Wednesday Bible Study: A deep dig into Proverbs VI

Just when I thought the study of "Fear of Jehovah" was done, God showed me one last lesson- in a verse He hid from me when I gathered the others.  But first let me set this up.

If you follow the Sunday Message, a week or so ago I mentioned a Saturday morning that involved a message from Tony Evans, "The year king Uzziah died".  I got a lot out of that message, and one of those things I got was this:  You get closer to God in your "years that king Uzziah died."  This has most definitely been for me one of those years.  And God has definitely used it to teach me so much, Praise to His Name.  And another involved our progression we've been learning.  In Isaiah's "year that king Uzziah died," he had a vision of himself in heaven, of God exalted.  Let's look at what happened.

Isa 6:1  In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 
Isa 6:2  Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 
Isa 6:3  And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" 
Isa 6:4  And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 
Isa 6:5  And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" 
Isa 6:6  Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 
Isa 6:7  And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." 

For Isaiah, the progression from humility to fear of the Lord- which we learned in Proverbs 15:33-  "The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor"-  was nearly instantaneous.  This in mind, let's look at 2 versions of the "missing verse" I 'found'.

First, in the ESV, where I first saw it:

Pro 22:4  The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life. 

Which is all well and good, but if you remember last time, you know that sometimes fill-in words mess up the meaning.  So here, that first 'and'.  Now, the more accurate LITV:

Pro 22:4  The reward of humility is the fear of Jehovah, riches, and honor, and life. 

In the original language, fear of Jehovah is a REWARD for humility!  Along with the others.

Pastor Denny Miller just finished a long series on the Beatitudes as a progression- you have to learn each IN TURN to progress to the next.  And of course, the first is, "Blessed are they who are poor in spirit"- who know they have nothing before God.  Then comes, "Blessed are they who are meek and humble."  It starts with the realization of your nothingness (in your person) compared to God; that creates your humility-ability.  And almost instantaneously with that, as we see in Isaiah, is fear of the Lord.  You can't be truly in fear of the Lord if you have that "lofty" image of yourself.

Let's look, as I have been, at the example of Job.  Now Job had humility before God, certainly most of his complaints center on how low he is, that he has no means to challenge God.  But he had skipped a step, because instead of seeing himself as having nothing before God, he thought he had a case WITH God.  If you read the whole of God's lecture at Job, you see that God first points out His station as Creator and Maintainer of the universe; Job answers that he CAN answer nothing to that- bringing him back to that first step.  Then, as I explained that recent Sunday post, God showed vividly to Job just HOW powerful he was- with nothingness and humility at last PROPERLY aligned, Job was ready to truly understand the fear of the Lord.  That he got the message comes in his final response to God:

Job 42:1  And Job answered Jehovah and said: 

Job 42:2  I know that You can do all, and no purpose is withheld from You. 

Job 42:3  Who is this hiding counsel without knowledge? So I declared, but did not understand things too wonderful for me; yea, I did not know. 

Job 42:4  I pray, Listen, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You will make me know. 

Job 42:5  I have heard of You by hearing of the ear, but now my eye has seen You; 

Job 42:6  Therefore, I despise myself, and I have repented on dust and ashes. 

Now, look at how Job got the other things with this verse:

Honor:  His 'friends' had made God royally upset; they had to come TO JOB to have Job get them forgiven.

Riches:  Everything Job lost, he got back- he was rich before, now he was twice blessed.

Life:  Did you miss this?  Job 42:16  After this Job lived a hundred and forty years. And he saw his sons, and his grandsons, even four generations. 

Job 42:17  And Job died, being old and full of days. 

Job is the very picture of this verse.  Unlike Job, we may not get these things on this earth.  But as you recall, part of our progression is the change and growth of your character, which should lead to a greater success on earth than you would have had otherwise, so it's not all heavenly, either.

I keep telling you all how much reading Proverbs every day has helped me.  If you still wonder at this, think on this stat:  This is our sixth week of doing Proverbs, and though we have jumped around a bit, we have essentially only made it to Chapter one, verse 7.  You should try this yourselves.