“The Spirit of the Lord will
rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the
Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge
and of the fear of the Lord – and he will delight
in the fear of the Lord.”
Isaiah 11: 2-3
“The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have
good understanding.”
Psalm 111:10
If we were wise we would understand more. We could
save ourselves trouble by making better decisions. Others
might even think of us as intelligent. Wisdom is desirable,
but how do we get it?
Once again, Jesus leads the way for us to follow. God
inspired Isaiah to record a description of Jesus. From
the attributes listed in Isaiah 11:2-3, we know Jesus
had wisdom, understanding, discernment to counsel, power,
knowledge and fear of the Lord. These are all great
qualities. Surely it would be tempting to be proud of
one’s own traits were they as admirable as these. However,
we are told the one quality Jesus delighted in was “the
fear of the Lord.”
The author of Psalm 111 tells us “the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom.” That means
that true wisdom only commences after we have
a reverent fear of God. Something cannot start without
a beginning. Simply, we cannot gain or grow in real
wisdom if we do not fear the Lord. So, when James tells
his readers to ask for wisdom and says God will answer
(James 1:5), he instructs us to follow in what Christ
did. We should rush to develop a deep, holy fear of
God, realizing that Christ feared him first. Then we
can boldly and confidently ask to receive God’s wisdom.
