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Fear Of The Lord


          The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. (Proverbs 1:7) 

          Wisdom: the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the body of knowledge and principles that develops within a specified society or period (Oxford Online Dictionary) 

          Wisdom involves having at least a basic idea of how things work in the universe, and to work within that reality. That means that whatever god you believe in, it’s wise to be sufficiently afraid of him/her/it that you do not provoke him/her/it. Wisdom isn’t rocket-science, it’s just plain good sense. Fearing God isn’t about screaming and hiding under the bed. It’s not (necessarily) the sort of fear one feels when trying to escape from a serial killer. It’s more the sort of fear that leads hikers to wear bear bells and string their food high up between two trees when hiking or camping in Grizzly Bear country. It’s the reason you don’t dress up like a seal and go swimming off the South African coast. It’s the reason you don’t jump out of a plane without a parachute. 
            Quite simply, no matter what god you believe exists (even none) the best, wisest course of action is to work within the rules that god has set. Since peace is agreeing with instead of fighting reality, wisdom produces peace. So yes, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. They would rather try to make the world over in their own image.

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