Fear The Lord!
"Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the
inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him."
Psalm 33: 8
One of Jesus’ most cryptic teachings is found in His words
to scribes and Pharisees: “Woe to you lawyers! For you
have taken away the key of knowledge” (Luke 11:52).
Jesus didn’t say specifically what the “key of
knowledge” was. But wouldn’t it be good to know?
The clue to the key may be found in Isaiah 33:6, a verse Jesus may
have had in mind: “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of
your times, and the
strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is
His treasure.” Interestingly,
one modern translation says,
“The fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure
[of wisdom and knowledge]” (NIV).
Could the fear of the Lord be the key to gaining wisdom and
knowledge about God and living rightly with Him? Scripture
seems to think so, as described in Psalm 111:10; Proverbs
1:7; 2:5, 9:10,14: 26-27, 19:23. In fact, we
are to be “zealous
for the fear of the Lord all the day” (Proverbs 23:17).
Honor, reverence, awe, submission, obedience—
all these characterize the fear of the Lord. Fearing
the Lord is the only right fear.
"The fear of the Lord is not just the
end of wisdom but its beginning."
Edmund P. Clowney
