Pastor Podcast - Proverbs 1:1-7 - Where Wisdom Begins

If “fear of the Lord” makes you picture anxiety, punishment, or distance from God, Proverbs is about to reframe everything. We sit down with Oscar Ross to go deeper on Proverbs 1:1–7 and the foundation that makes biblical wisdom more than a collection of smart sayings. Proverbs is designed to shape instincts and choices, and we talk about how a proverb “clicks” by using comparisons that stay with you long after you close your Bible.

We also step back into the story of Solomon’s reputation and the Queen of Sheba traveling far just to hear wisdom, then let Jesus’ words challenge our modern ease and our modern apathy. We have instant access to Scripture on our nightstand and on our phones, yet we still struggle to build consistent daily Bible reading habits. That tension sets up the heart of the conversation: why “the fear of the Lord” is the beginning of both knowledge and wisdom, and why knowing truth is not the same as living it.

Oscar unpacks the Hebrew ideas behind knowledge as relational, experiential knowing and wisdom as skillful, grounded action. We also name the danger zones: knowledge that turns into pride, skill that turns into manipulation, and “wisdom” that looks impressive while drifting from God. Then we get practical with a simple next step: a 31-day Proverbs challenge, one chapter a day, asking, “Lord, where are you adjusting my grip today?” If you want Christian wisdom for real life, this is a great place to start. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.

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Transcript

Welcome And Series Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Well, hey, Life House family. Welcome back to the Life Talk Podcast. The episode each week where we just spend some extra time, call it overtime, and going deeper into what we talked about on Sunday in our uh sermon. And man, I am blessed this week. We have Oscar Ross with us who brought the word starting a series in Proverbs, making some extra time for us. Oscar, how's it going today, man?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

So far, so good. It's been I I got a well rest last night.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

You got a good nap. Yeah, a good nap.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

You know, you yeah, I don't know if you have heard pastors say that every Sunday after they do the the service is like they're exhausted. Like I I guess he's mentally exhausted. That's how I call it. But I got a I got a well nap, and and I rest up very well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Awesome. It takes a lot of effort, you know, really digging in, studying. And you know, we know it's a spiritual you know thing to bring the word of God, and so there's going to be opposition. We always know that, but appreciate all the effort you put in and really great word digging into how we can lay the foundation for understanding Proverbs, some really important things from verse one through seven that we went through. Four points went went over time on that too, right? Four points instead of three. Yeah, all very relevant. So, yeah, just kind of start off any reflections you have, anything from your study, like why this particular passage so important, things you just didn't get to, or what we can continue to learn from the first several verses of Proverbs.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Yeah, well, you know how is that when when you are like writing a sermon, sometimes you you spend a whole week digging in the text, and by Saturday you have twice as much. It's like a treasure that you keep collecting in uh and the Holy Spirit keeps bringing things to you. So even though I got the four points, the person, the purpose, the people, and the pillar, there are still a few things that I had to left out. And it's kind of like going back to the attic because it turns out there were more boxes in the attic that we need to that need to open up. So I I have a few things that I I really would like to share, kind of like go a little bit deeper on what the message is in the the first seven verses. And um I I I hope that we'll have enough time so that we can that we can go into that.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Yeah, and I think like you said, we're this is a new series, and I love the illustration of Proverbs of this wisdom that's kind of in the attic, and we often forget about it sometimes. Of but God has given this map. I think that illustration was good. Solomon had the map, but you know, of course, we gotta have the right captain to read the map, but God didn't leave us on our own, like he didn't leave us without the wisdom of how he wants us to live, how we can be so faithful in digging into the attic. So, yeah, what's a couple things that you think we can add on and continue to grow from these verses?

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Yeah, so uh I I want to go

What A Proverb Really Is

SPEAKER_00 3:20

like kind of like in in in order there. So, like if we go back to verse one that we read uh yesterday that says the proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. So yesterday I mentioned that the the proverb is a is a small package, enough that you can carry in your pocket. But what I had to leave to leave aside because of the time is that that word proverb is in Hebrew is mashal, and it comes to the root that means to be like, so it's kind of like you are comparing. So a proverb works by laying one thing next to another until the truth clicks. So if we mentioned one example here, uh it could be like Proverbs 11, verse 22 that says, uh, like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman without discretion. I know it's it's it's funny, but that's that's the mashal.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Did you do you say that to your wife? Use that regularly.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

