Devotion 14 - Key to Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding & Foundation

Isa.33:5-6 - “Though the Lord is very great and lives in heaven, He will make Jerusalem His home of justice and righteousness. In that day, He will be your sure foundation, providing a rich store of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.”

The fear of the Lord is the foundation of our lives and the key to the treasures of wisdom, knowledge and salvation. Without the fear of the Lord our life is built on sinking sand.

The Fear of the Lord opens the way to knowing God

Prov.1:7 – “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of the knowledge of God, the starting point for an intimate relationship with God. We cannot even begin to know God on intimate terms until we learn to fear Him. 

Psa.25:14 – “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him.” 

Our greatest call on this earth is for us to grow to know him more and more as all our works and life is the outflow of that relationship.

Jn.15:5 - “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing”.

Thus, ignorance is not bliss when it comes to things relating to our spirit life, and moreover, we don’t want to be fools either, as it says, “fools despise wisdom and instruction”.

However, this knowledge is not referring to accumulation of information or learned knowledge but rather knowledge gained by experience. This is the kind of knowledge that made Paul willing to “put behind all” and to “give up all in order to attain”.

Phil.3:10 – “I count everything as loss compared to the priceless privilege and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord [and of growing more deeply and thoroughly acquainted with Him—a joy unequalled]. For His sake I have lost everything, and I consider it all garbage, so that I may gain Christ, so that I may know Him [experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His Person more completely] and [in that same way experience] the power of His resurrection…” (AMP)

Hypocrisy takes away the key to knowledge

Lk.11:52 - “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”

Without the spirit of the fear of the Lord, like the Pharisees, we can only know about God through the Scriptures, but we do not really know God who wrote the Scripture. And without an intimate knowledge of God, we can only serve and worship the image of God we erected for ourselves, we do not see His majesty.

If the fear of the Lord is the key to knowledge & understanding, then the lack of it can cause our spiritual eyes to be darkened or veiled, and this veil can be thickened to the point of total blindness.

Rom.1:20-32 – “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,  backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,  undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;  who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

From this scripture, we learn that the Israelites:

• suppressed the truth (denied the creation of God and turn to worship the creature (vs.20-23)
• God gave them up to do what their hearts desire (vs.24-25)
• God gave them up to their evil passion to commit homosexual sin (vs.26-27)
• God gave them up to a debased mind to do all kinds of wickedness (vs.28-32)

They had started off not wanting to see, and they ended up not able to see.

Isa.29:9-10 - “Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with intoxicating drink. For the Lord has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and closed your eyes, namely the prophets; and He has covered your heads, namely, the seers.”