Avizandum. In Scots law, this term describes the careful consideration given by the judge before an important decision. Join me each week as we explore various topics from a spiritual perspective and take matters avizandum. Every Scottish clan has a crest with a clan motto. My clan, the Munro clan, has the motto "Dread God." To our ears, that sounds rather dreadful, doesn't it?
But the meaning and connotation of words change throughout time. Here is a case in point. Today, we would not say dread God, but rather hold God in awe, or God is awesome, or fear God. Our primary relationship with God, who is our heavenly Father, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, is not one of dread in the sense of being frightened or scared. Think rather of fearing God.
Do you fear the Lord? Don't answer too quickly. Listen to some of the biblical teaching on the fear of the Lord. Proverbs one verse seven: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
In chapter two of Proverbs, the young man is instructed to seek wisdom like silver and search for it as for a hidden treasure. Then you will understand, says Solomon, the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs nine verse ten: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the knowledge of the Holy One is in sight. The path of wisdom is found in fearing the Lord.
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. Proverbs says, "There is the fool, there is the scorner, there is the wise man." In Proverbs. Again, Proverbs seventeen verses twenty seven and twenty eight, whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise. When he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
One of the characteristics of the wise person. Is that he listens to instruction and so learns. The fool doesn't want to listen; he would rather talk all the time. His path is destruction.
So wisdom begins with a relationship with God. The fool goes on his own path, lives his own way, does not listen to instruction, but his life is hollow, unfruitful, self-destructive. Are you wise, or are you a fool? Do you listen to wisdom, or do you turn from it? Proverbs begins with the fear of the Lord, in chapter one, verse seven, and it ends with the fear of the Lord, in Proverbs thirty-one, verse thirty.
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. The wise man realizes that outward beauty fades. The woman who uses her charm is deceitful.
However, the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. And if you're a man, you want a wife like that. In Romans chapter three, when Paul is describing unbelievers to support his case that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He speaks of those who have no fear of God before their eyes. That's where we are today, isn't it?
My mother was raised in a small fishing village in the northeast of Scotland. She was born in 1925, and she explained that when she was a child, even unbelievers in the village understood something of the fear of the Lord. They were taught Scripture in school. They listened to prayers. They may have been taken to the Kirk, the Church of Scotland.
They had respect for believers, even though they themselves did not walk in the paths of righteousness.
Now we're in a society which has no fear of God. Sadly, even in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, there appears to be little fear of the Lord. It's all about us. It's about having fun, turning the church into a concert arena where the name of God is used as a kind of prop to help us through life and make us healthy, prosperous, but certainly not wise. Proverb three, verses five through seven: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him. And he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
So, one of the characteristics of those who fear the Lord is that they turn from evil. They trust not in themselves, but in the Lord.
So, Proverbs encourages us to seek wisdom, and says the beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom. That's chapter four, verse seven. When Israel is about to go into the promised land, Moses reminds them that God commanded them to teach that you may keep the commandments in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son. By keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long, hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them.
So this path of wisdom, the path of living in the fear of the Lord, means we turn from evil and we obey the commandments of the Lord. If you disregard God, If you do not live in the fear of the Lord, if you do not turn from evil, you're a fool. People may applaud you; you may have a good time, but your folly will have disastrous consequences. But what is this wisdom which comes from the fear of the Lord? Let me try to explain it this way.
When the Lord instructed Moses to build the tabernacle, One of the men called by God to build the tabernacle was a man called Bezaleel. Exodus thirty-one verse three, and I have filled him, that's Bezaleel, with the spirit of God and wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship. I'm quoting from the King James version. The English Standard Version reads, "And I filled them with the spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge in all craftsmanship." But I prefer the King James Version, as the word wisdom is used in Exodus thirty-one, verse three. The ESV translates it as ability, but it is the Hebrew word chokmah.
I looked at the Greek translation of the passage in Exodus thirty-one, and for the word wisdom in Hebrew, the Septuagint gives the Greek word sophia, wisdom.
So this man Bezaleel is filled with wisdom. He is knowledgeable, talented, well prepared, skilled, and he takes his knowledge, his wisdom, to skillfully build the tabernacle.
So. We can say that wisdom in the Word of God is skilful living. To live skilfully in the world, there's a lot of knowledge, particularly now with artificial intelligence. But social media and AI cannot give you spiritual wisdom. Cannot give you skill in living.
The fool constantly makes mistakes. His life is a mess. He has not lived with skill. He doesn't handle his money, his relationships, his decisions with skill. All of us need this wisdom as we navigate life.
Understand that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
So pursue wisdom. How is your relationship with God? Do you think of Him as your buddy? Or do you understand that He is the great eternal Creator of the heavens and the earth? He's the Lord God, the Holy One.
He made you, and you're accountable to Him. Therefore, fear Him. Turn from evil. Listen to Him. Obey His commandments.
Walk in His ways. Fear God, and you'll be wise. Abizenda. You're listening to the weekly Avizandum podcast from The Verdict, featuring Pastor John Monroe. John is senior pastor at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Listen to John's daily program, The Verdict, on broadcast radio or major podcast platforms. For more information about The Verdict Ministry, visit us online at CalvaryChurch.com/slash/TheVerdict.