No, I didn't mention it. Uh, but that's mashal, the word doing its job, and God is teaching us a way kind of like the father teaches a song. That when you are growing up, the way that a the father or a mother is gonna teach you things is by with pictures because those are things that can be unseen. So once you learn it, it's like you hold it forever. So that's kind of like how God is teaching us in the proverbs that it's using illustrations that will make that proper to stay with us.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

And I think, like you said, it's really good because we're going to see throughout the book, you're gonna see the righteous and the wicked, the fool and the wise. You know, these are very important. Like you say, what is it like? And so we can see what camp we're falling into if we're living according to how God desires to be wise, to be righteous, or following the ways of the fool and the wicked. And so it's gonna clearly lay out what that's like and give us a lot of good pictures. The sermon illustration before the sermon illustration, right? So yeah, it's really good.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Another another detail that I had to cut for time was I mentioned that Solomon wrote 3,000 Proverbs, but he also uh wrote a thousand and five songs, so everything was kind of like a lecture on trees, animals, birds, reptiles, fish, because the man was considered a botanist, a soloologist, a poet, and a king. And as I mentioned it yesterday, kings from all over came, like the queen of Sheba, the travel. I didn't mention that detail. She traveled over, it was around 1200 miles just to go and hear Solomon. And then in first Kings chapter 10, verse 7, we read that she said, The half was not told to me. So everything that she heard, uh it was not even half of that what she actually experienced when she did it in person. Now, the thing that really gets me is one thing that I mentioned in about Jesus mentioning the Queen of Sheba in Matthew 12, 42. That well, she came from the end of the earth just to hear Solomon, and then Jesus says, Behold, something greater than Solomon is here. So the Queen of Sheba crossed the desert for Solomon 1200 miles. And

Solomon’s Wisdom And Our Access

SPEAKER_00 6:55

we sometimes having Jesus in the Bible, we we cannot stretch our hand when where we have the Bible on the night table, or maybe just get up and go to the office or the kitchen table, or even with your phone. Just open your phone and and read the Bible every every morning. And we see the Queen of Sheba that traveled that long just to hear the wisdom in Solomon, but we have a greater wisdom in the scriptures. So that's one one thing that really got my attention because I gotta be honest, sometimes I I'm guilty of that.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Can be very convicting, right? Exactly. We have so much access, and even exactly like you're pointing out, other countries around the world where they have very little access, maybe a couple Bibles for the whole church. Many of us have multiple at home. So just that illustration, like you say, and as you're rightly pointing out, Jesus referring back to Solomon, this wisdom is so much relevant, and that he's fulfilling all of these things.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah, yeah. Let's see what else I have here. So the the one thing that that I want to go a little bit deeper is on verse 7. So yesterday I mentioned, well, I said the fear of the Lord is a reverend awe, is taking God seriously on any day when no one is watching, no one is watching, quote unquote, because we have to remember that God is watching. But I I really wanted to add kind of like layers to that. The first layer is so the Bible actually has two versions of this motto. And and I've I don't know if I said it on both services, but depending on where you read it, it's gonna say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and in other places it's gonna say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Now, we we have to uh see the difference in in the two, uh, if we go back to the original uh language in Hebrew. So the one that is mentioned in verse 7 of the reading is the word is that, which is knowledge, which is kind of like a relational uh experiential knowing. But if we flip over to like the reference that I mentioned yesterday, Proverbs 9:10, Psalms 111, verse 10, or Job 28, 28, that one is the word is chokma, which is wisdom, which is the same skill word used in verse 2. So the scripture is kind of like putting in between brackets or in between parentheses the whole thing. The right knowing and and the skill living both start at the same doorway. We get the fear of the Lord wrong, and both your head and your hands, because it's knowing and doing, both will go wrong. So, like like I said yesterday, it's like mathematician having the whole step in the operation correct, but he started with two plus two equals five. It doesn't matter the flow, the downstream flow, because it could look brilliant on the operation, but the result is catastrophic.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Right. It's not just knowing, but applying, and to apply, we have to have the right foundation, exactly like you said, and we were talking before we jumped on. It reminded me a book I'd read a long time ago that was recommended to me. A guy named Dale Carnegie wrote how to win friends and influence people, which is a great book. It's kind of based on the golden rule that Jesus told us of you know, treat your neighbor, love others as you want to be treated. But the problem I always find is if your heart is not right, if you're just trying to manipulate people, you're just trying to get

