19 Feb 2/22/26 Proverbs 1:1-7 “Healthy Fear”
2/22/26 Proverbs 1:1-7 “Healthy Fear”
I’m going to begin today with a little trip down my memory lane. I want the young people here to understand that I’m an old guy talking about the olden days. When I was young, weather forecasting wasn’t anything like today. If you were lucky, you got to hear a forecast once a day. Today, if you don’t hear the weather forecast 20 times a day, then you aren’t paying attention. Anyway, we had an older fellow, about my age now, who worked for my dad who had all sorts of sayings about the weather. Did you know that if you can hang a bucket on the moon it won’t rain? Did you know that if you see a lot whirlwinds, you are in for a stretch of dry weather? Or if you see lots of snakes out, it will rain? My favorite one and it was really quite true some of the time, that if the wind switches against the sun, we are in for a storm. He had many others and they were quite colorful. Anyway, they weren’t always true because they came from our human experience or maybe in this case some of it might be his imagination. Today, we are going to embark on a series from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes for a Lenten Sunday sermon series. Hopefully, we can tie this into our lives. Let’s see if we can learn something about wisdom and how to get it.
Old adages about weather aren’t really all that serious. However, when we begin to talk about ‘how to live life’ mind sets, it gets a little different. One very bad philosophy of life is to ‘always look out for number one.’ This may work sometimes but when you get married, you might as well throw this saying out the window. You now have a family to look out for. Part of the problem in our society is that we follow this way too closely and we are reaping the negative side effects of this all the time. Another bad life saying is that ‘if there is a problem, find a way to get out of it.’ This philosophy helps us to learn how to lie. I have talked a little about this before. If you do something wrong, then fess up to it and don’t lie about it. Our whole culture is based around the idea that everything is someone else’s fault. We are never at fault. We try to live in a no-fault world and it doesn’t work. When you are at fault, own up to it. If there is a problem, solve it; don’t pass it off on someone else. This is Pastor John’s proverb.
I have purchased this neat book that shows all the cross references in the Bible. Sometimes people like to think that Proverbs are just a bunch of wise sayings that don’t mean much in our world today. We like to get our wisdom from the sayings in the New Testament. All the writers of the New Testament based at least some of their writings on Proverbs. For instance Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 3:19 that ‘the wisdom of the world is foolishness in God’s sight’ which is a theme in Proverbs. This is just one example of the hundreds of references that I found. So just because you like the New Testament better than the Old, doesn’t mean that you aren’t reading things based in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is vital to understanding the New Testament.
I would like us to begin with why we have this book of Proverbs and why it is so important. Well, to begin, it’s so important because it is full of wisdom. Hopefully, you can see by the examples I used of so called human wisdom that we need some real wisdom that comes from outside ourselves. Fortunately for us, the author is the wisest king that has ever lived, King Solomon. He wrote these Proverbs under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and we all know that all Scripture is God inspired. Therefore, we can take these wise sayings to the bank.
One of the problems we have in our modern society is that we might be too educated. What I mean by that is that we think we are smart enough to make our own wisdom. Christians even have this problem. Many feel that the Proverbs are good sayings and we really don’t have to heed them, unless, of course, it suits our need. I couldn’t find one Proverb that doesn’t hold true. Mostly we find opposition to the Proverbs concerning children like in 23:13 which says, ‘Do not withhold discipline from a child.’ I have had mothers tell me that they cannot beat their children and I agree whole heartedly. It doesn’t tell us that. It tells us that children need discipline. You have to read these sayings with a discerning mind. God never wants us to beat our children, period. That isn’t who God is. However, they need guidance and discipline.
There are many sayings on many topics including 17:6 which says, “Children’s children are a crown to the aged.” What a wonderful thought for grandparents. It tells us in 13:3, “He who guards his lips, guards his life.” We all know that we have to watch what we say. It tells us in 14:7, “Stay away from a foolish man, for you will not find knowledge on his lips.” We have to know that we have to beware of who we choose for friends. It tells us in 23:20, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat.” People, this is a book of wisdom. I remember when I first became a Christian, a preacher recommended Proverbs and the book of John to read first for new Christians and I would still advise that today.
There is one other facet of wisdom that I would like to clarify before we move ahead. There is no way that wisdom and intelligence are the same. They can coexist but they are separate entities. Intelligence is the ability to pass tests or to apply math, science and other subjects to the world. To be a computer gamer or programmer, you must have intelligence. Intelligence is a good thing to have because it will help you to make a living. Intelligence helps you to have correct answers. Wisdom on the other hand helps you to make the right choices. Wisdom comes from the moral law. It comes from being able to think like Jesus in situations. It helps us to answer the question, “Is what I’m about to do the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do?”
When you put intelligence and wisdom together, then you have a person of great merit. They will probably be a leader in their field. They will be the movers and shakers who make things happen. One of the problems we have in our government is that we have no one with both these traits and very few with wisdom. We cannot have good leaders until we start to elect wise, intelligent people.
The second part of this passage talks to us about how to get wisdom and how to stay away from trouble. It tells us to first listen to our parents. Children, listen to your mom and dad. This is how it works. Moms and dads were kids once and they listened to their parents. These parents had listened to their parents. This goes on and on. Some wisdom comes from our parents which has been passed down from a long line of wisdom. It dates back for decades if not centuries. So listen to your parents because they know what they are talking about. Of course there are exceptions to the rule but they are just that, exceptions.
