Imagine the following scenario with me as I describe it for you, okay? Imagine that you live on a plot of land that has some land for sale beside it. One day, you see a realtor pull up and remove the “for sale” sign from beside the road, and so you think, “Oh, someone bought that property. I wonder if they’re going to build a house over there.” Sure enough, just a couple of weeks later, you see excavating equipment over there digging out a hole where a house will be built. You can tell from the size of the hole that your new neighbor is planning to build a big house.
Then one day, you see someone pull onto the lot hauling a big load of two-by-fours, and they pull up right beside the hole for the house. You think to yourself, “I wonder if that’s my neighbor,” and so, being the friendly neighbor that you are, you walk over and introduce yourself to your new neighbor, Bob. You hang out for a little while and talk to Bob while he’s doing some work, and soon you notice that he’s going around in the hole sinking the two-by-fours in the ground like fence posts—he digs out a little hole, puts the board in it, and then fills in the dirt back around it. You’re a little curious at this point and so you say, “Hey, Bob, what’re you doing?”
“I’m building my house.”
“Oh, okay. But aren’t you going to pour a foundation first?”
“A foundation? Ha! That’s a good one. I don’t think the Earth is going anywhere!”
“Well, no; maybe not the planet, but the dirt that you’re building on might move. Have you ever built a house before?”
“Yeah, plenty of times. I’ve had some bad luck with my houses caving in, but I’m going to use more two-by-fours this time!
Now at that point, you’d be thinking that you had a pretty strange new neighbor. He’s over there trying to build a house without really knowing the right way to go about it. Well, friends, that’s what its like when we try to live our lives without really understanding how life works. When we do that we’re piecing together a life that is bound to have problems because its built on a poor foundation.
We’ve seen already in our study of Proverbs that wisdom shows us how life works; it reveals the moral laws that govern how life generally plays out. Today we’re going to study the foundation of wisdom according to the book of Proverbs. That foundation is an attitude called “the fear of the Lord.” We’re going to discover what this attitude is, what its benefits are, and what characterizes the person who has it.
I. What is the fear of the Lord?
The fear of the Lord is perhaps the most important concept in the entire book of Proverbs. Now it may sound a little strange to hear that we are supposed to fear God, because the good news of the gospel is that after we accept Jesus, we are at peace with God. So why would Proverbs describe something called “the fear of the Lord” as a positive thing?
Let me first offer a definition of this attitude, and then we’ll unpack this concept a little bit. The fear of the Lord can be defined as an attitude of reverence toward God which captivates your entire being and moves you to worship Him and serve Him. Or to simplify our definition a bit, we could say that the fear of the Lord is the proper recognition of who you are in light of who God is.
I think the best illustration of this attitude is the attitude that a child has toward loving parents. This is not a perfect illustration because none of us have perfect parents, but it does give us a helpful point of comparison for understanding the fear of the Lord. As a child responds to a loving parent, there is a beautiful balance in his attitude between love, respect, and even an appropriate degree of fear. The child responds in love toward the compassion and kindness of the parents as they tuck him in bed at night or tell him how much they love him. He responds with respect toward the strength and power of his parents, like his dad’s ability to chase away things that go bump in the night or his ability to throw a football, or mom’s ability to make any scrape or cut or bruise feel better or to see things through the back of her head. The child also responds with an appropriate fear as he thinks of enduring punishment from his parents for doing something wrong—not because he thinks his parents are trying to hurt him, but because he knows their discipline will not be pleasant.
The fear of the Lord is much like that—there are elements of love, respect, and fear all mingled together in our relationship with God. We love Him because of all that He has done for us, for the compassion, grace, and mercy that He has shown us. We respect Him because of His amazing power and greatness, because He is the Creator of all things, and we seem to be so insignificant in the shadow of His glory. We also have an appropriate fear when we think about doing something that would incur His discipline.
So there is a beautiful balance in this attitude that puts us in the proper frame of mind to receive instruction from God and to respond properly. This attitude in itself compels us to serve the Lord, but we receive even more motivation when we realize the benefits that this attitude can bring into our lives.
II. What are the benefits of the fear of the Lord?
A. It serves as the starting point for acquiring wisdom (9:10, 1:7)
Embracing this attitude toward God puts us on the right path to acquire wisdom. Notice what Prov. 9:10 has to say [READ 9:10]. Notice how this ties the fear of the Lord together with the knowledge of the Holy One. Here is that recognition of who God is—when we come to know who He is, the proper response is the fear of the Lord, which puts us on the path toward knowledge. And we saw last week what Prov. 1:7 says—“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and correction.”
I’ve found it helpful for myself to compare the fear of the Lord to the picture on the front of a puzzle box. When you’re trying to put together a puzzle, the place to start is by looking at the picture on the front of the box. The picture shows you how all of the pieces are supposed to fit together; it allows you to see when you’ve got something out of place.
Well, the fear of the Lord fulfills that role for your life; it points you toward God and moves your heart to serve Him, so then you can put your life together the right way. It helps you see when something is out of place and allows you to see what it should really look like.
So the fear of the Lord points us in the right direction to gain wisdom, which means that if we don’t adopt this attitude, we can try as hard as we want but we’ll never gain true wisdom because we’re not headed in the right direction. That would be like trying to get to Copeland by heading east on 56—you’ll never make it because you started by going the wrong way. The fear of the Lord points us in the right direction to gain wisdom.