Defining The Fear Of The Lord

SPEAKER_01 10:55

personal gain, it's a book that just teaches you just that manipulation, and you're gonna be fake, you're not gonna be genuine. So I think exactly like you say, I love that that the foundation, the fear of the Lord is the beginning. You know, you can't even start apart from that, and then yeah, delineating knowledge and wisdom, it's not just facts, but how what do we do with this? You know, how do we actually live in a posture towards God? So that's really good.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah. Another interesting detail about these words, the the combination uh used here and there is that it the one that is translated, knowledge, which is that is the a-a-t, comes from the verb yada, which is to know. Now, in Hebrew, that is never just collecting that, it's the same word actually used uh in the Bible when it says that Adam knew his wife. So is again is that relational experiential acquaintance? It's like uh when Hosea says my in the T chapter 4, verse 6, it says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. But Israel didn't lack information, they had priests, they have scrolls up every corner. Is it's just that they lack the acquaintance with their God. That relationship was uh broken, and and that's where where the where the word is is used. So knowledge is kind of like grasping what's true and being personally engaged with it. Now the wisdom that Shachmach is the skill to live it out. If if you try to find a simple way to say it, is like knowledge is knowing what is true, and wisdom is knowing what to do with it. It's like there's a funny illustration that I was gonna use in my sermon, is the the old preacher sermon version, that the knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is not putting it in the fruit salad. At least if you if you're gonna make a fruit salad with a tomato, don't invite me, please.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Because the the taste is gonna is not gonna be the same. But that's what it is. You know that a tomato is a fruit, but you're not gonna put it in a fruit salad. You you put it in a regular salad with other, I don't know, lettuce and and onions and I don't know what else. But but yeah, that's how kind of like the difference between the the the two are in the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah, and I think that's a good point too, because some of the proverbs will almost, as we read through them, occasionally almost seem to be in conflict, but they're really not. They're telling us different situations, how to apply the wisdom, you know, gentle answers, turning away wrath, you know, and sometimes it's even, you know, address a fool according to his folly, or don't address a fool according to his folly. We got to know when to confront and when to try to correct, and and so it gives us a lot of direction, you know, as you say. And so it's it's not less than knowledge and facts, but it's much more than that as we we apply it. So that's yeah, I'll now remember in fruit salads, yeah. To uh you know every time I make a fruit salad.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Yeah. There is another interesting thing is that the scripture actually stacked these two words on purpose, like in Proverbs 2, 6, that we're actually gonna see it on the this coming Sunday, it says that the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. So it's kind of like stacking the two words, the the that and the shokmach.

Knowledge Vs Wisdom In Hebrew

SPEAKER_00 14:40

And if we go back, for example, in Exodus 31, verse 3, Bessalel, it it talks about a three-piece toolkit, quote unquote. And it's using Shochmach, the skill, tevunach, which is the understanding, is seeing how things connect to each other. And then it mentioned that the knowledge, which is the grasp of the facts and the material. So facts, meaning, and actions, all three are the craftsmen will need the three, and God is the source of all three. Now, here's the structural detail I love. Like chapter one through chapter nine of Proverbs are kind of like a long uh front porch. I may I said at the beginning of the sermon that it was the front porch for the book, but that's that was kind of like the short version per se. Because the book, the motto of the book, it opens up in chapter one, verse seven, saying the beginning of knowledge. Now, in chapter nine, verse ten, it closes, is the beginning of wisdom. So, and and that's not exactly a sloppiness, it's it's that that's a framing. The fear of the Lord stands at the entrance and at the exit of the whole enterprise. You can't even know rightly without it, and you can certainly cannot live skillfully without it. Now, why does it matter? Well, because the Bible knows these things can exist detach from the fear of the Lord, and it shows us what they can turn into. Uh, before we actually started, we were meant we were talking about this like First Corinthians chapter 8, verse 1. The knowledge pops off. So here is where you have to be careful with with though those two. You can have the knowledge, but uh you have to be careful that it's not gonna use gonna be used to just boast that you was gonna you you're gonna use it wisely. There is even a man in 2 Samuel chapter uh 13, the text calls very wise, which is John Adab, who uses skill to engineer something wicked, which was to rape a lady, and then James 3 warn warns us of a counterfeit wisdom that is earthly and spiritual and demonic. So if you detach the tools from the fear of God, the knowledge becomes pride and skill becomes manipulation, which is what we were talking about before we even started.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Yeah, I think a really important thing doing a study on the book of Proverbs, a while too, it's important to understand these are wisdom, is not necessarily how we say like promises per se. Like you're going to put God in your debt. Like, well, if I do everything Proverbs says, that guarantees success, right? We see throughout the book we make plans, but God establishes steps, one of my favorite proverbs. So exactly like you say, and point reinforcing if you're using it for the wrong reasons or puffing yourself up, that you Proverbs also tell us pride is a big, yeah, big deal. So if you're allowing that knowledge, it can easily lead in that. And and of course, Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books of the Bible, written by Solomon, not exactly Proverbs, but contains a lot of wisdom.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