Our parents only want what is best for us. It is hard for children to see this but it is no different than when God tells us not to do something like not to tell lies. As children of God, we should be able to live with this. But we live in a society where the truth is at a real premium. God tells us things so that we can have better lives. He told us not to covet what our neighbors have and much of our economic system is based on coveting what the neighbors have. We don’t want to follow the principles of God that will give us a better life. I mean, this isn’t rocket science. Just trust and obey. It is the same way with our children. Children, if you are struggling with this today, wait until you are 19 or 20 and your parents will seem a lot brighter. That is because you will begin to see things the way they did. Trust your parents.
The last part of this passage has to do with sinful or evil people. We are to stay away from them. I think that the Proverbs are amazing because they were written about 3000 years ago. The society at that time was very similar to ours today or else King Solomon wouldn’t have written these things. They had lazy people, they had drunks and they had people who were proud. They also had liars, cheaters and scam artists. Whenever we read passages like this we really need to ask ourselves why they were written. All things written in Proverbs were an answer to a problem.
You have to read closely to see that we are not to be enticed by making a quick dollar. You have to learn to discern the good people from the bad. The bad will tell us that if we join them we can have lots of fun. They say, “It’s ok to have just one drink with us. It’s ok to have just a little bit of drugs. It’s ok to cheat on your taxes because we all do it.” They tell us that it’s ok to tell a little lie because it’s better than the truth.
So maybe you think I’m being a little harsh here. Maybe it’s ok to cheat just a little bit. However then the next time comes and you might have to cheat a little more. Committing sins is like taking heroin. You start out with a little white lie, then it takes 2 to cover one, then 4 lies to cover those 2, then 8 to cover those 4 and the next thing you know you can lie with the best of them. When you go down the path of sin, the person you will hurt the most is yourself. The author tells us that you lay a trap for yourself. You are trying to spill your own blood. The author is telling us not to go along with all the slick talkers. Don’t fall into their trap. Just because your friends have no problem telling lies, doesn’t mean that you have to go along with them.
Sometimes we have a problem with this. We confuse going out and helping the liars, cheaters and the really bad people with going out and living with them and being one of them. Later in Proverbs it tells us that you can visit these people but you can’t live with them. In other words, don’t make these people your best friends. They probably shouldn’t even be your friends at all. They should only be acquaintances until they come to find the Lord. I have known many people like this. There was one person we helped out that was so pathetic that I couldn’t help but help him. It turned out that he was just a con artist who got me. I truly wanted to help out this man but I’m afraid I wasn’t up for it. I got caught in his trap. This person claimed Christ when he was really working for the dark side. I needed some wisdom in this case and God gave me a lesson in wisdom instead and that is a good thing.
So anyway, we need wisdom no matter who we are or what we do. King Solomon began this book with a great Proverb, Proverb 1:7. I will end the sermon with this . Where do you find wisdom? You find it anywhere you look in the Bible. However, if you aren’t a Christian you will find no wisdom in the Bible because you won’t understand it. Verse 7 tells us, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” These are hard words!
I was in a Bible study one time with a person who couldn’t get past ‘the fear of the Lord.’ She was adamant that we are not to fear the Lord but we are to love the Lord. She had a point, kind of. In this case fear has more meaning than just being afraid and that is what this lady couldn’t get past. Fear in this instance partially means having a healthy respect for the Lord. I think that we all know that we need this if we are dealing with the Lord. After all, He made everything and is in control of everything. We are a small but intricate part of His world. But I disagree with this woman because we do need to be a little afraid when we go before the Lord. It’s like the story I just read about a soldier who had come back from a war and was asked if he had been afraid or scared. He said, “Of course I was scared. Who wouldn’t be?”
It should be the same thing when we come before God. We should have a fear, a healthy fear because we are standing in front of the most powerful being that there has ever been. However, this fear shouldn’t be an ‘I’m scared to death’ type fear unless, of course, you don’t know Jesus. Then you should be scared. I don’t think that it is my job to change the meaning of the Scriptures for you. Many pastors try to do this and look where many churches are today. In this reading the Bible says very clearly here the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge. It doesn’t say reverence or awe but fear. I’m going to stand by what the Bible says because a little fear is always a healthy thing.
This is because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of not only knowledge but life itself. It is the beginning of love. All the great attributes of God have the beginning with the fear of the Lord. This is part of accepting the Lord. It’s part of when we confess, repent and ask Jesus to be Lord and Savior of our lives. By making Jesus our Lord, we are expressing a certain fear of the Lord.
Proverbs is one of the best books of the Bible for many reasons. It has nuggets of wisdom in just a few sentences. You can open to anywhere in this book and you can read some very good stuff. It is full of practicality as we read about how bad people will try to entice us to do the wrong things. These people unwittingly condemn themselves to the place where we never want to be. And finally we find that we are to be in a certain fear of the Lord.
I’m not so sure that I really know how all this works. How do we fear the Lord and love the Lord at the same time? But then I don’t really worry too much about the ‘how do’ and ‘why’ questions when it comes to God. All I have to know, all you have to know is that whatever the Bible tells you, whatever the Holy Spirit whispers in your ears, it is for your own good and it comes because you have a God who loves you enough to care. He cares enough that He sent Jesus to live and die for you. Don’t ever forget that. Jesus loves each and every one of you far beyond your comprehension. Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us. Let’s pray.
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