What this means is fear of God's laws is the beginning of wisdom. The lesson here is obey God's laws and you will have a better happier life. Don't defy the laws of gravity (jump off a cliff) and don't defy God's laws. Seems straightforward to me
“What this means is fear of God’s laws is the beginning of wisdom. The lesson here is obey God’s laws and you will have a better happier life. Don’t defy the laws of gravity (jump off a cliff) and don’t defy God’s laws. Seems straightforward to me”
This is very true for the Old Testament” and those who try to be saved by the Law. But since Jesus came as our savior, we follow those same laws out of Love rather than fear. Not one dot of the law has been removed.
This is addressed in Galatians 5 and other places in the NT. It’s the reason why Jesus answered the Pharisees when they ask Him what the most important law was with the statement in Matthew 22:
The Greatest Commandment
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Allow me to ask you, do you want your children to follow your household rules because they fear you, or because they love you? It is the same with God.