It has long been my habit to read through Proverbs each month. With 31 chapters, it is easy just to match the day of the month with the chapter. And once again, on this the 1st of May, 2025, we hit on the portion that sets the tone for the rest of the book: Pr. 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

While we’ve looked at this portion before, let me just point out some key concepts once again.

‎What is it to fear the Lord? It is at least, but not limited to:

a. To fear, to tremble at the thought of His JUSTICE. To know and feel that in His holiness, sin MUST be judged, and it will be – in perfection. – Genesis 20:11. Fools make light of sin. But the idea of sin weighs heavily on the Wise. They look at the Cross and contemplate that even if our sin was but imputed to Christ (for he had none of his own), even the very Son of God would not escape the full fury of the Father. Believer, this is what he did for you.

‎‎b. To fear, to tremble at His FREEDOM. That His divine rights of Creator-ship are absolute, and constrained by nothing but His own nature and will. Genesis 22:12 Psalm 130:4 (ESV) “But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” God is not required to forgive our sin. It is something He does out of His goodness, but it is not required by His justice. It is wholly dependent upon His personal choice. If you are his today, it was because he made a free choice of you when he could have damned you to an eternal hell and been fully just. He was never constrained to save you. You owe all to his free choice. Nothing else.

c. And it seems to me that this is first in order – To fear, to tremble at His WORD. To believe Him. Especially in His warnings and His revelations regarding reality in its largest sense. He says nothing superfluously. He says what He means, He means what He says, and He expects His Word to heard, understood and taken with the absoluteness with which it is given. To heed His warnings, and to believe His assessment of life and all truth. Vss. 20 – 24 especially enhance this point, and 29-30 summarize it: Rejecting knowledge as revealed by God, choosing to believe other sources (including self) instead, rejecting God’s counsel and reproof. Exodus 9:20. Isaiah 66:2 (ESV) — “All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

Let me ask, do you tremble at his Word?

d. To fear, to tremble His GREATNESS. To be dwarfed in His presence. To face endless, infinite perfections. To think of Him in terms of His massiveness, incomprehensibility and power. Job. Who can walk amongst the burning coals? Is he at all overwhelming to you? Or is your god a manageable little idol of your own making, you can turn any way you wish by pushing the right buttons? ‎

e. To fear him is to tremble at the possibility of the LOSS of Him. To be separated from Him is death in every conceivable way. David crying “take not your Holy Spirit from me” – Psalm 51. Of he was not present, would it not make any difference to you? If you would not miss him, you do not fear the loss of him, you do not love him. You only fear to lose, what you love.

f. To fear, to tremble at His DISPLEASURE. He is not a paper tiger. Not as to fear a harsh master, but to disappoint the most loving, tender and perfect Father.

‎To be truly over-awed at Him for who and what He is. Father, give me this fear, and the infinite joy it begets.

It is to live at all times in the full awareness of the implications of dealing with a Self-sustaining, all-knowing, all-powerful being who is everywhere at once; Who created all things for His own purposes and pleasure (including myself), and who in His holy perfections MUST judge all evil – anything and everything that in any way contrary to His nature, His plans or His purposes.