“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.” Psalm 111:10
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” Proverbs 9:10
In his book, “The Holiness of God”, R.C. Sproul recounts a story of a well-known professional golfer was playing in a tournament with President Gerald Ford, fellow pro Jack Nicklaus, and Billy Graham. After the round was over, one of the other pros on the tour asked, “Hey, what was it like playing with the President and Billy Graham?” The pro said with disgust, “I don’t need Billy Graham stuffing religion down my throat!” With that he headed for the practice tee. His friend followed, and after the golfer had pounded out his fury on a bucket of golf balls, he asked, “Was Billy a little rough on you out there?” The pro sighed and said with embarrassment, “No, he didn’t even mention religion.” Astonishingly, Billy Graham had said nothing about God, Jesus, or religion, yet the pro stomped away after the game accusing Billy of trying to ram religion down his throat.
Fear is an interesting word. It can mean anticipation of impending danger, harm, punishment, dread, or pain. Fear can also be reverence or the mystery of the unknown. The Hebrew word translated fear in all of the above passages is “yirah” which means reverence in a moral sense or even better, the fear of the holy.
Holiness is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the English language. When we hear that God is holy we think we hear God is perfect (which He is), or absolutely righteous (which He is), or all powerful (which He is). But holiness is so much more than all of those. To be holy actually means to be set apart, or otherness. When we set apart certain vessels to be used for communion they become “holy” because they have been set apart; not because they are perfect. They are other (different) from the common vessels. They are holy. On the golf course Billy Graham had been set apart as holy (other) and the presence of the Holy made a famous PGA golfer uncomfortable without a word spoken.
Another great illustration of holiness (otherness) and the proper response to it comes from Mark 4:35-41, “On that day, when evening had come, he (Jesus) said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?””
Man is never more afraid than when he is facing death. Public speaking is called man’s greatest phobia but it is overwhelmed when we are faced tangibly with the possibility of sudden death. In the passage above, the apostles are afraid of dying from the storm (as afraid as they can be), so afraid that they awaken Jesus, and when He calms the storm (answers their prayer) verse 41 says literally, “now they were more afraid”. They went from facing their greatest fear (sudden death) to being more afraid. And they show us exactly what makes them more afraid – “who then is this,that even the wind and the sea obey him?” They were asking, “how do we classify this man?” “What kind of man is this?” They were face to face with otherness – Holiness.
The Psalms and the Proverbs teach is that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord and that knowledge and insight are promised as well. They tell us that fools despise wisdom and instruction. We have seen that the fear of the Lord means extreme reverence for His Holiness. Let’s see what some of these other terms mean in more detail.
Wisdom is deeper than great knowledge. It means “aptly applied knowledge.” Wisdom is the ability to handle what we know appropriately and in humility. You can see how important fear or reverence of God’s otherness (Holiness) is as the foundation of aptly applying knowledge to any given situation.
Knowledge means to be acquainted with, that is to know in the sense of relationship not knowing facts. Having deep reverence for the otherness of God is the foundation of knowing Him. He is not our grandfather sitting on the front porch with a pipe, He is other than us. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:8-11)
Insight means to know well enough to understand and teach. The fear of the Lord (Reverence for His Holiness) illuminates everything else and allows us to know and understand everything in a new way. It is God’s Holiness that puts everything else in proper perspective and the security and humility of reverence informs and establishes our heart.
Now let’s look at the most important thing about God’s Holiness. Without understanding God’s Holiness (His otherness) we will never really understand the chasm that existed between Creator and Creature, between Holy God and unbelieving man and we therefore fail to grasp the height and depth and length and width of the love of Christ. Until we have the fear that existed in that boat in the midst of the storm and have it replaced with the terrifying reverence of Holiness when the storm was calmed we can never know how much we are truly loved. When we think of the bridge that God built across the gap we think of the creek that runs through our backyard. We miss the fact that the Grand Canyon in all its magnificence is a trickle when compared to separation that Jesus restored. The Love of God is more powerful than anything else in all creation.
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen”. (Eph 3:14-21)