A lot of wisdom, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

If you're just pursuing knowledge for knowledge and thinking that's where you're gonna find your meaning apart from God, you're gonna be pretty sorely disappointed, right? Yeah, so good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

Yeah, and another layer that I wanted to add to the verse seven is that there is a verse at like at Mount Sinai that sounds like a contradicting. The other thing that you were mentioning, it looks like a contradiction, and a lot of the proverbs are like that. Like you are like, wait a minute, what what exactly is this saying? Exodus chapter 20, verse 20, it says that the mountain is smoking and the people are trembling. And Moses says, Do not fear, for God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. Did you catch that? Do not fear so that you may fear. So it's like, wait a minute, do I fear or not? But Moses

When Knowledge Becomes Pride

SPEAKER_00 19:10

is distinguishing the the two different fears that that we need to keep in mind. There is a fear that runs from God, and that's the one he Moses was he kept telling the uh his people to wrap it. Now there is a fear that anchors you to God, and that was the one that Moses was trying to build. And you can see it in different places in the Bible. You see the same thing in in the boat in Mark chapter four, when Jesus stills the storm, and the text says the disciples feared exceedingly. But it was because, as I mentioned it yesterday, they were more afraid after the danger was over because they realized who was in the boat with them. So they were more afraid of Jesus, but afraid in the in the in the sense that this fear of reverent awe than of the storm itself. That says a lot of the kind of fear that you that you have to feel for the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Much more akin to a respect rather than a terror or and like you say, really something that should move us towards God, you know, a fear of who we are and who he is. So really creates trust when we're fearing and knowing God, exactly like you're pointing out.

unknown 20:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

And then the last layer that I wanted to add to this uh verse seven is so an old pastor named Charles Bridges back in the 1840s, he gave the definition. I kind of like keep coming back to that. He called the fear of the Lord, and these are his words, that affect that affectionate reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his father's law. Affectionate reverence. Both words matter here. Reverence without affection is a slave cringing, like you were mentioning. And affection without reverence is just a body movie. So the fear of the Lord is a child who adores a father that he takes absolutely seriously, and that's who we are called to be.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

That's exactly right. Yep. Slave versus a son, right? Like I think it was a good sermon I heard not too long ago. If you're a son, if you truly have God as your father, then it's a much more healthy respect and relationship versus if you're still a slave to sin and you haven't experienced the freedom of Christ, then you're viewing God as just this angry judge to smite you, and it's a completely different type of fear. You know, I know you have kids, and it's like they probably hey, if they knew that. were doing wrong, but they knew if you were dis you were disciplining, it was because you cared. You weren't just punishing them to punish. So I think that really defines the relationship well, you know, exactly like you laid out there.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

And there there is one thing that we have to keep in mind here is what should this fear actually do in a person? And and Proverbs answer all through the book. Like for example, Proverbs 8 verse 13 says the fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Not just avoidance of evil, it's hatred of it. So when God gets big in you in your eyes, seeing gets ugly in your eyes. So you you kind of like stop flirting with what he died to kill. And here's the surprising part that this fear is the only fear that shrink the others. Proverbs

Fear That Runs Or Anchors

SPEAKER_00 22:55

2925 says the fear of a man lays as an air. The need for approval, the terror of what people think that's just a trap. But the person who fears God is strangely hard to intimidate. If we go back for example to the example of Joseph just imagine Joseph alone at Potifar's house with every reason to give in and because no one was watching and what he said what how can I do this great weakness and sin against God and so one fear made him immune to the pressure that he was feeling at that moment. And and he could just give in and do it no one is watching that's what we think no one is watching. God was watching it. So the fear of the Lord that he was feeling was that prevent him from doing it because it like you said is that reverend awe that respect of your heavenly father.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Which moves a desire then to follow in wisdom to live that way. And Jesus points out regularly there's nothing you're going to do in the dark that's not going to be made known. So how we do those kind of things and bringing that more into our life when we have that fear of the Lord that's what's going to move us exactly like you say to make good decisions to live our life with a desire not just the fear but that fear moves to understanding the relationship and seeing that hey when we do live as God showed us it's because he cares about us. He didn't tell us just so we wouldn't have quote unquote fun and all these things which we know sin ultimately as Proverbs will tell us leads to so much brokenness. So it continues to propel us in that that direction.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yeah and we definitely need to when we read this because of the language for us fear is a different thing but we have to erase that idea from our minds we we can't let anybody tell us that the fear is the enemy of joy or closeness. Like for example Acts 9 verse 31 describes the early church walking it it says in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit same sentence same church same moment the fear and comfort side by side or for example Isaiah 336 that calls the fear of the Lord a science treasure a treasure not a tax or Proverbs 1427 that calls it a fountain of life and my favorite of all the reference that I had unfortunately I didn't have time to go through all of that but isal 25 verse 14 the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him and you have to sit with that one fear him and befriend him the world says fear and French can't live in the same house that's the idea that we get now the Bible says the door for one is the door to the other and we have to definitely erase that idea when we read in the Bible the fear of the Lord that we are like immediately have to be in terror and it's not that it's just that we respect that we have that reverent awe to our heavenly father just because he loves us the way that he does it has to be a multi-dimensional God is not flat.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

