AND HOW DOES IT RELATE TO WISDOM AND THE TRINITY?

As I was recently studying the book of Proverbs in the process of trying to better understand what God means by the word “wisdom,” I noticed several things. God often used the words wisdom in concert with the words or phrases knowledge, understanding, counsel, might and fear of the Lord. When I did a detailed study of Revelation several years ago I noted in Rev 1:4-5 that the book was said to be from three personages in heaven, (1) God the Father, the eternal one, (2) God the Holy Spirit, here referred to as the seven spirits before the throne, and (3) Jesus Christ, described here as the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. The puzzling thing about this description was the reference to the Holy Spirit as the seven spirits before the throne. Then in Rev 4 we see John taken up to heaven in spirit. He sees inside the throne room of God. The seven spirits are standing before the throne and Jesus is standing in the middle of the throne. What is the reason for referring to the Spirit as the seven spirits? Some have suggested that Isa 11:1-3 may hold the answer to this. It reads:

Isa 11:1-3 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of WISDOM and of UNDERSTANDING, the Spirit of COUNSEL and of MIGHT, the Spirit of KNOWLEDGE and of the FEAR OF THE LORD— 3 and he will DELIGHT in the fear of the Lord.

The Spirit of the Lord is here referred to as the Spirit’s of (1) the Lord (2) wisdom, (3) understanding, (4) counsel, (5) might, (6) knowledge and (7) the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is emphasized in the next verse when it says that Jesus “delights” in the fear of the Lord. In context, both this passage in Isaiah and the passages in Revelation being noted are taking place in the tribulation period and the millennium. The Hebrew word translated here as delight can mean to accept, perceive or delight in. In the context of Isa 11 this is about Jesus being judge during the millennium. He accepts and delights in his role as King of kings and judge of all people of earth during the millennium. Generally speaking, humans fear judges because they can have great control over their futures in certain situations. The Hebrew word fear used here can mean any of the following depending on context; fear, respect or reverence. The Bible tells us that we are to love God and the specific word love in context means to value and esteem above all others. Those who love and follow Jesus must value, esteem, respect and revere him, while those who do not love and believe in him should have great fear of him for the consequence of their decisions.

In Isa 11:1-2 there are four prepositional phrases, each with a preposition followed by a noun or nouns (objects).

We will list them.

(1) of the Lord

(2) of wisdom & understanding (and discernment)

(3) of counsel (knowing God’s purpose for us and following his instructions) & might (performing mighty deeds)

(4) of knowledge (of God from hearing & reading about him) & fear of the Lord (having respect & reverence for God, or fear of God for those who do not know Jesus).

Notice that there are seven nouns or objects listed. The first prepositional phrase has one object and the other three have two each. Is there a reason for this grouping? There must be so let us explore it. The first phrase has only one object, the Lord. The reason is likely because this is the Lord Jesus Christ. I reach this conclusion from comparing Isa 9:6 and Isa 28:29 with the many other scriptures using the words in Isa 11:1-3 describing the channels that the Holy Spirit uses to reach men on earth. It is then likely that God wants to link the two objects in each of the other three phrases together. Thus we can see that God is telling us that the three pairs are linked in some way. Wisdom and understanding are linked, counsel and might are linked, and knowledge and fear of the Lord are linked. I next pulled together a collection of all of the scriptures that contain these words and phrases in multiples. This was a collection of about fifty passages.

I grouped and analyzed these scriptures and put the results in two tables, which are attached. The first table contains lists of the things which I determined the Holy Spirit may commute to believers through each of the six channels. My assumption is that the first channel is the channel by which the Spirit himself enters the believer while the other six are the channels that he uses to interact with and influence the believer. I draw this conclusion from an analysis of the symbology in Ezek 3:8-4:4 presented below along with the description of the seven spirits of God described in Isa 11:1-3. I grouped the table in the three pairs of two objects presented above. I discovered several very interesting insights from the table including the following:

The fear of the Lord is the key to the way in which the Spirit imparts the other five Godly attributes to believers. From the Hebrew we might interpret fear of the Lord to be respect and reverence for God as far as believers are concerned. This tracks closely with the meaning of the word love used in those verses in which we are told to love God; we are to value and esteem him above everything else. As far as unbelievers are concerned the term does indeed imply fear. God is the very one whom they should fear as seen from analysis of the table. Understanding these distinctions helps understand why Isa 11:3 says Jesus will delight in the fear of the Lord.

In Prov 8:10-12 wisdom is said to possess the other four attributes not including fear of the Lord. That makes wisdom seem to be the most important attribute outside of fear of the Lord. Jesus is said to be the wisdom of God.

Knowledge is likely paired with fear of the Lord since fear of the Lord is said to be the key to knowledge. See Isa 33:5-6 and Prov 1:7.

Understanding is likely paired with wisdom since it is said to spring from wisdom, which in turn springs from fear of the Lord. See Ps 111:10 and Prov 9:10-12.

The last two attributes, God’s might and God’s counsel, may be linked because his counsel is largely for believers, those who listen to him, while God’s might is largely expressed through judgment, wrath, suffering, etc. associated with those who do not believe in Jesus. These are two very different ways in which God expresses his counsel.

6. You can find many other insights as you go over the table.

The second table is similar to the first but it contains my assessment of the fruits of the Spirit which are associated with each of the attributes or channels used by the Spirit.

So we see why these words are so often linked together in Proverbs and other places in the Bible. They are all associated with the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity. A few of the scriptures that associate these words together are presented at the end of this paper. You might note another scripture, Prov 8:6-14, which is included in that list of scriptures also relates all seven of the characteristics that we have been describing. This passage also includes “truth” which will be associated with wisdom in a later section of this study.

Again, why are these descriptors used for the Holy Spirit. This seems to be described in Zech 3:8-4:4. It seems that the Holy Spirit has seven channels that he uses to communicate the word and will of God to those who become believers in Jesus. We will next look at how this seems to work.

SCRIPTURES RELATING TO FEAR OF THE LORD
AND HOW IT RELATES TO WISDOM AND THE TRINITY

SCRIPTURES RELATING FEAR OF THE LORD TO WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE & UNDERSTANDING, COUNSEL & MIGHT

Isa 11:1-3, Prov 8:6-14, Job 28:27-28, Prov 1:7, Prov 9:10-12, Prov 2:1-6, Prov 15:31-33,

Prov 19:20-23, Isa 33:5-6 , Psalms 19:9, Psalms 33:17-19, Prov 15:16-17, Prov 16:6, 

Prov 22:4-6, Prov 23:17-18, Deut 6:24, Joshua 4:23-24

FEAR OF THE LORD ADDS LENGTH TO YOUR LIFE

Prov 10:27-32, Psalms 34:11-14, Deut 6:1-3 

FEAR OF THE LORD BRINGS A SHIELD

2 Chr 19:8-10, Psalms 115:11, Prov 14:26-27

DANGERS TO THOSE WHO DO NOT FEAR THE LORD

2 Chr 19:8-10, Mal 3:5, Exod 14:31, Deut 6:13, Deut 9:18-19, Isa 59:19, 2 Cor 5:10-11

SCRIPTURES RELATING TO COUNSEL

Job 12:12-13, Prov 8:12-14, Isa 28:29, Rev 3:18 , Gal 5:22-25, 1 Kings 22:5-6,

2 Chr 25:16, Ezra 10:3, Job 21:16, Job 38:2, Ps 73:24, Ps 107:11, Prov 22:20-