Honey For Your Soul

Throughout this book we find that terms like wisdom, instruction, knowledge, and understanding are used, and some may consider such terms to be simply interchangeable. It is true that in our day we tend to use these in such a manner. However, as we look closer, we can see that they are distinct. I like to frame it as instruction being something we receive, beginning at an early age, whether we are speaking chronologically or spiritually. We first receive instruction or teaching. This instruction is intended, even presumed, to be continual and repetitive to the extent that through it we gain knowledge. This knowledge, stored in our mind and pondered upon, grows into wisdom. This wisdom, coupled with life’s experiences, can flower into understanding. Understanding is the mature stage we reach when we can look at most of life with a certain insight—a sort of knowing—that transcends many of the problems and storms we go through with a firm belief that our God is in total and complete control of all that is happening around us. This is the goal of receiving wisdom by that first glimpse into God’s Word: that when continued, grows into the full flower of faith. This will become increasingly clear as we study chapter three. From chapter 9, verse 10, we know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Verse 7, of this initial chapter, contains what many believe to be the motto or symbol of the book. We might go so far as to say it could be the propositional statement of the book. What is meant is that the reverential fear of The Lord God is where it all begins. Here it is stated that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.