact and drawing false conclusions. To first acknowedge God (in the fullest sense this means—that He is; that He is creator; that He is supreme; that He is God and no one or nothing else is; etc.) is to start out in wisdom. Build on this and you keep from creating the mess the Corinthians had gotten into (I Cor 1-2), and you don't have to concern yourself (too much!) with being taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ (Col 2:8).

The wisdom of Proverbs is not formal logic, philosophy or analytical thinking; it is, rather, the UNDERSTANDING of who God is, who you are in relationship to God, to others and to yourself, and what it means to live in these contexts. The rest of the stuff (logic, wisdom, philosphy, etc.) becomes tools to broaden what should already be your base: a knowedge of God.

Starkman

My teacher used to say that whenever he read Scripture, he would always ask the question, "What does this have to say about the character of God?" Working off his thinking, as I read Scripture, I have come to ask, "What does this have to say about the heart and passion of God's desire for relationship for us?

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