Wisdom and Fear Robert M. Thompson, Pastor Corinth Reformed Church 150 Sixteenth Avenue NW Hickory, North Carolina 28601 828.328.6196 corinthtoday.org ( 2015 by Robert M. Thompson. Unless otherwise indicated, Scriptures quoted are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, Copyright 2011 by New York International Bible Society.) A healthy fear of the Lord is essential for a life of pursuing wisdom. Proverbs 1:1-7 October 4, 2015 Why Proverbs (1) From now through the first Sunday of Advent, we re going to crack open a book of the Bible that some Christians love and others avoid. Proverbs isn t as popular as Romans or John or Psalms or Jeremiah. Some Christians through the centuries thought this book didn t even belong in the Bible. So why take eight weeks to preach on Proverbs? It s in the Bible. If the Holy Spirit inspired its authors, if the Jewish community preserved it, if New Testament writers quoted it, Proverbs deserves our attention. It s a challenge. Precisely because this book is different, I want to preach on it! Amy Stickler, my assistant, did some research on ways to preach Proverbs. She learned there are more bad ways to preach on Proverbs than good ones! It s been 20 years. I keep a Word document of sermon series at Corinth since I began my ministry here in 1993. I said earlier this week I had never preached a series of sermons on Proverbs, but I did so in 1996. Twenty years is a long enough break. It s Solomon. Proverbs begins, The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. Solomon did not originate every saying in the book. But he loved pithy quotes and collected them. He apparently was uniquely responsible for 1
establishing the tradition of wisdom literature in Israel. Others added to his collection for hundreds more years. Solomon is best known for his wisdom. As a young man God appeared to Solomon almost like a genie, promising to grant Solomon one request. This is unique in all the Bible. Instead of asking for riches or fame, Solomon asked for wisdom. In response God also gave him riches and fame. But Solomon was hardly a model of consistent wisdom throughout his life, allowing his lust for women and fortune and even wisdom to lead his heart astray from his God. He often did not practice what he preached. Seek wisdom (2-6) I asked several Bible study groups this week what words stand out to them as they read the prologue to Proverbs. The nouns and adjectives tend to grab us first: wisdom, discipline, insight (2); a disciplined and prudent life; what is right and just and fair (3); prudence, knowledge, and discretion (4); learning, guidance (5). Don t try to make too much of the distinction in these words. They overlap significantly. The book is an instruction to young men in particular to seek after wisdom in all its forms. We now know so much more than Solomon could have known about the development of the brain in adolescence. 1 The gray matter inside a head expands and then contracts. During those years there is incredible potential for storing knowledge in the brain cells and wiring it across the synapses for good or bad. There is unbelievable risk for irresponsible and addictive behaviors that alter the remainder of life. Solomon and his cohorts in the School of Wisdom knew this not from neuroscience but from observing teenagers the wise ones and the not so wise. The development of the mind for a young person profoundly affects the whole of life. Proverbs uses the word wisdom to summarize all a young man should pursue. Use this time of life to gain knowledge, to develop discernment, to delay gratification. As you notice nouns and adjectives, don t miss the verbs. This book is about process. It s about attaining wisdom (2), acquiring a discipline life (3), giving prudence to the simple (4); adding to one s learning (5). Early in life we establish 1 The National Institute of Mental Health provides a helpful and accessible summary article. 2
lifelong habits of seeking more wisdom, so that even the wise listen and add to their learning (5). The source literature for wisdom is surprisingly broad. Proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise (6) don t just refer to Scripture. Every culture has its collection of wisdom literature, even its pithy sayings. Many American proverbs have great wisdom. Actions speak louder than words. Don t count your chickens before they hatch. It takes two to tango. Two heads are better than one. Some American proverbs are even biblical, like The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Not every bit of folk wisdom will lead you astray. The opening verses of Proverbs tell us to seek out wisdom wherever we can find it. You don t have to get all your answers about everything in the Bible. Study science. Listen to your doctor. Hire a fitness trainer. Search the web on eating healthy. Consult a financial advisor. Learn psychology. Use a cookbook. Google American history. If you buy a car, don t expect the Bible to tell you how to operate it. Read the owner s manual! In his grace God has distributed what Christians call general revelation all over the place. Go hard after ubiquitous wisdom. Keep seeking wisdom wherever you can find it. Fear the Lord (7) Verse 7 states the thesis of the book: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Here are three observations: First, notice God s personal name, the LORD. Proverbs doesn t refer directly to God often. When it does, it s the personal God of Israel who is Lord of heaven and earth. The wisdom that is everywhere adds value to life, but it s insufficient for living life. Second, notice that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Don t think beginning as if the fear of the LORD is Kindergarten from which you move on. The Hebrew word reshith can mean starting point, but it comes from a word meaning head as in fountainhead or starting point, but also chief, principal, or control center. All your life long the the fear of the LORD must be first. 3
