Fear God.

The wisest human (other than our Savior) was Solomon.  You know the history of Solomon's wisdom, right?  Let me recap it.

Solomon was made king …

1Ki 3:3  And Solomon loved the LORD..

1Ki 3:5  In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. 

1Ki 3:6  And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 

1Ki 3:7  And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. 

1Ki 3:8  And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. 

1Ki 3:9  Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? 

1Ki 3:10  And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. 

1Ki 3:11  And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; 

1Ki 3:12  Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. 

1Ki 3:13  And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. 

1Ki 3:14  And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days. 

1Ki 3:15  And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants. 

Solomon wanted to be a good king, like his father, David. Solomon wanted to serve God and others before Himself. The Lord told Solomon IF he would walk in God's ways and keep God's statutes and commandments - as David did, then God would lengthen his days- something Solomon didn't ask for.

The wisest of the wise said this--

Ecc 12:9  And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs. 

Ecc 12:10  The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. 

Ecc 12:11  The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. 

Ecc 12:12  And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 

Solomon spoke of himself, knowing he was wise and he taught others from his knowledge. He wrote down a lot of these words of wisdom, and still no matter how much he wrote there would always be more to write, more wisdom to share and yet… the unending flow of words made Him weary. Around and around He went dispensing words of wisdom right and left, up and down, in and out and ultimately they boiled down to this…

Ecc 12:13  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 

Fear God.

Keep God's Commandments.

Whether we belong to the wisdom club, or the lack of wisdom club, or perhaps fall somewhere in a club in between the two- we are to FEAR GOD and KEEP GOD'S COMMANDMENTS- this is the WHOLE duty of humankind.

Now some might start to instantly spout that fearing God is reverencing Him, not being terrified of Him, however shouldn't we be a bit terrified of God? Tell me that I shouldn't be in awe- reverencing and in awe- scared, as well as in awe with love of God- HE is all powerful, all knowing, all consuming, all in glory, power, and honor, HE is everything!

Oddly enough a memory of a movie most of us have watched comes to mind. The Wizard of Oz. The scene in the movie is the one where Dorothy and the misfits with her are walking in the emerald city towards the great and powerful wizard of oz and the wizard is bellowing out loudly in his commanding voice, while appearing as this great mystical being hovering before them.  The FEAR was enough to send a coward running, the others were shaking in their shoes, and rightly so. The show the con-man was putting on was quite impressive and meant to instill fear because out of that fear he gained respect and reverence.

God is no wizard, in fact, God condemns wizards and wizardry. God is so much more than any sort of wizard. God is more than any human being that ever existed and still exists and yet people put fear into each other all the time. We give the power of life and death to judges and juries (people). We give authority to a lot of figures, authority we are then expected to respect. A lot of those in authority like to instill fear into others because it makes them feel powerful.

How can we read these words-

Heb_12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.

-without a bit of fear?

Fear God, comprehend this--

Ecc 12:14  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. 

God is so powerful that EVERY single thing we do is brought into judgment, every SECRET we've ever kept from anyone- good or bad- will be known and judged.

Isn't this truly something to fear?  It would be terrifying, and completely life shattering to us if we are judged based on our own self-serving actions alone. Our acts will be judged, all of them, every secret known and it will be only because we fear God and keep His commandments - that gives us hope. You may be shaking your head a bit violently right now, saying Christ alone gives us hope, and you know what, you are RIGHT. And Christ is the epitome of fearing God and keeping His commandments. Christ did this perfectly! Christ taught that we too can do this perfectly through Him, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ held His Father in such awe and wonder, and Christ also pleaded with His Father to take the cup from Him so He wouldn't have to go through the awful suffering He knew was to come. Christ felt the fear of what was to come and He didn't let that fear turn into the sin of distrust, but rather He allowed it to guide Him to an even stronger resolve in the love of His Father.

Comprehending the magnitude of our God is worthy of a healthy fear, the fear that we experience and allows us to bow down at the feet of the One who holds our lives in His hands. Awe, wonder, trembling, frightened all the while secure in the love of God.

Most children (I cannot say all) know what it means to fear their parents, and yet know their love at the same time. How many times have I as a parent been harsh and tried to instill fear in order to teach my children to protect themselves from things like cars in the road, deadly scorpions, cliffs, electrical sockets and so on. I did it out of love for them. God is an exacting God, a consuming fire, He will give out judgement and we need to know and comprehend this so we may belong to Him. We would be His. We want Him to know us, and be known by Him as being His. We comprehend He is the Creator, the Savior, the One without beginning and without end. He is all in all. He deserves our reverence, our fear, our love.

Ecc 12:13  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 

Our WHOLE duty is to Fear God and Keep His Commandments.

Joh 6:28  Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 

Joh 6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. 

Jesus said-

Mat_5:19  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Mat_19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of God.