Proverbs 1:7 (KJV)
The fear of the LORD is
the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
The book of Proverbs is
a series of wise sayings collected mostly by Solomon, probably in an effort to
train his son, the next king in things both spiritual and practical.
You think about that:
His son is probably
young and possible simple about some things.
Solomon hopes he will
become wise.
And he has used all of
these terms, I think in direct connection to his lessons to his son.
And then, after
explaining why he wanted to teach him these things he jumps right in and says,
“…fools
despise wisdom and instruction.”
The word fool, or one of
its variations is mentioned 84 times in the Proverbs, second only to the word
wisdom and its variations.
The wise and the foolish
are not only opposites they are in opposition.
· Wisdom increases in learning
· Foolishness hates instruction
· Wisdom is a title for God
· Fools say there is no God
Whatever wisdom is, the
fool chooses to run against it.
The word fool is not the
same as evil, but I do think it is intriguing that the Hebrew word translated
fool looks like the English word, “evil”[1]
Notice that there are
three key words in the verse that the fool is in contrast to:
· Knowledge
· Wisdom and
· Instruction
There is a lot of
overlapping between these three and I want to try to draw out the differences
for our message tonight
I. KNOWLEDGE
The fool begins with no
fear of the Lord.
It is amazing how much
more vocal those who are unbelievers have become over the just the last few
years.
The other day I spoke
with a man about why I believe the Bible to be true. One of the things I said
was that Jesus said the Bible is true.
He said to me, “Why would I believe Jesus any more than
anyone else?”
I know people think that
way, but it still startles me whenever I hear things like that.
“Step away quick lest a lightening bolt strikes him!”
He may not have a fear
of the Lord but I do!
One of the definitions
of knowledge is discernment.
Webster’s says it is the
ability to distinguish one thing from another and then gives the following
examples:
· Truth from falsehood
· Virtue from vice
I want to add
· Goodness from evil
· Moral from immoral
· Righteousness from wickedness
When you divorce a
person from the fear of the Lord they have no capacity to discern right from
wrong.
It becomes ok to dispose
of a baby in the womb because the pregnancy is unwanted.
All sorts of reasons
will be given why this is the right thing to do:
· It’s the woman’s right to do what she wants with her body
· It’s not a human until it has been delivered[2]
They will begin
rationalizing how:
· society will be better off without them,
· the economy will be better off without them,
· their parents will be better off without them and in most
cases they even come to believe that
· the baby itself will be better off if it isn’t allowed to be
born.
This lack of discernment
show up in all sorts of ways:
Politics – where you
have a whole party who, choosing to deny God – writes a platform called good
evil and evil good.
· President Obama claiming that Isis is not Muslim
· Hillary Clinton stating that terrorists are not Muslims
Without the fear of the
Lord there is no moral compass – good and evil, right and wrong become nothing
more than the whims of a particular culture.
The Bible says they are
fools.
II. WISDOM
One of the tools I use
is a Hebrew-English Lexicon called Brown-Driver-Briggs.
One of the definitions
is has for wisdom is “skill (in war).”
I thought this was an
interesting definition and I know it isn’t the only one, but remember, the King
is trying to teach his son who will be the next king in his country.
He’s going to have to
have some skills in war.
It is a fool, who leads
a country without those skills.
I listened to a program
this week that covered history since the invention of the nuclear bomb.
The President in office
when the bomb became available with Harry Truman.
He came into office when
as Vice President, President Roosevelt died.
They say that when he
died, Truman cried and exclaimed, “I am not man enough for the job!”
Political pressure
forced him to drop the bombs on Japan but it had no sooner happened than he
decided he had to figure out what the world was going to do with something as
powerful as an atomic bomb.
It was over the course
of his presidency that he decided he could not trust warriors with such a
powerful weapon and he began to employ game theorists – card players really, to
guess what the Communists would do when we did certain things.
These game theorists counseled
the president through Korea, and then Vietnam.
Winning generals were
relieved of duty and consigned to ignominious retirements.
And soldiers died in
long and drawn out actions that our Presidents were afraid to call wars,
because poker players believed the cost of winning was greater than the cost of
playing their game.
Our Presidents despised
the skill of war and America and Russia built more and bigger nuclear bombs By
Reagan’s day there was more than 70,000 of them in just the US and Russia, not counting
those smaller countries who have them.
Reagan had some skill at
war.
· He built up the military,
· Advanced our capabilities and
· Then was in a position to force Russia to de-escalate
Practically
It isn’t everybody who
needs skills in the art of war.
But wise people identify
what they are good at, do it, and delegate to others to do those things they
can do better.
III. INSTRUCTION
One of the most common
words for the believers in the gospels is the word “disciple.”
It means a learner, or a
student.
The word is still used
in the educational world to speak about various fields of study:
· The discipline of math
· The discipline of science
· The discipline of philosophy
But if I hadn’t told you
that, I think most of us would have associated the word discipline with
punishment or correction.
I say all of that to say
that this word instruction means “to
chasten, or to warn.”
It is a foolish person
who despises being disciplined.
Young person
One of the most loving
things your parents ever do in your life is to chasten you.
It’s not pleasant I
know.
But it is very
important.
You ought to never show
disrespect to you mother or your father when they discipline you.
You ought never run from
them, or fight them when they discipline you.
Do resist chastening
from your parents is foolish and, if I am reading this passage correctly, directly
opposed to God.
So Parents
The one thing that ought
never be ignored is when your child resists your discipline.
If you tell them to stop
arguing and they don’t stop, the problem has just reached a brand new level.
On the one hand, you
wanted to get control of their tempers – no you need to get control of the
disrespect for God.
I’ve seen parents punish
a kids for spilling a glass of water but the fact is, they are kids, they drop
and spill things.
I’ve seen the same
parent ignore their kids making a dirty face toward their mom.
The water can be cleaned
up.
But the ugly face made
to their parent is an affront to God.
Conclusion
Proverbs 1:7 (KJV)
The fear of the LORD is
the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
I am amazed at how
quickly this parent gets plain with his son.
“A wise person,” vs 5, “will
hear and increase learning.”
“But Son, fools, evil
people, despise wisdom and instruction…”
Young people. Don’t be
fools.
Mom and Dad, don’t let
them be.
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