“Fear God”. How much time do we spend thinking about “fearing God”? Do we even understand what it means?
I have heard it explained as reverence, as a fear of displeasing Him. Even that it is just an Old Testament concept! I think all these attempts fall short and I’d like us to explore it today.
“Fear God” does indeed appear numerous times in the Old Testament. Such as Deuteronomy 4:10 - Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words, so they may learn to fear Me, all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children. Contextually, this verse is God instructing Moses to remind the people of the day they stood at the base of Mount Horeb and Moses received the Law (the Ten Commandments) and God displayed His unrivaled glory in a terrifying display of fire and darkness (Exodus 34). The people rightly responded in awe and trembling and humility to enter into covenant with the Everlasting Almighty God. God is saying here in Deuteronomy “remember how you felt that day about My power - and let that knowledge dictate how you live!”
Many other times in the Old Testament, God exhorts those who profess to follow Him that they should fear Him. Not only in the giving of the Law - which serves to show us His holiness - but also throughout even in books of prophecy like Jeremiah, where God promises the NEW Covenant of grace and faith - And they shall be My people and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart and one way that they may FEAR Me always for their own good and for the good of their children after them. (Jeremiah 32:38,39)
Furthermore, the theme of “fearing God” continues in the New Testament, where we customarily think of grace reigning. In the book of Acts (9:31) we read this description of the newly birthed church: So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up and going on IN THE FEAR OF THE LORD and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.
2 Corinthians 5:11 demonstrates fear as the motivation for evangelism (Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men). Many passages refer to the negative repercussions of those failing to fear God (Luke 18:2, Romans 3:18, and Revelation 15:4 to name a few) while many others instruct us Christ-followers to be sure and fear Him - I Peter 2:17, Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:5, and Revelation 14:7 which says and he said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.,
The command and its ensuing benefits to fearing God are indeed pervasive through all of Scripture. What, then, does it mean?
Is it reverence? Is it a desire to please Him? While fearing God includes those descriptions, I think they fall short of helping us understand what God means when He says we are to fear Him.
FEAR means FEAR!
I know someone is protesting right now - but I John 4 tells us that there is no fear in love! That perfect love casts out fear and the one who fears is not established in love! Yes, it most certainly does. But that passage is not contradicting His command for us to fear Him. Fearing God means that we live in an awareness of His glory, His power, His holiness - and our complete unworthiness apart from Christ. Fearing Him means acknowledging that He has the right and the authority to punish us and withhold His presence from us forever…and yet He has provided a way for us to know Him, to commune with Him and enjoy Him for Eternity. The response to His character is to marvel that He would allow us a means to fellowship with Him and to love His matchless beauty and grace…and to press closer to Him which means running away from all that is contrary to Him. Fearing God means I know my fallibility and I know I am capable of falling away…and yet I rest secure in the knowledge that it is HE who keeps me!
Think about the most terrifying roller coaster you have ever ridden. You knew it would be scary - frightening beyond description - and yet you subject yourself to the thrill of the ride…protected by the harness that keeps you from falling. You “fear” that roller coaster and yet you do not shy away from it - rather you are attracted to its terror!
John Piper explains it this way: So I picture myself climbing in the mountains, say the Himalayas. And I’m on these massive rock faces, and I see a storm coming. It is going to be a massive storm, and I feel unbelievably vulnerable on these mountain precipices. And so, I am desperately looking for a little covert in the rock where I won’t be blown off the side of the cliff to destruction. And I find a hole in the side of the mountain, and I spin quickly, and suddenly the holiness, and justice, and power, and wrath, and judgment of God breaks over me like a hurricane, but I know I am totally safe, which means all that horrible danger is transposed into the music of majesty, and I can enjoy it rather than fearing it. And I think that is what the cross is. Jesus died for us to provide a place where we could enjoy the majesty of God with a kind of fear and trembling and reverence and awe, but not a cowering fear.