Daniel, while yet a mere youth, was "skillful in all wisdom." This was the leading part of his education. He was educated in a school of the prophets. Wisdom, then, was one of the principal studies in the schools of the prophets; that is, in the Lord's schools.
What is wisdom? whence comes it? how is it attained? and what relation does it bear to education in general? "Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? ... Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. God understands the way thereof, and He knows the place thereof. ... When He made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: Then did He see it, and declare it; He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. And unto man He said, Behold! the fear of the Lord, That Is Wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." (Job 28:12,21-23,26-28)
It is certain, then, that the fear of the Lord was an essential part of the education in the schools of the prophets. This, in itself, required that the revelation which God had given of himself should be studied, that they might truly know the true God and His attributes. For they could not fear--reverence--Him unless they knew Him.
And in studying the revelation which the Lord had given, this, of itself, was the study of the sacred writings,--the books of Moses and the writings of the other prophets. As "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge," (Proverbs 1:7) it is certain that wisdom was the leading subject of study in the schools of the prophets. It preceded every other study. More than this, it not only preceded every other study; but it was the leading element, the guiding principle, in every other study. And as the knowledge of God is essential to the fear of God, and the certain knowledge of God is attained only by the revelation that He has given of himself and of His attributes, it is certain that the Holy Scriptures were the essential basis of all studies, the guide in every course of investigation, and the ultimate test of every inquiry.
Wisdom is "the fear of the Lord," and "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." All that any person can possibly know in this world without the fear of the Lord, will in "a little time," vanish forevermore: (James 4:14) while he who knows the fear of the Lord will abide forevermore; that which he learns in accordance with the fear of the Lord will also, with Him, abide forevermore; and forevermore there is open to him the wide universe, with all its possibilities for the increase of knowledge.
Thus he who has the fear of the Lord has also, in that, for an eternity, all things else: while whatever else he might have without the fear of God, he would not really have even that; because in a little while all that, with himself, must vanish. Thus in the very nature of things, the fear of the Lord is the most important of all things, and is therefore properly the beginning of knowledge as well as of everything else.
There is another very important sense in which the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: unless a person knows a thing right, he is not certain of his knowledge nor of himself in it. Certitude is essential to genuine knowledge.
"Knowledge" that is derived from guesses is not true knowledge; it is but a guess. For all that can ever be derived from a guess, is a guess.
"Knowledge" that is gathered from a "working hypothesis" is not genuine knowledge. All that can ever be evolved from a hypothesis, "working" or other, is a hypothesis.
With all such "knowledge" there goes a "painful uncertainty" and also the consciousness of it, which of itself vitiates every essential quality of it as being real knowledge. Such learning the scripture aptly describes as: "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2 Timothy 3:7)
On the other hand, however, he who begins with the fear of the Lord, he who begins with the knowledge of God and with knowledge obtained from God, begins with the truth. The knowledge of God is the knowledge of the truth; for He is the truth.
Knowledge obtained from God is itself truth; for it is given by the Spirit, which is only "the Spirit of truth," (John 14:17) through the Word, which also is only "the truth." (John 17:17) Thus he who begins with the knowledge and fear of God begins with the truth; and all that he ever learns, being learned upon this basis, and measured, weighed, and tested by this supreme standard, will be only the truth.
This itself is the detector of error and the test of truth; he therefore rejects the error and accepts only the truth, and so learns only the truth. And thus, though also ever learning, he is ever learning in the knowledge of the truth,--not ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge truth,--for he begins only with the truth, and learns only the truth, and so is ever learning in the knowledge of the truth.
It will not do to say that this is impossible,--that there was never any such learning, and never any such teaching in the world. There has been just such teaching and just such learning in the world. Just such teaching was in the schools of the prophets, and just such learning was that of Daniel. And this record of Daniel and of the schools of the prophets was written to tell us of just such teaching and of such learning as that.
It was true of others besides Daniel, as we shall see later; but if it were true only of Daniel, the fact that it was regarded by the Lord "for our learning" is sufficient proof that such learning is not impossible for us.
We have seen, by the Word, that the Holy Spirit was the great Teacher in the schools of the prophets, which were but the models of all of the Lord's schools; that is, of all Christian schools. And it is written to us, in the words of the Lord Jesus, that He, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,...shall teach you All Things." (John 14:26)
And He is only "the Spirit of truth." Being only the Spirit of truth, it is impossible for him to teach anything but the truth. Then whosoever begins every study in the fear of the Lord, with the Spirit of truth as his teacher, and the word of truth as his supreme standard, and learns faithfully from these, will ever learn only in the knowledge of the truth.
Thus it is that in the most vital sense "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." And this is why it is that wisdom--the fear of the Lord--Had the precedence in every line of study in the Lord's schools.
It must be borne in mind, too, that the fear of the Lord was distinctly taught there. This was more than merely the teaching of theology, or things about the Lord. The fear of the Lord itself, as a distinctive thing in the individual experience, was taught.
The students were instructed as to what the fear of the Lord is, how to approach unto Him, how to pray to Him, how to submit themselves to Him, how to commune with Him, how to court His Holy Spirit, how to be led of the Spirit, how to live with God, how to walk with Him, how to have the Lord dwell in their lives, how to know that they were ever in His presence, how to have Him their companion in everything that they did in their daily lives,--in short, how to glorify God in body, soul, and spirit, (1 Corinthians 6:20) in every thought and word and deed. (Colossians 3:17)
All this is the teaching of wisdom. Wisdom was the chief and all-pervading subject of study in the Lord's school. And Daniel is presented to us as a sample of what such teaching will produce. Let such teaching pervade again the Lord's schools, and Daniels will be again produced.--Advent Review, February 15, 1898.