Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding"
The idea of "The fear of the LORD", is an often overlooked and misunderstood principal in todays culture. The proverbs tell us, though, that fearing God is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. So what, then, is the fear of the LORD? Are we really meant to fear The One we worship and praise? Are we really supposed to be trembling and terrified of God instead of singing songs to him? Would fear not just drive us from Him, emotionally and spiritually? Well, lets explore this principal, and see how we are able to apply it in our lives and culture today.
When we typically think of the fear of something, we think of something undesirable. Something to be avoided, or even fled from because we find it dreadful or unbearable. Someone who is afraid of spiders will probably scream and exit a room once they spot even the most benign species of spider high up upon their ceiling. Or someone who is terrified of heights is likely to, all together, avoid situations that might, even, possibly place them too high above the ground. Or a child who is desperately scared of the dark will want to sleep with a light on in order to get rid of the shadows in their room that provoke them to fear. So is this what is meant when talking about "the fear of the LORD"? Is God something to be fled from, avoided altogether, or even done away with? Certainly not. In fact, our fear of God should be thought of as entirely different than our earthly fears. They cannot exist in the same category for one simple reason: Our fear of God should be uniquely informed by his character.
What things, then, can we know about the character of God? Well, we know that God is holy, or set apart (Leviticus 11:44-45), God is righteous (2 Chronicles 12:6), God is just (Deuteronomy 32:4), and God is also loving and merciful (Psalm 86:15). We should know, likewise, that God's holy and inspired word bears all of these same principals by their very nature of having been breathed out by God (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Now, if you'll notice, all of the scripture I've given above when referencing the character of God is taken from the Old Testament. There is a significant amount of scripture to support all of these aspects of God all throughout the Bible, but I specifically wanted to use Old Testament scripture to highlight a point. As a culture and people today, living under the New Testament, we have far too readily cast off the Old Testament scriptures and teachings of the Law of God, in which are contained the very Character of God. Too many Christians nowadays see the Law of Moses as something to be reviled, or something to be disregarded all together. To believe this would be to fundamentally misunderstand and discard the divine revelation of God. We have subconsciously unhitched our understanding of who God is, by replacing the aspects of his character, as revealed in the Old Testament, with a false idol of the "only grace, only mercy, only goodness" parts of God that are much easier to find in the New Testament, and are much more palatable. But do you not know that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Malachi 3:6 / Hebrews 13:8)? To do this would be to insinuate that God has "changed his mind" on what he decided is good, and perfect, and pleasing to him. We have culturally overcorrected in our desire to separate ourselves from the idea legalism, that we now find ourselves in a cultural landscape of almost nothing but antinomianism (which means "against the Law")
Our culture today (in both Christianity and as a whole) is missing the necessary fear to be found in the Law-word of God. We have instead cultivated an earthly fear of the Old Testament, in which many are afraid to survey its contents and find those "hard to deal with" passages that we don't like to talk about, and would be embarrassed to share or discuss with an unbeliever. This fear is utter and complete foolishness. Do you believe that God is good? Then His Word will be. Do you believe God is righteous? Then His Law will be. Do you believe God is just? Then his discipline will be. But Christians like to disregard the Law of God as obsolete, as those who have been saved from it. Where do you find that in the New Testament? Instead, Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17). Yet, too many have read that passage as "I have not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets, but I have come to destroy the Law and the Prophets". This is not true, and too many people use Jesus as a scapegoat for the passages we find personally difficult or condemning with the excuse of "well that was in the Old Testament, so we aren't under that anymore". If we want to walk with wisdom, we must have a biblical, godly fear of the LORD and his wrath that is revealed in His Law. Without his law, we are left with disorder, chaos, and ungodlyness through those who will do what is right in their own eyes.
