Wednesday Bible Study: A Deep Dig Into Proverbs IV

This week as I delve into the "Fear of the Lord" verses in Proverbs, I want to tackle the third column on my list- the "buts".  Each one of these verses, as I said before, have either a contained-within, in the surrounding verses, or implied "and" or "but" with them.  Last time, we looked at the "ands" and saw how God is building us a progression from reverence to knowledge to wisdom to reward.  Let's see what we can glean from the "buts".  I'll do this like last week, posting the pertinent verses and going from there.


Pro 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. 


I find it ironic here, given that the FEAR of the Lord is respect and reverence towards Him, that the verb in the 'but'- despise- actually comes from a word that means, "to disrespect".  So truly, our first definition of the Proverbs version of 'fool' is someone who disrespects God, and therefore avoids the instruction that would make him wise.  I truly believe that atheists don't so much disbelieve in God as disrespect Him.  And their actions politically bear that out.


Pro 8:13  The fear of Jehovah is to hate evil; I hate pride and loftiness, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth. 

Here we are given four of the qualities that this disrespect leads to.  The word for pride suggests lifting yourself up as majestic.  Which reminds me of the story of Lucifer....

Isa 14:12  "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 

Isa 14:13  You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 

Isa 14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' 

Isa 14:15  But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. 

So basically, the fool does more than say in his heart, "There is no God"... he makes one of himself.  I remember that Ben Franklin quote (at least in Bewitched... apparently an anonymous proverb);

Darrin Stephens (Dick York): Mr. Franklin, couldn’t you defend yourself?

Benjamin Franklin (Fredd Wayne): No, that might be unwise, Sir. The man who defends himself in court has a fool for a lawyer and a jackass for a client.

How much more the man who has himself as a god?

Pro 9:10  The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. 

Pro 9:11  For by me your days shall be multiplied, and the years of your life shall be increased. 

Pro 9:12  If you are wise, you shall be wise for yourself, but if you scorn, you alone shall bear it. 

What the boldened line is saying is, that when you are wise, you are creating a blessing for yourself.  You don't make God better, stronger, or more glorious, but you draw closer to Him.  Conversely, if you scorn God- make fun of Him (for example, as I have seen on social media, "an invisible man in the sky")- you're going to be on your own before Him someday.  And while believers have an advocate in Christ, as Zerubbabel did in the prophecy of Zechariah, the scorner, the fool, he will stand alone.  And Satan, who deceived him in the first place, will then accuse him before God.


Pro 10:27  The fear of Jehovah prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be cut short. 


We pretty much covered this last time- that this is not referring to physical life on earth.  Plenty of evil men lived long lives on earth.  But where life will have a fulfillment for believers after death, the unbeliever is going to face an endless, monotonous moment:

Isa 66:22  For as the new heavens and the new earth which I make stand before Me, declares Jehovah, so your seed and your name shall stand. 
Isa 66:23  And it will be, from new moon to its new moon, and from sabbath to its sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says Jehovah. 
Isa 66:24  And they shall go out and see the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm shall not die, nor shall their fire be put out; and they shall be an object of disgust to all flesh. 


Yep, that's where Jesus got His "if an eye offends thee" quote from Mark 9; I used the original to get a better sense of what was meant.


Pro 14:26  In the fear of Jehovah is strong trust, and His sons shall have a hiding place. 
Pro 14:27  The fear of Jehovah is a fountain of life, to turn away from snares of death. 

This time I took these two verses together, because the implied 'but' is seen by looking at both of them- they have nowhere to hide from the snares of death.  

Pro 15:32  He casting off correction despises his own soul, but he who hears reproof gets understanding. 

Pro 15:33  The fear of Jehovah is instruction in wisdom, and before honor is humility. 

A couple of interesting phrases here.  Where the KJV uses, "refuses", this from the LITV gives us a better picture with "casting off"; the original meant 'to loosen', and this gives me the sense that once you cut yourself off from correction (remember this is the term that comes from a word for 'chastisement'), you're adrift.  Hmm... adrift; nowhere to hide; all alone before God.  (As opposed to Christians, who are ANCHORED in Christ.)  The other phrase I found interesting is that it is two different words translated as "despise" or "despises". Where the first one amounted to disrespect, this one boils down to "to spurn".  And I said to myself, "Isn't that about the same as "scorn"? "  So I looked them up:

Spurn: reject with disdain or contempt.
Scorn:  feel or express contempt or derision for.

Okay, so basically one is verbal, one connects that with ACTION.  This is more than simple disrespect, this is conscious rejection.  And, they are doing it TO THEMSELVES.  Just like with wisdom and scorning, they don't hurt God with their rejection, but themselves.



Pro 19:23  The fear of Jehovah tends to life, and he rests satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil. 

To find the negative here, we need to dissect the positive.  "Rests", translated "abides" in the KJV, is a specific word implying staying somewhere overnight.  This person will have nothing to fear in the dark.  The fool will have no such protection.  Are we talking robbers, natural disasters, or fires here, as they happen to everyone?  No, but we are talking about the worries and anxieties that haunt us overnight.  The closer you come to God, the farther along in the progression, the less these things will come up.

And finally, our overarching verse:  

Pro 23:17  Do not let your heart envy sinners, but only be in the fear of Jehovah all the day. 

Pro 23:18  For surely there is a hereafter, and your hope shall not be cut off. 

And here is the central point these all make.  GOD HAS SOMETHING BETTER FOR YOU.  God isn't about the short game here on earth; let the evil succeed, live long, prosper.  In the end, they are cut off, adrift, and don't care that there IS a hereafter, and their souls will pay a fearful price if they continue to spurn God.

I feel like there SHOULD be a tie-together post next, but I don't know right now what else God wants.  Tune in next week, where we will either do a finale to this, or move onwards in Proverbs.