Proverbs 9:10

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.

Sadly, for most Christians, fear of the Lord probably doesn’t make it into their Top Ten list of things in life that they actually fear. Speaking of a list – the website phobialist.com identifies over 500 specific phobias, including the fear of: numbers, gravity, mirrors, trees, houses, knees, feet, school, speed, and even phobias themselves (phobophobia). Not suprisingly, the fear of God didn’t show up.

This verse teaches that the fear of God is foundational to true wisdom – all other types of learning are worthless unless built upon a knowledge of the Lord Himself.The GotQuestions.org website mentions that, “Fear of the Lord can be defined as the continual awareness that our loving heavenly Father is watching and evaluating everything we think, say, and do (Mt. 12:36; Ps. 139:2; Jer. 12:3). As Jesus told each of the seven churches in Revelation 1-2: ‘I know your works.’ Nothing escapes His attention.” What a sobering thought.

It cannot be overstated that in order to properly fear the Lord, we have to have a solid understanding of who He is. His power, might, eternality, beauty, and brilliance (just to name a few attributes) must be pondered and put into their proper position. God is not your buddy or your co-pilot. He does not exist to give you your “best life now”. His power overwhelms the summation of every source of power we can imagine. His holiness is perfectly pure…his anger towards sin is perfectly justified…and his willingness to extend both grace and mercy is perfectly loving.

When the reality of God’s true nature has caused us to fall down in worship, we are then in the right position to gain wisdom. Wisdom is merely seeing life from God’s perspective and responding accordingly.Without the fear of the Lord, we make final decisions based on our faulty human understanding and wisdom – godly wisdom – simply is not available to us.