DO YOU "FEAR" GOD?

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

As I read the entire chapter of Proverbs 7, verse 7 seems to be the defining verse.  How easy it is to isolate this powerful verse and come up with a legalistic, rules dominated religion. 

As I read the Bible I see various attitudes, life-styles and belief systems that are totally at odds with God's character and will.  The Bible mentions things that God "hates" and practices that are an "abomination" to Him.  For a new believer these things may appear arbitrary ... because these aspects of fallen humanity have become "mainstream".  Everybody's doing it, or at least, everybody's accepting this as "okay".  The dilemma is the immutability of God ...He doesn't change because truth doesn't change.  Either He is always truthful or He is not.  We must answer that in our response to His Word.  Proverbs 1:7 teaches me that the fear of the Lord is the "beginning of knowledge".  It is not the end of knowledge.

As you read the entire seventh chapter of Proverbs, can you see the love behind the warning?  There is a "fear" that leads to legalism and doubt and alienation and there is a "fear" that leads to a peace and ease and a closeness in our relationship.  Check out verse 33.

Some of us have experienced religion and have mistakenly put an angry face on God because we haven't taken the time to try to know Him.  There are reasons why He says "No" to certain ideas and these reasons don't have to do with Him being arbitrary ...they have everything to do with our experiencing His grace.  Let me end with a true story of a man who held to a misconception until he discovered the real truth surrounding this misconception.

Bill, a pastor friend, told our church about a horrible incident that happened when he was in the 3rd or 4th grade.  He was going home from school one winter on a schoolbus and travelling on a snowy country gravel road.  A beautiful dog appeared out of nowhere and was standing in the middle of the road about 100 feet ahead of the bus.  To Bill horror, the bus driver never put on the brakes or attempted, in any way, to avoid this dog.  He ran right over it and kept right on going.  Bill said he hated that bus driver for that.  15 years later, after he was married, he took his new wife to his old home town and was showing her around his old stomping grounds.  Then it happened ...he realized he was travelling on the very same road he travelled that day on the bus when the driver ran over the dog.  It suddenly became clear to him what had happened that awful afternoon.  The road was very narrow and had no shoulder with five foot drops on either side.  He realized that the driver, in order to maintain control and therefore the safety of the 30 children ...he could only do what he did.  Any other manuever would have ended in disaster ...even for Bill ...the very one who developed a hatred for the bus driver.  His lack of experience and understanding of life and of a caring adult looking out for his safety blinded him to the real motives of the bus driver.

Proverbs 7 teaches us about that kind of love God has for us.  God's motives are always good and His ways are designed to help us ...not hurt us ...even when He seems harsh an unbending.