Series: Wisdom That Works
Message: What This Book Accomplishes
Preacher: Jenniffer Ogden
Reflection: Mark Witas
Live Wonder: Zan Long
Live Adventure: Jessyka Dooley
Live Beyond: J. Murdock
Live Purpose: Emily Ellis
Editor: Becky De Oliveira
Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.
Read: Proverbs 1:1-7 in the English Standard Version (ESV). Note 1–3 insights or questions.
Reflect: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
A little story from the Talmud about the fear of God:
A group of rabbis were arguing about whether an oven that had been made impure by some non-kosher thing happening to it could ever be used again. The consensus amongst the rabbis was no, it could not be used for food preparation again.
One rabbi argued against the rest with sound reason and logic. They all pointed to the Torah for their evidence and wouldn’t budge in their opinion.
The exasperated rabbi challenged them with a different kind of evidence. If a miracle were to happen, say, if that tree over there were to move itself to another location, would you then believe? The tree did exactly that. It moved itself. Still, they wouldn’t believe.
The rabbi strengthened his position by calling on a river to reverse its flow. It did. Still they didn’t believe, because the Torah said what it said.
The rabbi called on the house they were in to have the walls bend in on themselves and then straighten out. The walls did their bending. Still they did not believe. Again, they cited the Torah for standing their ground on the rightness of their arguments. They argued that God Himself is bound by the Torah and that even if He wanted to, He could not change its meaning or its laws.
At this, God laughed out loud saying, “My children have defeated me!”
Limiting God is the opposite of fearing Him. Fearing the Lord means that we cannot put Him in a box. Our theologies, our dogmas, our doctrines should all be settled in wet cement because God cannot be defined by any of them. Even an attempt to define God by the confines of Scripture is a mistake. We can know some things—God is good, God is love, God is grace, God is best expressed in the stories we know about Jesus. But to fear the Lord, is to embrace the fact that when we start to define Him in any concrete way, we are making an image—usually of a better version of ourselves.
Recalibrate: Have you ever been tempted to limit God through your understanding of Scripture? Can you see how that can limit Him and His ability to work in your life?
Respond: Jesus, give us the wisdom to allow You to be who You are, to not confine you by our knowledge, and to allow mystery and wonder to open new vistas in our lives with You.
Research: Read Job 38-41.
Remember: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline” (Proverbs 1:7).
Mark Witas is the lead pastor at Sunnyside Adventist Church in Portland, Oregon.
Does your little one have a favorite comforting thing. It could be a blanket or a teddy that makes them feel better whenever they are afraid or tired or anxious. Heaven help us when we lose the comforter! Seriously. We can be confident that our Heavenly Father is much more than an inanimate comforter. He hears and sees and provides for us, waiting to see if we notice what He has done and are thankful. With your eyes and ears and words and actions, choose to be thankful today. Cuddle the ones you love; know that our confidence and comfort is in God.
What does fear mean? Have you ever felt it? Make the face of someone who looks like they feel fear. In the Scripture for this week, the Bible says something that sounds kind of weird at the end. It says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Sometimes the Bible uses words that sound like one thing but mean another. In this verse, fear doesn’t mean being scared, but it means to be amazed. When was a time you felt amazed? Maybe it’s when you saw the world’s biggest gummy bear. What are some things that amaze you about God? Ask your family what they think is amazing about God.
The first time I got up to speak in front of church I was terrified! I was a young eighteen-year-old college kid and was standing in front of a church of two hundred people. And the first thing that came out of my mouth, and entered into the microphone was deeply regrettable. Only seconds into my announcement, I had already blown it! My goal was to get up and talk about how great our youth pastor was and why we should celebrate his ministry. Unfortunately, I started by saying, “Being a youth pastor is a thankless job.” Which the church took to mean that I was saying, “You guys don’t say thank you to Caleb enough! Shame on you!”
Oops . . .
In Proverbs 1:7, Solomon writes that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”
It took me a long time to get up the nerve to speak in front of church again. I was so afraid of saying something harmful that I never wanted to get back up again. But that fear taught me something. It taught me that words matter. And we have to be careful with our words. I am still nervous when I get up to speak today when I preach in Boulder. Because I know my words will be heard by people who will put value in what I am preaching. I get nervous writing these Daily Walk posts because I know that kids like you will read them. So I use that fear to build my respect for all of you—and the Boulder Church—so I am careful with what I say and how I say it. Without that fear, I might not be so careful. And if I’m not careful, then people get hurt.
What are some things that you are afraid of? Do you know why you are afraid of them? What can you learn from that fear? And how can you use that lesson to make you a better person? How about with God? Are you afraid of God? Why or why not? Why do you think Solomon thinks you should be afraid of God? What might he be trying to teach you about what it means to have a relationship with God?
What are you afraid of? There aren’t many things I am afraid of. Actually, the only thing I can think of that terrifies me is watching a horror film. But the more I think about my fears, the more I realize that I am truly terrified of one thing: giving my entire life to God. I know this sounds a bit crazy—after all, I am currently on track to become a pastor. But I have this fear that God will turn my life upside down if I fully give it all to Him. There are times that I do not trust that He has my best intentions in mind or that I doubt that He would actually give me the desires of my heart. Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge.” When the Bible talks about fearing God, it’s not talking about being legitimately afraid of Him. Rather it is referring to a respect and honor of God, trusting that He has your back. Fearing God is about exercising faith in giving your entire life to God, not knowing what will happen when you do. So in other words, knowledge begins when our comfort zone ends. So maybe you’re like me and you are afraid of fully giving your heart to God. I encourage you to spend some time this weekend reflecting on what is holding you back from fully fearing God.
Zan Long is GRC director for faith development for ages 0-17. She lives in Sydney, Australia, and serves at her local church in nearby Kellyville.
Jessyka Dooley is assistant youth director for the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Denver, Colorado.
J. Murdock is associate pastor at Boulder Adventist Church in Boulder, Colorado, where he focuses on youth and young adult ministry.
Emily Ellis is a senior studying theology at Walla Walla University in College Place, Washington.