Providence Points: Devotional, October 16, 2007
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Biblical, Devotional & Informative
October, 16 2007
Vol. 1 No. 3
Although a little over two pages, this is a worthwhile read:
Heaven for Life on Earth, William Arnot, Scottish Presbyterian
minister.
Chapter 3: THE ROOT OF KNOWLEDGE.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge : but fools
despise wisdom and instruction."-i. 7. THE royal preacher begins his
sermon at the beginning. He intends to discourse largely of knowledge
and wisdom in all their aspects, and he lays his foundation deep in "
the fear of the Lord." This brief announcement contains the germ of a
far-reaching philosophy. Already it marks the book divine. The heathen
of those days possessed no such doctrines. Solomon had access to a
Teacher who was not known in their schools. " The fear of the Lord" is
an expression of frequent occurrence throughout the Scriptures. It has
various shades of meaning, marked by the circumstances in which it is
found ; but in the main it implies a right state of heart toward God,
as opposed to the alienation of an unconverted man. Though the word is
" fear," it does not exclude a filial confidence, and a conscious
peace. There may be such love as shall cast all the torment out of the
fear, and yet leave full bodied, in a human heart, the reverential awe
which all creatures owe to the Highest One. "There is forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared" "Oh fear the Lord, ye his saints;
for there is no want to them that fear him !" "I am the Lord thy God;"
behold the ground of submissive reverence: "which brought thee up from
the land of Egypt;" behold the source of confiding love. What God is
inspires awe; what God has done for his people commands affection. See
here the centrifugal and centripetal forces of the moral world,
holding the creature reverently distant from the Creator, yet
compassing the child about with everlasting love, to keep him near a
Father in heaven. The whole of this complicated and reciprocal
relation is often indicated in Scripture by the brief expression, "the
fear of God."
"Knowledge" and "wisdom" are not distinguished here ; at least they
are not contrasted. Both terms may be employed to designate the same
thing ; but when they are placed in antithesis, wisdom is the nobler
of the two. Knowledge may be possessed in large measure by one who is
destitute of wisdom, and who consequently does no good by it, either
to himself or others. A lucid definition of both, in their specific
and distinct applications, is embodied in a proverb of this book, xv.
2, "the tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright." We take the two
terms of this text as in effect synonymous,-the best knowledge wisely
used for the highest ends. What is the relation which subsists between
the fear of the Lord and true wisdom ? The one is the foundation, the,
other the imposed superstructure ; the one is the sustaining root, the
other the sustained branches; the one is the living fountain, the
other the issuing stream.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: the meaning is, he
who does not reverentially trust in God, knows nothing yet as he ought
to know. His knowledge is partial and distorted. Whatever acquisitions
in science he may attain, if his heart depart from the living God, he
abides an ignorant man. He who in his heart says "no God," is a fool,
however wise he may be in the estimation of the world, and his own.
God, he abides an ignorant man. He who in his heart says "no God," is
a fool, however wise he may be in the estimation of the world, and his
own.
But how does this judgment accord with facts? Have not some Atheists,
or at least Infidels, reached the very highest attainments in various
departments of knowledge ? It is true that some men, who remain
willingly ignorant of God, who even blaspheme his name, and despise
his word, have learned many languages, have acquired skill in the
theory and application of mathematics, have stored their memories with
the facts of history, and the maxims of politics-this is true, and
these branches of knowledge are not less precious because they are
possessed by men whose whole life turns round on the pivot of one
central and all-pervading error ; but after this concession, our
position remains intact. These men possess some fragments of the
superstructure of knowledge, but they have not the foundation; they
possess some of the branches, but they have missed the root. The
knowledge of God-his character and plans, his hatred of sin, his law
of holiness, his way of mercy- is more excellent than all that an
unbelieving philosopher has attained. If it be attainable, and if a
Christian has reached it, then is a Christian peasant wiser than the
wisest who know not God. It is a knowledge more deeply laid, more
difficult of attainment, more fruitful, and more comprehensive, than
all that philosophers know.
What right has an unbelieving astronomer to despise a Christian
labourer as an ignorant man? Let them be compared as to the point in
question, the possession of knowledge. Either is ignorant of the
other's peculiar department, but it is an error to suppose the
astronomer's department the higher of the two. The Christian knows
God ; the astronomer knows certain of his material works. The
Christian knows moral, the astronomer physical
laws. The subjects of the Christian's knowledge are as real as the
heavenly bodies. The knowledge is as difficult, and perhaps, in its
higher degrees, as rare. It reaches further, it lasts longer, it
produces greater results. The astronomer knows the planet's path ; but
if that planet should burst its bonds, and wander into darkness, his
knowledge will not avail to cast a line around the prodigal and lead
him home. He can mark the degrees of divergence, and predict the
period of total loss, but after that he has no more that he can do.
The Christian's knowledge, after it has detected the time, manner, and
extent of the fallen spirit's aberration, avails farther to lay a new
bond unseen around him, soft, yet strong, which will compel him to
come in again to his Father's house and his Father's bosom. The man
who knows that, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord,
possesses a deeper, more glorious, and more potential knowledge, than
the man who calculates the courses of the planets, and predicts the
period of the comet's return.
Men speak of the stupendous effects which knowledge, in the department
of mechanical philosophy, has produced on the face of the world, and
in the economy of human life; but the permanence of these acquisitions
depends on the authority of moral laws in the consciences of men. If
there were no fear of God, there would be no reverence for moral law
in the bulk of mankind. If moral restraints are removed from the
multitude, society reverts to a savage state. Inventions in art,
though once attained, are again lost, when a community feed on
venison, and clothe themselves with skins. So, "the fear of the Lord"
is a fundamental necessity, on which high attainments, even in
material prosperity, absolutely depend.
True knowledge in the spiritual department, as to the authority, the
sanction, and the rule of morality, is a greater thing than true
knowledge in the material department, for the moral encircles and
controls the economic in the affairs of men. The man whose knowledge
begins and ends with matter and its laws, has got a superstructure
without a foundation. In that learning the enduring relations of man
as an immortal have no place, and the fabric topples over when the
breath of life goes out. But this beginning of knowledge, resting on
the being and attributes of God, and comprehending all the relations
of the creature, is a foundation that cannot be shaken. On that solid
base more and more knowledge will be reared, high as heaven, wide as
the universe, lasting as eternity. The knowledge of God is the root of
knowledge. When branches are cut from a tree and laid on the ground at
a certain season, they retain for a time a portion of their sap. I
have seen such branches, when the spring came round, pushing forth
buds like their neighbours. But very soon the slender stock of sap was
exhausted, and as there was no connection with a root, so as to
procure a new supply, the buds withered away. How unlike the buds that
spring from the branches growing in the living root! This natural life
is like a severed branch. The knowledge that springs from it is a bud
put forth by the moisture residing in itself. When life passes, it
withers away. When a human soul is, by the regeneration," rooted in
Him," the body's dissolution does not nip its knowledge in the bud.
Transplanted into a more genial clime, that knowledge will flourish
for ever. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, what it will grow to.