by Wesley Blackburn
As I read through the beginning of Proverbs, I'm really struck by two different things. Number one, I'm really hit with the impact of the statement in 1:7 that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge."
What in the world does that mean? Well, the fear of the Lord isn't exactly to say we're scared to death of God, though you could argue that there is a bit of an element of that in it. The "fear of the Lord" in the Bible simply refers to a healthy reverence and respect for God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because when I realize the magnitude of exactly who it is that has called me, I am going to humble myself before God and submit my life to him. I'm going to do what He asks and what His word teaches. Just like with a parent or teacher we respect, we listen. And we obey.
Secondly, I was continually reminded in this passage about the rewards of people obeying God. We've probably seen both sides of this. For instance, we've probably seen lives destroyed (maybe even our own) by people who just don't live the way that God wants. This is why we have broken families. This is why we have relationships that are torn apart. This is why our world is at times dominated by greed and selfishness.
But we've also probably seen the rewards of what happens when we obey God. Good things happen. We discover something more wonderful than we could ever imagine. Maybe that's part of your story. You took the leap of faith, you sought God, you obeyed God... and then you saw Him do something incredible in your life. In a lot of ways, that's part of my story even being here at Suncrest. Maybe that's the story of how you met your spouse, how you got that job, how you found that best friend, or something else. When we obey God, good things have a tendency to happen. That isn't to say that following God is always easy (or always comes with some sort of physical, earthly reward), but just to say that on the whole, people who follow God seem to find their lives full of good things.
That's what wise living is. It starts with us humbling ourselves before an Almighty God and ends with that same God choosing to bless us with some incredible things.
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