Day 107, Year 1 The Beginning of Wisdom is …

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10 NASB)

The wisest people accumulate knowledge and discern different types of wisdom. Some might ask: What is the benchmark for discernment? It lies in God and our proper attitude toward Him. And the fear of the Lord could connect us to His most accurate standard of discernment. “Fear” in today’s verse, yir’ah in Hebrew, also means “reverence, respect, or piety.” People tend to be controlled by what they fear. However, fearing God is somewhat different. We fear Him, but He never controls us. Rather, we need to desire to be governed by Him before His governance comes upon us. This fear shows we deeply respect God and do not want to offend Him. It also provides a foundation for us to discern right from wrong, good from bad, and so on, because God is our reference point. Meanwhile, the most accurate way for believers to understand Him is to read the words of the Bible with a reverent heart.

For the Israelites, the starting point of wisdom was not from investigating different things to gain knowledge, but the knowledge of God. While human wisdom always starts from the study of people and earthly things, His wisdom begins with the attitude of fearing Him. Fearing God and humbly inquiring about His perspectives and judgments on different people and things is the beginning of wisdom, which requires us to have a long-lasting, humble, and reverent attitude. In other words, through humbly understanding different people and things that God has instructed us, we would gradually come to know Him and receive accurate understanding and abundant wisdom from Him. The previous devotionals mentioned that wisdom refers to practical acumen, including administration, religion, morality, flexibility, and even tactical skills in war. Yet, the beginning of divine wisdom is not in worldly affairs, but in the fear of God.

Similarly, the Hebrew word binah for “understanding” in today’s  verse refers to “the faculty, object, or act of understanding and discernment,” including the meaning of “personified clear understanding.” And this understanding begins with the knowledge of the Holy One. This point is a bit easier to understand—if we could come to know the God who is invisible most of the time, then understanding worldly and visible affairs should not be difficult for us. In other words, the knowledge of the Holy One could gradually lead us to have a spiritual and crystal clear understanding of all things.

Reflection questions:

1) Do you value or even fear the Most High God enough to reach the starting point of learning His wisdom?

2) Do you think the knowledge of the invisible God could lead you to have a better understanding of worldly things? Why?