You know God is not this one dimensional aspect he is you know our king but our you know savior our friend our father there's so much depth to the relationship

Growing Awe And The 31-Day Challenge

SPEAKER_01 26:45

with God and yeah we can fall into a trap like you say if we try to flatten it and make it too one dimensional.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Yeah. And and one final thought that I I like to add is kind of like a practical question. How do you grow this fear if you don't feel it because you can manufacture all by simply squinting harder. You know if only that were that easy right yeah and script the scripture's answer is simple. Oh that awe grows by looking look at his works like Psalm 33 says let all the earth fear the Lord for he spoke and it came to be or look at his words slowly instead of scheming it. Like Isaiah 66 says that God looks to the one who trembles at my work. Or look at his judgment and his mercy in your own story. The fear of the Lord isn't worked up or it's soaked in. And that's honestly half of the reason for the 31 day challenge that I that I encourage people that you can just sit in this book a chapter a day for a month and keep a small view of God. There is deeper information deeper knowledge I know that reading it will help everyone because that way well at least they will have a glance of what is in the book of Proverbs we're going to go in with some of the uh sermons on a few Sundays through this but I feel that the Proverbs the book of Proverbs requires more time to actually study it and understand what each proverb is telling us.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

Yeah I think I'd love and to encourage everybody take that 31 day there's 31 chapters 31 days in a month you can do the whole book one chapter at a time exactly like you said as you go through it one chapter at a time it'll really reinforce because there's so many consistent themes. So like whatever's going on in your life it addresses relationships wealth sexuality speech anger lust all of those things Proverbs is going to have something for you you know wherever you're at in those areas so yeah definitely encourage everybody take that challenge get in the book of Proverbs it's going to help you you know especially when you go into it with that fear I think you'll also develop the fear and exactly like you say that comes from sitting with God's word and just recognizing the power of that wisdom.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

So yeah and just a final reminder every every time that you read that one chapter don't forget to ask yourself Lord where are you adjusting my grip today through this chapter? And I'm pretty sure that everyone will learn a lot if they follow the challenge to to read Proverbs during this month.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

So let me put you on the spot what's Oscar's favorite proverb? Do you have a go-to one that you really like?

SPEAKER_00 29:49

I'm actually taking the challenge myself so I I really would like to start reading it and and like I said not just reading it but just for information but really get the knowledge out of it.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

There's so many good ones it's hard to choose. For me it's always I think I really like 169 which reminds us that we are to make plans you know the plans in our heart but then God establishes our steps. Yes. So God encourages us think, look ahead you know be wise but then trust the Lord in the direction you're going to go. So I always think so many people are wrestling with God's will and what direction to go I always think that one's valuable but we could spend hours going deep into a lot of them I know we will too many there are too many that aren't really really good ones yeah and a humorous one I'll hit you with this depending on your translation it says only the wicked run when nobody's chasing them. That's why Nate doesn't run Nate just walks yeah not that it actually means that but uh well Oscar thanks so much for taking some time appreciate the OT. Some really good thoughts so Lifehouse family we always pray just to give you more to get you go deeper giving you some more on the Hebrew here understanding fear we're just again praying that the sermon series in Proverbs impacts you in a positive way and helps you grow deeper with the Lord. So Oscar thanks again for taking taking some OT with us and we will look forward to seeing everybody here next time. Thank you for having me and goodbye everyone thanks for tuning in to the Life Talk podcast. If this episode encouraged you please be sure to like comment subscribe and leave a review so others can find this content as well and we'll look forward to seeing you next Monday for another great episode