The Beginning of Knowledge

Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Solomon starts us right off with a punch in the gut that essentially says, "If you're not willing to listen to instruction and learn wisdom, you're an idiot. So there's that." How different of a world would we live in if more of us didn't roll our eyes at advice, mock those who are wiser than we, disregard good teaching? From where I'm standing, too many of us are way too busy thinking we have all the answers to listen to anyone else.

They call it a Millenial phenomenon, this complete disdain for our elders, but if Solomon had to write about it thousands of years ago, I'd submit that it's really nothing new. Still, he calls anyone who acts like that a fool, so I'm not sure it's much of a comfort to know our generation isn't the first to be guilty of this.

That said, the truly interesting part of this statement, to me, is the first half of the verse. "The fear (reverence) of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge." The Hebrew word for 'beginning' here is reshiyth (Strongs, Hebrew 7225), meaning, "the first in place, time, order, or rank...the principle thing." I love the all-encompassing meaning of this!

The chronological beginning, the first thing, the very start of knowledge is the fear of Yahweh.

The overriding principle, the most important thing, the very point of knowledge is the fear of Yahweh.

Not only is HE the start, He's the finish, and everything in between!  Puts a bit of a different perspective on your college education, doesn't it?

Perhaps if we each had a bit more reverence toward the LORD in our everyday lives, we might be a little wiser and a little smarter.

A quick word about reverence: in our society, we seem to have a pretty intense dislike of anything that resembles reverence or ritual or intense respect. We're far too casual for all that. And while most of the time, I like that about us--as a general rule, I'd much rather be chill and laid back than uptight and proper--I think we've lost something vital in our quest to swing to the other side of the pendulum. There is a place for reverent fear, for complete sobriety and ritual, a time to be solemn and deferential and devout. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater--Yahweh deserves all of us, our joy and our sorrows and our complete and utter devotion.