The Fear
of the Lord
The scriptures reveal that
the fear of the Lord is not only the beginning of wisdom; it is also the
beginning of knowledge.
Ps
111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding
have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
Pro
1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise
wisdom and instruction.
PR
15:33 The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is
humility.
All the above verses make us
understand that the fear of the Lord gives us an entrance…a gateway into
knowledge and wisdom. In other words, we can never find true wisdom and
knowledge without the fear of the Lord. We also find from scriptures that this
fear of the Lord can be taught…
Ps
34:11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will TEACH you the fear of the
LORD.
But the fear of the Lord is
not just some passive awe or reverence for the Lord; it is an active practice
of the things that God loves and an active hatred for the things that God hates
as we shall find out in the course of this post.
In fact we are told to be IN
the fear of the Lord ALL DAY LONG!
Pro
23:17 Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all
the day long.
To start with, in going
through the scriptures we see some demonstrations of how the fear of the Lord
has operated in the lives of people in the past…
1Sam
11: 6-7 And the Spirit of
God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled
greatly.
7
And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout
all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh
not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And
the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.
It wasn’t the fear of Saul that
came upon the people, it was the fear of the Lord…they feared what the Lord
would do through Saul…when we walk in the fear of the Lord ALL DAY LONG…people
will fear what the Lord will do through us…they will begin to have respect for
God.
2Chron
14:11-14 And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing
with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us,
O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this
multitude. O LORD, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee.
12
So the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the
Ethiopians fled.
13 And Asa and the people that were with him
pursued them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could
not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before the LORD, and before his
host; and they carried away very much spoil.
14 And they smote all the cities round about
Gerar; for the fear of the LORD came upon them: and they spoiled all the
cities; for there was exceeding much spoil in them.
You won’t understand if you
do not back up and read the story, so I will just mention here that Israel was
at a disadvantage…they had only about 560, 000 men in total while the
Ethiopians had one million men and three hundred chariots…so you can understand
Asa’s prayer in verse 11.
But his prayer had effect
because Asa walked in the fear of the Lord ALL DAY LONG!
1Kings
15:11 And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David
his father.
1Kings
15:14 But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa's heart was
perfect with the LORD ALL HIS DAYS.
You cannot be IN the fear of the Lord all day long and
not have it work for you…the wisdom and knowledge of God are centred in the
fear of the Lord…
Watch out for Part 2
God bless you!
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