Third, consider the fear of the LORD. I ve heard two opposite responses to this word in my Bible studies this week. We either want to soften it or emphasize it. Some say, I don t think we re supposed to be afraid of God. God is good and loving. Others say, Well, we should be afraid of God if we are doing the wrong thing or if we don t know the Lord. In a sense, both comments are correct, but neither one of them gets at the meaning of the phrase, the fear of the LORD. No biblical writer seems to find it necessary to define, defend, or soften the phrase, the fear of the Lord. Fearing God is a comprehensive idea in the Bible. Think of how a small child views her father big, powerful, in control, loving, stern, and gentle. Consider how you view a robed judge elevated on the bench. Recall from student days a professor who s kind and wants you to succeed, but also challenging and holds the only path to your degree. Biblical fear is found in all those relationships. A healthy fear pushes you to a relationship with that parent or judge or professor to know and be known by that person, to do your best, to respect, and yes, to be afraid if you don t respond that way. Proverbs says that attitude toward God must be the source and control center for the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. This is what we sometimes call your world view. When your worldview starts with God as he is revealed in the Bible, your pursue wisdom wherever it is found, but you discern whether the wisdom is consistent with that worldview. Fear in Proverbs is the God-side of wisdom. The counterpart is folly. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Some widely accepted wisdom will lead to what Proverbs calls destruction: You only go around once in life, so go for all the gusto you can. You have the right to be you. Don t let anyone judge you, One more won t hurt. I can do it myself. Centered and integrated in Jesus Christians can despise wisdom and instruction. When I was finishing Bible college in 1978, I remember thinking more than once, Here I am living in the most advanced era in history, studying at the finest Christian institution in the world, and I m one of the student leaders. What does that make me? Proverbs gives me the answer to that question: a fool. As a young man, I was thinking I had pretty much learned everything I needed to know. I knew there 4
was more to learn, but I had the framework down pat. Sometimes I still act like I know it all. In last Sunday s sermon I mentioned Curt Thompson, who will be our speaker this weekend (October 9-10) at the Family Life Conference. His new book is titled The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe about Ourselves. Because I know Curt, I wasn t surprised I loved this book, but I was a little concerned it would read like another one. A few weeks earlier, I read a book by Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are. Brown is a best-selling scholar, author, speaker. Her YouTube Ted Talk on The Power of Vulnerability has been viewed more than 3.7 million times. In The Gifts of Imperfection Brené Brown preaches self-protection, selflove, and self-acceptance. Her answer to the shame of your imperfections is that you are not a bad person; you do bad things. That message resonates with American popular wisdom, but it grates on me. This past Wednesday I gathered together a group of local pastors to discuss Curt Thompson s new book on shame, and the subject of Brené Brown s book came up. I blurted out, I wouldn t recommend that book to anybody! That was an unfair summary dismissal, and I m glad I only said it to a group of other pastors to whom I could apologize later by e-mail. Who am I to completely dismiss a book that really does have some helpful insights? There s a lot of wisdom in The Gifts of Imperfection, and it may be the best one can do on the subject of shame without framing it from an explicitly Christian worldview. She s not a bad author; she just writes bad things. No, not really. She doesn t write bad things; she just doesn t use the fear of the Lord, an explicitly distinctive Christian worldview, as her starting point and center. Curt Thompson does. He talks about some of the same themes hiding vs. vulnerability, the need for community, and so on. And like Brown, Curt Thompson sees shame as universal and as something we need to bring out in the open and heal. But Curt sees the story of shame through the lens of the biblical story of Adam and Eve hiding from God in the garden the same God who still pursues them, the same God who in Jesus will subject himself to the shame of the cross so he can know us fully in our shame, the same God whose unconditional love and forgiveness is the only ultimate answer to shame. 5
Is that distinction important? I think it s essential. There s wisdom in Brown s book, but I don t have a great deal of faith in other humans who deal with their own shame to bring ultimate healing. That comes by a life centered and integrated in Jesus. That becomes more vivid to us as we eat and drink today at the Table of the Lord. Amen. 6