Fear God - Be Wise

In devotions, we are at Dork College. This is Barry York, so a friend of mine, the president of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary. And so I thought it would be fun since we are starting the book of Proverbs to get a wise guy here. So we are at Proverbs chapter one, verses one through seven. Why don't we go ahead and have, we'll have coffee.
We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. God, we thank you so much for your word. And we thank you for the blessing it is to sit at your feet and to hear your voice. God, we pray that as we read your word tonight, that you might indeed impart wisdom to us. Lord, we need the wisdom. And we know that you are the one who gives it liberally. We pray that we would see Christ and we would love you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right. So I'll just go ahead and let you read verses one through... Oh, you got it on your phone there. All right.
You want me to read these verses? Proverbs 1, 1-7? Proverbs 1, 1-7, yeah. the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth, let the wise hear and increase in learning, the one who understands obtain guidance. To understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
All right, so like normal we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, What are we called to do? Barry is no stranger to this method. So, what do you think, Barry? How would you summarize this? What is this about? Well, it's just getting a little bit of a context of the book itself.
It's a father imparting wisdom to his son who, in all appearances, is on the verge of manhood. give me your ear, listen to me, give me your heart. So he really wants his son to listen to the wisdom that he's gonna need in order to go out and live a life that's pleasing to the Lord. And so he's saying, let the wise hear, increase in learning, understand these proverbs, gain wisdom by doing so.
Yeah, I was talking to C.J. Williams one time. I was doing a class. C.J. Williams is a professor of Old Testament at the seminary. He was saying, book of Proverbs especially first seven chapters is you know that father's introduction to his son and it has a unified theme but then once you get into chapter eight and nine and for the following 20 plus chapters it's a ocean of loosely non-connected proverbs until you come up on the other shore and there's a connecting theme again yes but yeah so very much the theme of you know young men they've got women on their mind and so he's basically warning him against the evil not only of false women but just I think it's chapter 8 where he basically says there's two women calling for your attention a woman wisdom Make sure you go to her house.
Don't go to Lady Folly's house. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So I'll let you answer this question. What do you think is the best verse that summarizes this section here? I think that the last one I read, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. I think that's a theme of this book. Yeah, absolutely. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. There's a reality that Everybody did what was right in their own eyes and judges, and it all goes wrong.
But when we listen to the Lord, we meditate upon his word. We give ear to what our Heavenly Father has for us. It's amazing. I think about when I talk to our kids and just kind of, you know, if you guys would just listen and obey, it would go better for you. And then I have to think about my own heart. You know, when I'm convicted of sin, when Olivia brings something to my attention, or when a congregant brings something to my attention, it's like, you know, Brian, if I would just obey God's Word, it would go easier for me. Right.
And the Proverbs are great for that, right, even with our children. There's some of the Proverbs that just, you know, that Miriam would often say to the kids, and they just stick in my head. I hear her voice when I say them, because she's trying to get the kids to listen.
Well, what do you think you're called to do in response to these words? Well, I think it means to really, we've got to give attention to God's words, His knowledge, and to know the Proverbs. So I think it just takes us back to the whole idea of whether it's family worship, daily devotions, meditation, we've got to just keep these words ever before us or we're going to stray and go on the wrong paths.
And that's really what the fear of the Lord is. Actually, Years ago I was speaking to young people and it was on the fear of the Lord and I used John Bunyan's work on that. He basically equates the fear of the Lord with obeying the commandments of God. the Proverbs of the Lord here, so you've got to just have that consistent walk of obedience. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. What about you? How does this apply to you? Are you leaning into God's Word? Are you hearing His Word? Are you obeying Him? Are you fearing Him, reverencing Him?
This is the blessing that we get to have as His children, to hear the voice of the Lord, to sit at His feet. I'm going to encourage you as we go through the book of Proverbs Derek Kidner in his short little commentary on the Proverbs says that the Proverbs is not a book that you read once and master, but it's a book that you have to work on your entire life. So I pray that we'll lean into God's Word and take these things to heart. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your Word. We thank you that you are the God who is wise, omnipotent, and omniscient, in perfect unity. You are the one who can accomplish all things according to your holy will, and your holy will is perfect. Father, we pray that we would sit at your feet and learn wisdom. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you tonight. May you rest in Jesus Christ, and I'll see you tomorrow. No, I'll see you on Monday. Bye. Thanks, Mary. Thank you.