The Great Judge

Reading for Today: Proverb Chapter 9

Gold Nugget

Verse 10: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

Commentary

Many people have great confusion concerning “The Fear of the Lord”. The Hebrew word used in today’s “gold nugget” is hary Yir'ah (yir-aw'). This can be interpreted several ways depending on the context. The context used here is defined as: “Fear of God, respect, reverence, piety”. Of all of the elements and foundational truths that we must understand and accept about God, this one stresses the importance of His absolute power and authority. Why is this important? Imagine you are in a courtroom under a trial by judge. The most important person to you is the one that holds your fate in his hands. He can sentence you, pardon you or maybe even determine someone owes you compensation. Greatest of all is the freedom he can offer you. God is The Great Judge. It is potentially appropriate for you to be fearful in the “frightened” sense, but only if you are guilty. The truth is we are all guilty. We should be frightened except that He has offered us all a pardon.

With such a freely offered pardon, some have lost the reverence for the power and authority that He has over us. So much so that many assume they have been pardoned when they haven’t. The pardon has been offered to everyone, but they must plead guilty and submit themselves into the custody of their new Power of Attorney. Our Power of Attorney is Jesus Christ. He is the one that takes authority over us and guarantees our freedom if we submit to Him. Reverence is being in awe of the one that could have condemned you, but chose to pardon you. Don’t mistake His loving kindness for weakness. He is still the Great Judge.

Prayer

Lord, help me to remember that I am who I am because of your mercy and grace. I don’t want to abuse your kindness, but rather submit myself to my Power of Attorney, Jesus. Amen

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