A Wise And Understanding People

Deuteronomy 4:3-6 – You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today. See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

Numbers 25:1-2 – While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods.

1 Kings 2:2-4 – “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 – This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

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

2 Timothy 3:14-15 – But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Job 1:1 – In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

Job 28:28 – And he said to the human race, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”

Psalm 111:10 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.

Proverbs 2:1-5 – My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 – Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.

Ezekiel 5:5 – “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

Application:

• ·         Israel’s engagement in the fertility rites of Baal involved not only the evil of sexual immorality. It was also a breach of covenant with the Lord, a worship of the gods of the land and a foretaste of the people’s ruin in the unfolding of their history.
• ·         Walk in obedience to him was a characteristic expression of Deuteronomy for obedience to covenant obligations.
• ·         When Israel chose the Lord, they chose life.
• ·         Fear of the Lord is a loving reverence for God that includes submission to His lordship and to the commands of His word. “Fools” are those who “hate knowledge” and correction of any kind, who are “quick to quarrel” and “give full vent” to their anger, who are complacent and who trust in themselves rather than in God.
• ·         Timothy was taught at home by his mother and grandmother even before he reached the age of five.
• ·         Blameless and upright meant spiritually and morally upright.
• ·         “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”.
• ·         The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom is the classic Old Testament statement concerning the religious basis of what it means to be wise.
• ·         Knowledge of God involves having a personal relationship with God and knowing what He is teaching.
• ·         Loving reverence is the foundation of wisdom, as well as its content and its goal and conclusion.
• ·         God had chosen for His people Israel and for His earthly temple a place at the crossroads of the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe so that Israel and what He does for them might be a strong witness to the nations that He is the one and only God with whom all peoples have to do and from whom alone come life and blessing.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV