v.1-4 "
Of Solomon the son of David, the King of Israel:
To know wisdom and instruction,
to perceive the words of
understanding, to receive THE INSTRUCTION of wisdom, justice,
judgment, and equity to give prudence to the simple, to the young
man knowledge and discretion..."
Right out the gate the Book of Proverbs let's you know exactly what its purpose and intent is:
1.) to perceive the words of understanding,
2.) to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgement, and equity, and
3.) to give prudence to the simple and to the young man knowledge and discretion.
I also love v.7 (God's favorite number) " The FEAR of the Lord is the BEGINNING of knowledge..."
When you read this, what does this mean to YOU? When I read it, what I get out of it is, if Knowledge turned itself into a teacher and stood in front of a class ready to teach, on the first day of class, the first lesson that Knowledge would teach is: FEAR GOD. He'd straighten his tie, dust off his shoulder, put his stuff back into his briefcase, turn around and walk out and say, "tomorrow I'll teach you lesson 2." The Book of Proverbs has 31 chapters and the very first lesson that God teaches us is that, "having a healthy fear of Me is the BEGINNING of knowledge..." In other words, you can't even BEGIN to even THINK that you have grasps the true essence of knowledge until you understand what it means to fear God. And I'm not just talking about SAYING you fear God like most people say, "oh, I don't fear no man but God..." naw, naw, that's not what He's talking about, He's talking about fear God like you fear gravity.
You fear and obey the laws of gravity, we fear gravity real well. Gravity will talk to you standing on the edge of that building and be, " listen, if you lean over this edge I'm a take you down and make you hit this ground real hard..." We fear and obey gravity all day--easy! We fear gravity, we respect gravity, and we obey gravity all day. THATS what it means to fear God. That's not saying be SCARED of God, no more than you scared of gravity, we ain't scared of gravity, we just RESPECT gravity, and therefore we obey gravity because we respect gravity. THATS the type of fear the Bible's talking about when it says fear God.
I also love v.7 (God's favourite number) " The FEAR of the Lord is the BEGINNING of knowledge...
Charles Champion
F.R.O