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Tuesday Morning Epistles
Welcome to "Tuesday Morning," a source of encouragement and
inspiration for Christians everywhere.
The Old Testament book of Proverbs is timeless, practical,
and applicable to every generation of folk, from 3000 years
ago to today. The collection of ancient wisdom is never out
of date. Solomon, who assembled the proverbial sayings,
understood that God's purpose for His children was to create
spiritual formation in them. Solomon knew that God wanted to
move His people from Spiritual Point A (low character—or
sinfulness) to Spiritual Point B (solid character—or
righteousness), and beyond. Along the way in this spiritual
journey God wanted His nation to develop virtues and values
similar to the ones mentioned by Solomon in Proverbs:
Wisdom, Trust, Discipline, Obedience, Happiness, Holiness,
Diligence, and so forth. But Solomon was not uninformed
about the various levels of spiritual maturity at work in
the people. In Proverbs 1:5 he wrote, "A wise man will hear
and increase learning, and a man of understanding will
attain wise counsel." In other words, not everyone is
stupid; some are wise. But even the wise need to attain more
wisdom. Everyone needs to gain in their pilgrimage with God.
As Stephen Olford observed in his book, Windows of
Wisdom, "The young and the naive have much more to
learn (than the wise), but everyone can learn something
from their walk with the Lord.
One important thing we learn from studying Proverbs is that
life adds up to something coherent. God has a plan, and
people are part of that plan. In fact, people are
central in God's plan for the universe. God wants
people to know Him. In John 17:3, Jesus prayed for
his disciples, "And this is eternal life, that
they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
You have sent." Eternal life has already begun
in the heart of those who know God and the Son.
This week's epistle of encouragement is entitled, "Knowing
God." Continue reading below whenever you are ready, and
then be prepared for a mind-expanding week in which the Lord
will lead you in a deeper discovery of God. And yourself.
Tom Barnard
A Senior Encourager
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Knowing God Tom Barnard
n a recent search I was amazed to discover how many proverbs there are in the English language. In one search engine I found more than 250 of them. Let me test your memory. Here are seven familiar proverbs. I’ll start them, and you finish them. See how well you do.
“All work and no play makes Jack…” “An apple a day keeps…” “A fool and his money…” “A penny saved is…” “Ask me no questions…” “A stitch in time…” “A word to the wise…”
And that’s just the “A” list. If you want to know the finishing line to each parable, go to Google. But don’t stop there. In the Book of Proverbs, you will discover ancient sayings that are thousands of years old but are as current as today’s news. One of my favorites is found in Proverbs 1:7. It is a classic.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
The Old Testament book of Proverbs is all about character building. It is not a “prescriptive” book. The Ten Commandments are prescriptive in nature. Both positive and negative commands are included there. Proverbs are “descriptive.” They simply outline what works and what doesn’t work. The decision is left to each person to make. Let’s look at Proverbs 1:7 in detail.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”
Knowing God has a beginning point. Solomon said that the knowledge of God begins with “fear.” He was not saying, “Be afraid of God.” No one who has seen a child shudder in stark fear would say it was a good experience. What Solomon meant was this: Knowing God requires that we respect Him. Reverence comes before love and trust. Respecting God means that we disrespect evil! In Proverbs 8:13 are these words: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate,” God said. In Christian experience, hating evil is the biblical description of repentance.
The Hebrew word for “beginning” denotes “first place” or
“highest priority.” Simply, in spiritual matters “knowing God”
calls for us to give him “first place” in the decisions we make.
The knowledge Solomon referred to here means trust. Read
Proverbs 14:26: “In the fear of the Lord there is strong
confidence, and his children will have a place of refuge.”
Knowing God is fulfilled as we learn to trust Him.
There are two parts to this proverb. Here is the second part:
“But fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
In two of his psalms David said, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” (14:1; 53:1) A “fool” in a biblical sense is a person who is arrogant and unrepentant. In our belief system, a “fool” is a wicked person—one who delights in independence from God and His commandments. In Genesis 25:34 Esau was so physically famished that he offered to sell his birthright to his brother Jacob for a morsel of bread and stew of lentils. What a foolish decision! In this impulsive act, Esau probably reasoned that a meal now was worth a thousand meals that might come later. “Later” was not as important to him as “now.” The passage concluded, “Thus Esau despised his birthright,” and as far as anyone knows, he never repented of his decision. Not only were two brothers divided, but two nations ultimately were divided over something to eat and drink. Foolish!
Sin eventually does that to a person—convincing that person that he or she will be better off by not seeking the leadership of the Lord in his life. The alternatives are clear. We may choose one way or the other. A wise person will choose to know God. All other choices will lead to the worst possible conclusions. |