Proverbs 9:10 (NASB)

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."

What does it mean to fear the Lord? Does this mean we should be frightened of the Lord the way some of us fear monsters?

“The Hebrew term for fear typically used in the expression ‘fear of God/Yahweh’ is yirat from the verb yare.  W. Van Pelt and W. Kaiser indicate that the word has a semantic range that runs from respect to horror.  It is difficult to determine the exact English equivalent to this word in the phrase.  In most occurrences the ‘fear of God’ is a virtue that is encouraged and leads to right behavior and good results.  In some occurrences the ‘fear of God’ is negative.  Thus it is potentially misleading to say that yirat always means ‘fear’ or ‘respect.’  But even in its positive use (such as Prov 1:7), there is a debate as to whether it means ‘respect’ or ‘fear.’  It may be that the word falls somewhere in between these two English words.  “Respect” may not do justice to the gravity of the word, though “fear” may connote an unhealthy dread.”—Tremper Longman III & Peter Enns (Dictionary of The Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry, & Writings)

In light of the insight from Old Testament scholars Longman and Enns, let’s consider three options for interpreting “fear” in the context of Proverbs 9:10.

A)  dread, live in terror, and tremble (negative)

B)   reverence, respect, piety (positive)

C)  somewhere between A and B (e.g. “I am in awe of God and imagining a life in opposition to God terrifies me.”)

Now let’s look at some scriptures that use some form of the word fear or dread and compare/contrast that with Proverbs 9:10.   What I will show below is that (A) as the sole interpretation of the text will fail the biblical exegesis test, (B) will fail the experiential relevance test, and therefore only (C) harmonizes biblical exegesis with experiential relevance. 

“This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.”—Deut 2:25

“And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.”--1 Sam 11:7

The Hebrew word for dread in Deuteronomy and fear in 1 Samuel is pahad.  Pahad is to dread, live in terror, and tremble.  The Hebrew word for fear in Proverbs 9:10 is yirah. While pahad is used strictly in the negative (e.g. “dread”) sense, yirah is used both in the positive (reverence, respect, piety) and the negative (fear and terror) sense.   The Hebrew writers would have most likely used the word pahad if (A) was the proper context of this passage.  Therefore, we can eliminate (A) as the most plausible interpretation of Proverbs 9:10.

Many interpret fear (yirah) in Proverbs 9:10 as only positive (i.e. reverence, respect, and piety), but let’s consider the following:  While all those who fear God have respect, reverence, and wonder for God, not all those who have respect, reverence, and wonder for God (e.g. universalists, active "gay Christians", porn addicted Christians, and even King David when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed Uriah) fear God.  This is not just a theological fact.  This truth is evident through experience.  That is, we can find many who respect, wonder at God/revere Him (i.e. praise Him with the utmost sincerity every Sunday during praise and worship) but their lives are replete with sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, arrogance, fits of rage, envy and the like because they don't fear God. 

Now the last sentence above is incoherent if we apply (B) to the word fear, and since (A) has already been eliminated it seems the only thing left is (C).  In other words, the lives of many who revere God are completely void of the knowledge and wisdom Proverbs talks about.  For many, it’s quite the contrary--their lives are fraught with folly from being led by their flesh because they have no reason to dread living in the flesh.  I personally know many Christians like this, and I am sure you know some too.  You might be one of them. In fact, show me a fallen pastor ensnared in adultery or pornography and I will show you someone who has lost the fear of God.  That is, I don’t think these fallen men of God have lost their reverence/respect for God as much as they no longer tremble at the idea of living in opposition to God (i.e. fear of consequences for their sinful actions). 

Now that we have an appropriate understanding of the context of the fear of the Lord in Proverbs 9:10 let’s consider the effect not fearing the Lord has on our lives. 

When we don't fear the Lord, our lives actually become filled with anxiety from the complications of all of life’s variables.  Satan will always find a way for us to choose what is wrong and deleterious to our mind, body, and soul.  Being able to discern right from wrong is true wisdom.  When we fear the Lord, the distinction between right and wrong becomes bolder.  The grey areas of life begin to fade.  Confusion turns into clarity.  This clarity comes from the simplicity of understanding God's unequivocal laws and fearing consequences from disobeying them. 

Below is a common real life example of how fearing the Lord can be the beginning of wisdom.

As married couples all know, at one point or another during their marriage, one or both of the spouses may come across the temptation to commit adultery. How will they respond? If you were to ask many married couples today if they would ever cheat on their spouse, I am sure over 95% would say “no”. If you were to ask them why they wouldn’t, I am sure an overwhelming response would be, “because I love my spouse.” While that isn’t a bad reason, it isn’t the wisest response.  The wise reason is because “I fear the Lord.”

If you are married, and you read the news about a site like Ashley Madison and how many spouses actively sought an affair, it is tempting to feel proud of yourself if you have never even entertained the thought.  Proverbs 11:2 says, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.”  Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”  Therefore, fear the Lord who has made it clear that the proud are humbled.  Additionally, just because you haven’t doesn’t mean you never will. As Ravi Zacharias has put it, “Every man who is an able-bodied man will tell you temptation stalks you every day. Does it have anything to do with your love for your spouse? Probably not, because you can love your spouse with 100% desire to love the person, but the human body reacts to the sight, entertained by the imagination and gives you all kinds of false hints that stolen waters are going to be sweeter.” 

