The beginning of wisdom

To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
A wise man will hear, and will increase learning;

(In case you didn’t recognize it, that’s Proverbs chapter one verses two to five.)
I won’t even begin to enumerate the things which can be expounded upon in the Book of Proverbs, but there’s one very general point about this treatise by Solomon: Throughout and within it there are two types of attitudes, two types of character that are polarized – the wise man and the foolish man.
I was once told that ‘Proverbs tells all about what the wise man does, and what the foolish man does, but it never tells how to become a wise man, or how a fool becomes foolish.’
But Proverbs certainly does tell that. In great detail in fact. But it tells it in a very specific way.

Proverbs 9:7 He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.
8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

There’s enough in that little snippet to start with. The paradigm through which Proverbs is written is well summarized there.
Rebuke a scorner, and he’ll hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you.
Those verses made a significant impression upon me during my early teens. How do I react when I’m reproved? Rebuked? Instructed and taught?

Well, I found out I was a fool at heart. A scorner by nature.

But I wanted to be wise. In fact, people already thought I was smart, but a smart fool doesn’t do much good, I wanted to be wise. I mean, after all, ‘the lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.’ (Pro 10:21)

And that’s when I began to understand this verse in its real life, genuine application:
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

Because the fear of the Lord taught me how to respond to reproof, how to learn from instruction, even when I was right.

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
5Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. the righteous.
6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

The beginning of wisdom. And in case you didn’t know, we’ll never arrive at the end of wisdom.