I wanted to get this blog post in yesterday but was driving home later than I thought. And once I did get home, I was able to hang out with my oldest son for a quick visit as he's in town for Christmas. Always grateful for the time spent!
So I have a little bit of downtime before it gets crazy here at the house, and I'm on vacation until Tuesday so.....
Let's continue on with our #kingdomproverbs series with....Arguably one of the most important verses in all of Scripture.
The graphic says that Proverbs Men & Women have a "fear of the Lord" in Proverbs 1:7 and this is what the King James Version states it as:
When people first read the word fear, they might get a bit concerned. Fear the Lord? Isn't He good and love?
I actually got into a discussion with someone recently about this. The individual was quite adamant that the word fear here literally means to be 'scared' of God. And he used the verse in the New Testament where Christ says we are to fear the One that can destroy the soul. And I get it, especially when our minuscule human brains try to comprehend the Creator of the universe.
But let's dig deep and see.....Here's what the Hebrew word is and means...
The word in Hebrew is 'yira' which does have elements of actual fear and terror, but look at what else the word signifies.
Reverence.
I like this way of looking at God without ignoring actual 'fear' in the sense that we are tiny and He is HUGE.
Personally, I think this means to have a bit of both. A respect, healthy fear and reverence for our Creator. To remind ourselves that we are the creatures and He is the Creator.
But the next part of this verse is what always stuck with me.....
"....but fools despise wisdom and instruction."
Combine the first part and second part of this verse and it just blows your mind. This verse again reminds us who the creature is (humans) and that at times we get this thing called an ego that puts us on plateaus that we should never come close to. We despise being reminded of that, because we always want to be 'king or queen' in our lives.
But that's not how we are to live.
We need to seek wisdom. And we should be VERY much open to instruction by the Holy Spirit. This is the healthy way of reminding ourselves that He's God and we are not.
I just love Proverbs 1:7 and like I mentioned above, it's one of my favorite verses in the entire bible. And such a great reminded of who we serve!