"The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death."
Proverbs 14:27
“The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life,”
Once again, we see that “the fear of the LORD,” that reverential awe, or deep respect, honor, and worship of Jehovah, is of great benefit to the one who fears Him. The benefit is life. Notice how this proverb says almost the same thing.
“The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death,” (Proverbs 13:14).
“The fear of the LORD” and “the law of the wise” are both said to be “a fountain of life.” The wise man fears the LORD. The wise man turns to the LORD and gains life from its fountain. The wise man makes the LORD’S law his own law. He lives by the words of the scriptures.
“Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness,” (Psalm 119:159).
The wise man who fears the LORD realizes the LORD himself is the fountain that gives life. Old Testament Israel got themselves in trouble when they left the LORD.
“O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters,” (Jeremiah 17:13).
In the New Testament Jesus is the fountain of living water. When He spoke to the woman at the well in Samaria, He told her this truth.
“Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water,” (John 4:10).
Those who turn to Jesus in faith, repenting of their sin are given life. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is words of life!
“To depart from the snares of death.”
When a lost sinner becomes a God-fearer, he begins on the path of life. While he was on the path of death, he was in danger of the snares or traps that would claim his life. There was no way he could “depart from,” and avoid those snares. But now his whole life changes, and it gets rearranged so that he now lives to please the God he now fears. His way of life is different. He has been taken from the realm of death and now lives in the realm of life.
We need to fear the LORD, not men!