I believe that most spouses at some point in the marriage will feel like they don’t love the other spouse anymore or don’t feel in love with them anymore. This doesn’t mean that the spouse will just run out and look to commit adultery. Satan is more methodical than to just throw that temptation at you. Satan knows the passion you temporarily have to run out, “have a fling” and show your spouse you won’t be mistreated, neglected, or disrespected will subside if enough time goes by and you have time to reason with yourself. Satan will chip away at you with constant irritation from the other spouse until you are so sick and disgusted by just the sight or thought of your spouse. Satan will cast doubt into your mind about whether you and your spouse are actually “meant to be.” And what perfect timing it is to ease into the picture some prince charming or beautiful seductress that has things in common with you and understands you the way a “soul mate” should. What spouse could handle this type of confusion? I say confusion and not temptation because it will not feel like a temptation. It will feel right. It will feel like destiny. If the spouse gives in to their own understanding of what is right and forgets that God instructed us to not commit adultery, and til death do us part, they will be tearing their own lives apart. Proverbs 6:32 says, “A man who takes part in adultery has no sense, he will destroy himself.”

We have to remember that Satan is smarter than us. The only spouses that can survive that perfect storm thrown from Satan are the ones who fear the Lord. The only one smarter and more powerful than Satan is our Lord. When you fear the Lord, life becomes a lot easier because we understand the boundaries (the rules or laws).  And if something is about to breach that boundary, we know that is wrong and to stay away.   This is the wisdom in the fear of the Lord.

Dear Mike,

I listened to your sermon on same-sex attraction after the Supreme Court ruling, and then I saw a video (below) of your son Ryan (pastor at Eastlake Church in Seattle) that seemed to conflict with your stated position of the church.   I have a few points and questions that I hope you can address.  First, can you address the position your son has clarified below.  Are you ok with it or not?  Why or why not? 

I appreciate you clarifying the orthodox stance of Eastlake Church on homosexuality and marriage, and explaining to the congregation that Jesus affirmed marriage as one man and one woman.  However, your clarification on Eastlake's position regarding homosexuality/marriage got sort of lost in the constant reminders on how Christians shouldn't talk to/judge homosexuality. You quoted Billy Graham: “It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge and my job to love.”  If you are fine with leaving the task of conviction to the Holy Spirit, why did you find it necessary to convict Christians who might talk in an insensitive way toward practicing homosexual Christians?  Shouldn't you have left that to the Holy Spirit?  Why are you picking and choosing which sins you point out and which ones you leave to the Holy Spirit?  Either we work with the Holy Spirit and affirm what He is working in the lives of sinners, or we never say anything regarding other sinner's behavior.  If you want to appeal to 1 Cor 5:11-13 that is fine, that is a verse I will bring up below; but if your reasoning is because you were talking to "CHRISTIANS" not the world, then good so am I!  Why don't you talk with that same fervor to "CHRISTIANS" who are practicing homosexuals?  You go out of your way to handle their immorality with kid gloves so much that it's questionable whether they are even in need of repentance.

By the way, in my experience over the past few years, the "Christians" who need to learn how to communicate in a Christ-like manner toward those they disagree with/believe are sinning, are "Christian" homosexual advocates and "pro-choicers.” The bullying, harassing, name-calling, and overall vitriol today from Christians is OVERWHELMINGLY from those who support homosexuality and abortion (i.e. the left). So please Mike, if you are going to talk to Christians about how not to communicate, please just look to your nearest liberal Christian demonizing their Christian conservative brother or sister over gay rights, or abortion rights for plenty of examples.

One comment you said struck me as odd: "we are a queer friendly church." There are two ways to interpret this statement: 

(A). By "queer friendly" your message was something to the effect of: "If you are trying to detangle yourself from the gay lifestyle (i.e. trying to offer your body as a living sacrifice to God by denying your fleshly desires and appetites, and be led by the Spirit) and wish to turn away from the sexual immorality that all homosexual acts fall under (regardless if you are in a long-term, committed, and monogamous relationship), then we will be your friend here to help you along the way." (But they cannot hold any leadership positions in the church while they are still struggling with being led by their flesh just as those struggling with adultery would not be allowed to hold leadership positions) I have no problem with this, but if this was what you meant you should have clarified it because I am sure a lot of people listening to you interpreted "we are a queer friendly church" the way below (B).

(B). By "queer friendly" you are tickling the ears of PRACTICING homosexuals so that they don't feel convicted (i.e. feel guilt, shame, or be anxious to repent for their homosexual acts) because "we are all sinners" and as you have said before, "it is the Holy Spirit's job to convict."  This is a huge problem if this is your motive, because you are enabling practicing homosexuals to continue in their idolatry by continuing to find their identity in their sexuality and be led by their flesh.  Additionally, by generalizing such a grievous sin to "we are all sinners" you diminish and confuse the responsibility of the sinner to take action/tackle some of their most damaging sins (to themselves and others).  It's hard to imagine what sin is more damaging (physically, mentally, and spiritually) to a homosexual than their sin of homosexuality.  I don't think you would treat HABITUAL/PRACTICING adulterers, with that same courtesy would you?  I don't think I'd ever hear you say, "We are an adulterer friendly church." And yet you offered that confusing courtesy to (practicing) homosexuals? Odd.

 How do you reconcile a message like that with 1 Corinthians 5:11-13?

"I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people. It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

Lastly, I pray the Holy Spirit will show you how you are doing a disservice to your congregation and to God's kingdom. Please consider the following verse: 

"Your prophets courted you with sweet talk.
  They didn’t face you with your sin so that you could repent.
  Their sermons were all wishful thinking, deceptive illusions."--Lamentations 2:14 (The Message)

Your brother in Christ,

James