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Fear of the Lord

             The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)

We must begin, again, with the understanding that this is true of any “ultimate.” If you are a natural materialist, fear of – or respect for – natural law and physical science is the beginning of wisdom. It’s wise not to jump off buildings thinking you can walk on air. No matter what you consider to be the foundation of reality, fear/respect of it is essential to wisdom. And sadly, when that foundation of reality is impersonal, not sentient, and/or distant, we tend to not fear/respect it, at least until it’s too late. I’m not saying this to disrespect God in any way. It’s just that some people put anything that is religious or spiritual into a “ ” special category that has nothing to do with reality or logic.

            We should be careful in our choices about the foundation of our reality because we will fail until our reality is as close as we can get to reality. And if we make the God described in Scripture the foundation of our reality, we have a foundation that has stood the test of time. Atheists like to suggest that instead, we might choose to worship Odin or Thor, but the problem with the various pantheons of gods is that they don’t provide a coherent, cohesive foundation for reality. Neither does the physical universe at the level of understanding they have now or had at various points in the past. We continue to grow in our understanding of the universe, but it’s far from complete. The same is true with the God of Scripture. If you pick and choose verses here and there and fail to examine the whole, you miss the keys. In fact, Romans 1 suggests that both the physical universe and Scripture point to God. It’s only as we gain knowledge that we can gain understanding.

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