Rejoice and Tremble

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 9:10

The book of Proverbs is known in biblical theology as a sapiential genre of literature within the canon of Scripture.  Sapiential is taken from the Latin which means “wisdom.” Proverbs 9:10 serves as a sort of “life verse” for the entire book of Proverbs, a verse which encapsulates the heart of all the sayings in Proverbs.

As we look at Chapter 9 and verse 10, wisdom is paired with understanding. This means, biblically speaking, wisdom is a certain type of understanding; it’s a type of moral understanding. This means biblical wisdom combines both the head (intellect) and the heart (the will, the desires). It’s not enough to know what’s right, but we must also desire to do the right and then do what is right. Philosophers of antiquity called this the Cardinal Virtue of Prudence: it’s the ability to deliberate and judge (intellectual virtue of the mind) and then decide and act (moral virtue of the will). Prudence is both an intellectual and moral virtue. But what distinguishes the bare pagan notion of wisdom from the full orbed Christian notion of wisdom? Again, Proverbs 9 tells us. Notice that the “fear of the Lord” is paired with “knowledge of the Holy One.” What God’s Word is saying is this: the fear of the Lord is a specific kind of knowledge of God. This certain knowledge serves as the beginning or foundation of wisdom itself. In other words, having both intellectual and experiential or intimate knowledge of God—that is having one’s mind and thoughts, will and desires conform to God’s ways, to reality as God made it—is the starting point of all wisdom. Another way of saying this is that without the fear of the Lord man’s wisdom (Prudence) devolves into foolishness.

Over the next months we will take a look at the biblical teaching on the “fear of the Lord.” Fear of the Lord is not only missing in our culture, but also missing in the modern church. In large part this is due to the fact that the modern church has a skewed view of the biblical teaching on the fear of the Lord. Over the next months, we’ll be taking a fresh look at the biblical notion of fearing God. I will do this with the help of a recent book that came out in 2021 by Michael Reeves; it’s entitled Rejoice and Tremble. Reeves will guide us into a fresh and refreshing understanding of the fear of the Lord. This will be an important study because “the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him” (Psalm 147:11).

In Christ

Pastor Carl