So how, then, do we cultivate this godly, biblical fear of the LORD? Its quite simple, really. We must delight in the goodness of God's law and wrath towards evil. Especially when it comes to our own offenses, and the ways that we stand guilty before God. In the same way that we would rejoice at a judge sentencing a serial killer to death for raping and murdering countless people, we should be rejoicing at the Law of God knowing that his principals and punishments are even more just than any earthly court. Let us follow King David's example. Almost all of the early Psalms (1,2,3,5,19) are examples of David rejoicing in The Judgements of the Lord. David is delighting himself in the righteous judgement that God is handing down to those who would transgress the Law of God, and perpetrate evil against Him. He rejoices in God's wrath to those who are morally opposed to the things He has declared as good and righteous in His Law. The same moral opposition found in you. And that is where we cultivate the fear of the LORD. We know, in reading the perfect standards that God has laid out in the Old Testament, that we rightly stand condemned before a wrathful God. Before the same God that destroyed entire cities like Sodom and Gomorrah for their morally reprehensible acts (Genesis 19). The same God that orders the destruction of neighboring pagan societies that were practicing abhorrent acts, like child sacrifice, and idol worship (Deut. 20:10-18). The same God that has the power to not only destroy you in body, but in soul and spirit, alike (Matthew 10:28). That very same God has weighed you in the balance, and found you wanting. That same God has condemned you to death, eternal. We like to convince ourselves by thinking "I'm not that bad" or "I haven't sinned as much as others I know", or even "I've done a lot of good things too", but this would be a fatal miscalculation of just how sinful and broken we are when held up to the perfect standard of God. God is so holy, so righteous, so perfect, that he cannot, by his very character, allow any measure of imperfection or evil into his presence. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31), and it doesn't matter how much good you do or how you look in relation to others. Compared to God, you are every shade of filthy brown, and he would be unjust to not punish you for your evil and sin.
We should still, as Christians, be able to delight in these judgements, because they are fair, and right, and just. And it is here that we should start to see the fundamental difference between earthly and Godly fear. Godly fear draws us closer to God in reverence for his goodness. It is this humble acknowledgement of God's goodness, even when his judgement is leveled at us, that wisdom begins. It is like having a good father, who you know always wants what's best for you. You fear his discipline when you mess up, but you know he is right for doing so, and will even thank him for making sure you don't continue down a bad path through His rebuke. It is this fear, respect, and reverence, in humble obedience, that draws us closer to him.
But it is not just his wrath and discipline that draw us closer, but his love and mercy too. Please don't misunderstand me here though; the love and mercy of God are the fulfillment of his wrath and justice towards us. It is the fulfillment of the payment of our debt towards God. We deserve death, shame, torment, and eternal darkness. This is the promise of the law that causes us to fear God that we just went over. However, Jesus came as the perfect son of God, in whom there was no sin, and paid our due to God by being beaten, mocked, and killed on our behalf. His sacrifice is now a once and for all payment, permanently fulfilling the Old Testament laws of sacrifice and blood atonement for our wrong doings. It is not an abolition, it is a fulfillment. Friends, we cannot understand the greatness of this truth without first understanding the fear of what we have been saved from in Christ Jesus.
To put the whole picture together, I'll use a metaphor from my friend Ray Comfort: it is like a man that is standing inside a plane, thousands of feet in the air, and he is about to jump without a parachute. As he peers over the edge of the plane, he sees how high up he is, and he immediately dives back into the plane. Fearing for his life, he looks at the pilot and says "I've changed my mind, give me the parachute!" In this metaphor, we are the man who is driven by fear to put on the parachute that God has provided for us in Jesus Christ, and to trust in him with our lives. And while God is saving us from death by providing for us a way to live, God is also the fall that we are afraid of, and the airplane too. It is the fear of God, the bottomless pit of eternal judgement carved out for our transgressions, that causes us to trust and lean more fully into God's provision for us in Jesus, and we are being momentarily sustained in this life before we must eventually take the plunge into the last day, in which Jesus will return to judge and condemn the wicked. In light of this, friends, we should be spending our moments making sure our parachutes are securely fashioned, and proclaiming to others about the impending fall to come.
So I implore you, Christian, find ways this week to delight in the law of God, and the things he says are good. Become familiar with the things you aren't comfortable with in God's word, and know that your uncomfortability is your sinful flesh that believes it knows a more enlightened or higher moral standard than God himself. Repent of that, cast it aside, and trust in the LORD. Fear him and respect Him in humble admiration, knowing that a contrite heart will bring you closer to Him, and to the foot of His cross. And know that this is not possible in a worldview that has considered the Law something to be disregarded or obsoleted. When we do this we make ourselves out to be a fool along with God, and believe that transgression no longer comes with a price tag. It does, friends. And God will not be made a fool. Whether now, or much later, sin will exact its price from you. So let us live in a way that delights in what God delights in, and surely he will bless us with wisdom for upholding the ordered structure of his world , through the practice of his word, and the understanding of His Holy One.
Reflect on Ephesians 5:8-10 "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord."
It is living by His Law, friends, that pleases Him. Receive the discipline of your good father, as His beloved children of light.
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