Tell the Story
The Beginning of Knowledge
1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
2 To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
3 to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
4 to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth—
5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
and the one who understands obtain guidance,
6 to understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
The Enticement of Sinners
8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
9 for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
let us ambush the innocent without reason;
12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive,
and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13 we shall find all precious goods,
we shall fill our houses with plunder;
14 throw in your lot among us;
we will all have one purse”—
15 my son, do not walk in the way with them;
hold back your foot from their paths,
16 for their feet run to evil,
and they make haste to shed blood.
17 For in vain is a net spread
in the sight of any bird,
18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood;
they set an ambush for their own lives.
19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;
it takes away the life of its possessors.
The Call of Wisdom
20 Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
23 If you turn at my reproof,1
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused to listen,
have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
25 because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when terror strikes you,
27 when terror strikes you like a storm
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
30 would have none of my counsel
and despised all my reproof,
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way,
and have their fill of their own devices.
32 For the simple are killed by their turning away,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
33 but whoever listens to me will dwell secure
and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.”
Footnotes
[1] 1:23
There are a lot of smart people in the world. People who know how to build stuff, bake stuff, and blow stuff up (sometimes on purpose). Almost anyone today can learn new things just by ordering a book, going to the library, or looking on the internet. We know more things than ever before.
But wisdom is something different.
Oh, it helps to know lots of things, but you can get straight As in school and still be foolish. Wisdom is about understanding how the world works and how God wants us to live in the world.
The Bible has a lot to say about wisdom, because the God who wants to redeem us also wants to remake us. And God knows that all by ourselves we are likely to make bad decisions, especially when we are young. So he gives us parents and teachers and pastors to help us. And best of all, he gives us his word.
There is a whole book in the Bible about wisdom. It’s called Proverbs, and it tells us at the very beginning of the book about the very beginning of knowledge: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Later, Proverbs says the same thing about the beginning of wisdom.
It’s easy to be scared—scared of the dark, scared of getting sick, scared of runaway unicorns eating all your ice cream. Okay, maybe that’s not your biggest fear, but there are lots of fears out there. The fear of God is the only thing that makes us wise.
God doesn’t want us to be afraid of him (or of mischievous unicorns). That’s not what “the fear of the Lord” means. It means that we adore God and love God and stand amazed by God so much that we know we can trust him, and we hate to displease him.
If you were hiking in the mountains and feared the edge of a cliff, you wouldn’t hide out in a cave and cry yourself to sleep. You would keep walking. But you would be careful, you would pay attention to the map, you would not climb the guardrails. That’s a good kind of fear. It keeps us safe and keeps us on the right path.
Just like the fear of the Lord. When we fear God more than we fear people, we learn that God always wants what is best for us. That’s the way of wisdom. That’s the way of Jesus. And that’s the way for us.
