Turn to whom? Turn to the psalmist; turn to the teacher. Why? So that they can have a more perfect knowledge of what is right and what is wrong.
The same word translated as fear in these two verses is rendered as dread in Deuteronomy 1:29; terror in Jonah 1:10; awe in I Kings 3:28, and reverence in Leviticus 19:3. All of these factors are part-and-parcel to the context of Proverbs 1:7 and Proverbs 9:10. With God as the object of this fear we have contained therein elements of both shrinking back and drawing close. This is not a dread that paralyzes a person's actions, but neither is it a polite reverence. Both characteristics are included.
Chapter 1 and verse 7 can be considered the motto of the entire book of Proverbs - and it ought to be the guiding principle of our lives. It reveals to us that the fear of God is fundamental to life. Do you want wisdom; do you want knowledge? Then you had better fear God!
Does this refer to any kind of knowledge or any kind of wisdom? The answer to that is No! Man is fully capable, on his own, of accumulating a great deal of knowledge, but it is not the knowledge having to do with salvation; it is not the knowledge that has to do with moral, ethical, or spiritual education in which the quality of life is addressed. One can be very intelligent and discover a great deal of the knowledge of God (I am not talking about spiritual knowledge; I am talking about physical knowledge.) and all we have to do is look at this world around us. I am able to speak to this congregation, one which is spread throughout the entire country, because of technological knowledge that men were able to dig from the laws of God. That is not the kind of knowledge that is being talked about here in the book of Proverbs.
He is talking about the knowledge that leads to eternal life. He is talking about the understanding and the wisdom that leads to eternal life. The fear of God is fundamental to that kind of knowledge. We might put it this way, The fear of the Lord is a prerequisite of true knowledge. Indeed, the word beginning also means the chief part. Put that in and we have, The fear of the Lord is the chief part of knowledge. That is very interesting indeed.
What does this mean in practical application? It means taking God into account. That which leads to a right, or saving knowledge that will produce the right relationship with God and other people is the fear of God. That will produce the right knowledge.
Many people do not actively despise God. They do, however, comport themselves as though He did not exist. If we were to ask them whether or not they were contemptuous of God, they would, in all sincerity and from their heart, say, Absolutely not! I go to church and I believe that God exists! But their knowledge of God does not lead them to put God first and take Him into account in every facet of their lives. It just does not happen. They do not really have the fear of God.
Let me repeat. This may seem redundant, but God is the Creator of the universe and of life and it is, consequently, impossible to obtain an understanding of our place in God's design without fearing Him. It is a simple, yet profound, fact of life that if we do not fear Him we are not going to come to know the right knowledge.
I think that it is essential to understand the way in which Proverbs looks at, or uses, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Though they are specifically different, they are seen as virtually the same godly principle, but as part of a mix that produces a product. And that product is a life lived that pleases God.
They are the separate ingredients that make up, let us say, a vegetable soup or concrete. The fear of the Lord equates to the water (the Holy Spirit). Without the water, the soup is not really soup and the concrete is not really concrete. With the water, a more nourishing and strengthening food is produced than the individual ingredients have by themselves. And, too, with the water, a … . . .