B. It lengthens your life (10:27, 14:27)
Throughout all of history, human beings have been trying to fend off death as long as we can. In our society, we have an almost universal desire to live as long as we can and to look as young as we can while we’re doing it. If we want to have a long life, Proverbs would tell us to fear the Lord. Let’s look at Prov. 10:27 together [READ 10:27]. Now over to 14:27 [READ 14:27].
According to Proverbs, there are several ways that a person might die prematurely from a foolish lifestyle. One might encounter a jealous spouse in the case of adultery, or one might have a violent plan backfire on him, or he might fall on the wrong side of the law. A foolish person might also naively wander into the wrong kind of places or situations and find himself there at the wrong time. But a wise path, on the other hand, will keep us safe from those dangers.
Now we need to remind ourselves again that proverbs like this express principles, not promises. God does at times allow godly people to die young and wicked people to live a long life, but in general we can prolong our days by embracing the fear of the Lord.
And not only can we increase the quantity of our life—we can increase its quality as well.
C. It leads to confidence and safety in life (14:26, 19:23)
Let’s read 14:26 [READ 14:26]. I think the New King James translation is correct to capitalize the word “him” in this verse to make that word a reference to God. It is true that our children receive a measure of protection when we fear the Lord and thus live in a wise manner, but I think this verse focuses on God’s protection for His spiritual children. God is like any good father—He takes care of and protects His own. Prov. 19:23 says, “The fear of the Lord leads to life, so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil.”
Personal safety was a big concern back in that time. They obviously didn’t have home security systems or telephones to call the police. Well-traveled roads were the favorite places of thieves, and when people traveled they often had to rely on the hospitality of total strangers. We may feel more secure today because of the technology that we have, but we all realize how quickly and easily our safety can evaporate.
But the fear of the Lord reminds us of the awesome power of our God and of His place as Lord over everything. He is aware of every danger and every threat that surrounds us. We know what He can do and we know that He loves us, so we can be confident as we let ourselves relax in the mighty arms of our Heavenly Father.
I believe we have seen now that the fear of the Lord is a very desirable attitude to have. But what does it look when a person has adopted this attitude? What characterizes the person who fears the Lord?
III. What characterizes the person who fears the Lord?
A. He is not envious of sinful people (23:17–18)
Look at Prov. 23:17–18 [READ 23:17–18]. The person who fears the Lord does not fall into the trap of embracing a sinful lifestyle because he keeps a “big picture” perspective on life. The one who fears the Lord knows that God is gracious even to those who reject His way of life. As Jesus said, God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and He sends rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous. God may allow a sinful person to live a long and comfortable life, but the eternal picture for that man is not good, and the one who fears the Lord remembers the eternal picture. He does not allow himself to be deceived into thinking that a sinful lifestyle is the way to go, because he remembers the big picture.
B. He is humble (15:33, 22:4)
I think above all else, humility is the primary characteristic of the person who fears the Lord. Let’s read a couple of verses—first of all Prov. 15:33 [READ 15:33]. Notice how this verse connects the fear of the Lord and humility by exalting both of them as positive traits. I think this connection is even more explicit in Prov. 22:4 [READ 22:4]. Now, in the Hebrew text that lies behind our English translation, the word “and” does not appear, nor does the word “are” –they were inserted to make for better English. So the Hebrew simply says, “The reward of humility the fear of the Lord riches honor and life.” Grammatically, there is nothing that tells us that humility and the fear of the Lord are actually two different attitudes. In fact, I think its more likely that Solomon is using the fear of the Lord to define what humility is. In other words, its like he’s saying, “The reward of humility (which is also known as the fear of the Lord) is riches, honor, and life.”
This would mean that humility and the fear of the Lord are synonymous attitudes. They are virtually identical, and I think that is really true when you think about it. When you fear God—when you understand who you are in light of who He is—there is no longer any room for pride. The fear of the Lord keeps before our minds the incomprehensible greatness of God, and it reminds us that everything we have has been given to us by God. He chose where you were going to be born, and what family you would be born into; he has chosen to give you every day that you have lived, every breath that you have taken, and every meal that you have ever enjoyed. He has given you everything that you possess and every penny that was used to purchase those things. If we are thus completely at God’s mercy, where is there room for pride? There is room for nothing but to humbly acknowledge who God is and who we are in the light of His being.
The fear of the Lord is the first and foundational attitude that we must have to gain true wisdom in life. But you can probably see that we cannot have this attitude if we do not have a proper relationship with God. Unfortunately, we do not naturally have a proper relationship with God. You see, God created us to enjoy a relationship with Him and to serve as His representatives in this world. But our sinfulness has broken our relationship with God so that we are now estranged from Him. We cannot fulfill our true purpose in life because we are separated from God, and unless something changes in our condition we will remain separated from Him forever. But the problem is that we can’t fix the problem; our sin has so deeply offended God that we cannot repair our relationship with Him.
But because of God’s great love for us, He did not want our relationship to stay this way, so He decided to take it upon Himself to restore our broken relationship. He took care of our sin problem by sending His own Son, Jesus, into this world—God in human flesh—to die in our place on the cross to pay the penalty that God required for our sin. And on the third day after His death, Jesus rose from the dead as a testimony to everyone that we could now have the hope of forgiveness and a restored relationship with God. God now offers us His forgiveness as a free gift, and if you will place your faith in Jesus and trust that He paid the price for your sins, your relationship with God will be restored, and you can enjoy a relationship with God forever—both now and in heaven with Him after you pass away. Will you place your faith in Him today?
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