What Are You Afraid Of?

Intro

What makes for a good life? Old Milwaukee - boys, it doesn’t get any better than this! I think for most modern Americans the answers typically boil down to something like having good health, being able to enjoy nice things, traveling and seeing the world, a cabin in the mountains, a home on a lake, or a chair at the beach sipping a drink with an umbrella in it. Basically, a prosperous life.

Of course, nothing is wrong with those things. It would be good to have any of that. But would that in itself make for a “good life”? There are so many people who have killed themselves working long hours and who eventually attained the American Dream, only to find that that is not giving them the good life they longed for. Why do we see all these rich and famous people doing self-destructive things?

It might surprise you that God’s ancient people were also preoccupied with the concept of the good life and what it consisted of. But their version of it was radically different to anything resembling the American Dream. In fact, the Bible calls our version of the good life “vanity - a chasing after the wind”. For these ancient believers, the good life was a life lived according to God's wisdom.  Wisdom is what makes "the good life".

What is wisdom? The simplest definition is “applied knowledge”. Knowledge is good and necessary, but knowledge by itself isn’t much good, and can even be disastrous. For instance, one could argue that in the 1940s science was asking “could we build an atomic bomb?” That’s knowledge. But no one was asking “should we?” That’s wisdom. And now Pandora is out of the box. Closer to home, knowledge may help us compare cars and figure out which one will serve us better. But wisdom helps us decide if we should purchase it new or buy a reliable used one.

And here’s the good news about wisdom: it’s not based on your intelligence. I could never have become a nuclear physicist - I didn’t have the mental horsepower for it. But I, and you, can be wise, regardless of our IQ. Many people are called “fools” in the Bible, not because they lack intelligence, but because they don’t apply the wisdom that God graciously makes available to anyone who looks for it. I don’t know if you have ever noticed those people whose lives tend to just bounce from one drama, one chaotic mess, to the next. When you look more closely at the details, what we often see is people who don’t do the wise thing. They make foolish choices and compound them with more foolish choices.

So this serves as my intro for today and the next few weeks. We are going to explore the idea of the good life, a life guided by wisdom. Specifically, we are going to look at some snapshots from what is called the Wisdom Literature of the OT - Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. If you are interested, The Bible Project has created some short videos on these wisdom books that would help you get more out of this series. (See slide - https://bibleproject.com/explore/category/wisdom-series/)

We will open today looking at the words of the wisest man to ever live. Proverbs 1:1-7. What we will see is that The fear of the Lord is the starting point for all wisdom and the gateway to the good life.

Wisdom and the good life

(v. 1) When Solomon became king God asked him to name his blessing. Solomon chose wisdom. This book is a collection of mostly his teachings on wisdom. Most of it comes in the form of proverbs, which are just wise sayings. Proverbs is not just the sayings of the wise, but sayings that can make one wise.

(v. 2-6) Wisdom helps us know...

Should we use this money to take a vacation or make repairs to our home?

How do I handle a co-worker asking me to lie for them at work, knowing that they desperately need this job?

Is this person’s interest in me sincere or do they have other motives?

Should I take this promotion for more money even though I’ll be gone from home more often?

What is the fair way to handle a conflict between my kids?

Should I date this person or am I compromising?

In all these ways and more, wisdom helps us avoid the trap of continual chaos and drama by learning how to make prudent decisions. Acquiring wisdom helps you with all these kinds of decisions, and this is what the ancients would call “the good life”.

The fear of the Lord

(v. 7) All this leads to the foundational principle that runs through the whole Bible regarding wisdom - that the starting point for becoming wise, the starting point for living the good life, begins with the “fear of the Lord”.

Fear does not mean “being afraid” of God, though certainly anytime someone had an encounter with him it left them fearful. But the fear spoken of here is more like reverence or respect.

Of course, we should revere God - he’s God, after all! But the “fear of the Lord” goes beyond mere reverence. Let me say it this way: when you were a child, what did it mean to respect your parents? One answer is that you showed them honor by doing what they told you. I think this best captures what Solomon means by “fear of the Lord”. It is acknowledging God as Creator and, therefore, that how he tells us to live is the best way to do life. The fear of the Lord shows itself in obedience to what God’s says.

The other side of the coin is shown in the second part of the verse. This is a contrasting parallelism - two statements that go together but contrast one another. “Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Wise people obey God; fools don’t. Wise people live the good life; fools live in chaos. Ignoring that little voice in your head that is screaming “stop!” is the way to quickly become a fool. The last words of a fool is often, “hold my beer and watch this.”

Again, what makes someone foolish in the Bible is not their lack of intelligence but that they refuse to obey God. Some of the most intelligent people to ever live have been utter fools, leaving a trail of misery and destruction behind them, while some people that many would consider “simple minded” live in such a God-honoring way that they sow life and light wherever they go.

And the question that wisdom always asks is, “Which will you be?” Will you choose the way of the wise by seeking to know and follow God’s instructions, or will you walk folly’s path?

Conclusion

The wisdom offered by Solomon, the son of David, is pragmatic. Meaning, it works for anyone. You don’t have to be a Christian or even believe in God to enjoy the fruits of wisdom. But we should just end here. There is a greater wisdom available from another Son of David. As Christians, the starting point for wisdom and, therefore, the starting point for the good life, is Jesus. 1 Cor 1:22-24

1 Corinthians 1:22–24 (NRSV)

For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

This isn’t saying that Jesus is just a wise person; he embodies the very wisdom of God. He is the wisdom that God is speaking to a broken and confused world. A world killing itself through its own chaotic choices. God has a particular kind of life he wants for you, and it is a life of thriving and fulfillment. A life spent acquiring what is truly good. And this life is found in alignment with Jesus - he is the starting point for all wisdom. Following Jesus actually keeps us from being malformed by other influences - things that may have the appearance of wisdom on the surface, but in the end lead us away from God and toward chaos and destruction.

Jesus walked in the fear of the Lord, meaning that he perfectly obeyed the Father. He has done for us what we could never completely do for ourselves, no matter how many proverbs we observed. By faith in him, he gives us a right standing with God and applies his perfectly obedient life to us.

Because he walked in the fear of the Lord, we need never to walk in fear. Humans fear so many things: cancer and Covid, wage cuts and war, loss of job, loss of status, loss of boyfriends, loss of popularity, fear of failure, fear of man, fear of death. Perhaps if we feared God more we would fear everything else less. The foundation of wisdom lies in knowing what, or who, we ought to fear. Not cringing from, but trusting in and obeying Jesus. He is the only one who can put these other fears to rest.

Following Jesus will not necessarily lead you to a materially good life - if it does, good for you, and remember us little people. But it will lead you to a life that is good in all the most important ways. So, how will you decide to measure the good life? Will it be by the standard of the American Dream, that so often produces an American nightmare, or will it be by keeping aligned to the way of Jesus. God wants to bless your life. He wants it to be good. The measure of the good life begins with Jesus. Amen.