A Deeper Look at the Fear of the Lord
Over the past couple of Sundays we jumped into a new teaching series at City Awakening on the book of Proverbs. Proverbs is wisdom literature written by King Solomon along with a few other authors. Its purpose is not to give promises for how life will go, but guidance (wisdom) for making good choices as you go throughout life. It is largely written from the perspective of teacher to student or father to son. One of the important points in studying Proverbs is understanding what wisdom is. Pastor Louis clarified in week 1 of the series that wisdom is knowledge applied correctly. In other words, one can have all the knowledge in the world, but if it is not applied to our lives appropriately, we lack wisdom.
Learning can be a challenge in and of itself but making use of what you’ve learned is another thing altogether. It takes time and practice; it takes hard lessons and failures. This is why wisdom is often attributed to older people. They’ve had time and experience to practice applying their knowledge. But wisdom isn’t just about years of experience. We’ve all witnessed people with years of life experience and a plethora of knowledge but that we still wouldn’t categorize as “wise.”
So, what’s the key to wisdom?
Solomon tells in Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The foundation of being wise begins with the fear of the Lord. That is an interesting term that may sound ambiguous. Are we supposed to be afraid of God? How can we talk about Him being a loving Father, gracious and kind, slow to anger and rich and mercy, but at the same time fear Him?
The word used for fear in Proverbs 1:7 literally means fear or even dread. So, in one sense there’s no hidden meaning. Solomon does mean to be afraid. But when we look at the whole of Scripture how do we understand that concept?
In Exodus 19 and 20 there is an incredible scene of Moses going up the mountain to meet with God and then coming back down to communicate to the Israelites what he’s heard from the Lord, namely the Ten Commandments. As this is taking place there is what appears to be a violent storm taking place on the mountain: lightening, thunder, smoke, and the sound of rams’ horns. This really catches the people’s attention and scares them. They tell Moses that they will listen to what he has to say but they don’t want God to speak to them because they will die. But Moses responds in Exodus 20:20 by saying, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that you will fear him and will not sin.”
God could have spoken to Moses in a quiet whisper, in a grassy meadow beside a babbling brook, but he didn’t.
He spoke to him on a rocky mountain, with lots of noise and show. It was a display of the seriousness and the power of what was being said and who God is. God was setting the context for His law, it was not to be taken lightly, He was not to be taken lightly. Naturally this produced a reverence in the Israelites who saw what was happening. There was no question of the magnitude and awesome of God. But Moses told them it wasn’t so they wouldn’t be afraid, but so that they would fear God and not sin.
If we jump to the New Testament, we see a similar concept being communicated by the author of Hebrews who writes in Chapter 12,
3 For consider him [Jesus] who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up. 4 In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons:
My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly
or lose heart when you are reproved by him,
6 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves
and punishes every son he receives.
Here, instead of a raging storm on the mountain we see the fear of the Lord communicated as a father who will discipline his children. One of the fatherliest things I can possibly do is to discipline my kids. If I don’t discipline them, I would be neglecting one of my primary roles. I don’t expect or want my kids to be afraid of me, but I do want them to understand the seriousness of disobedience and to have a reverence and respect for my role as dad. But, if I’m a push-over, never hold them to any standard or keep my promises, then they will see me as weak-willed and will have no motivation for heeding my instructions.
Even though my intentions, admittedly, are not always pure, my desire is not to lord power over my children or make them bow to my rules. My desire is to protect and guide them. Guardrails are put in place for their sake because as their father I want what is best for them. They aren’t always equipped to make wise choices, so my discipline is there to help them learn and grow. If they are able to keep that perspective, then they will obey their parents and life will go much better for them.
In both the Old and New Testament, we see the fear of the Lord as a motivation for walking with the Lord.
God doesn’t command fear to guilt you but to guide you and having a fear of the Lord is more about understanding who God really is. He has revealed Himself to us just like He did to the Israelites. Read His Word and you will see His power, His glory, His justice, His holiness, His love, His patience, His mercy, His forgiveness, His faithfulness, and more! He knows that if we are ever going to make wise choices, it has to begin with a proper perspective of His character.
Ultimately, the fear of Lord serves two purposes:
For the unbeliever, it is the fear of judgment and condemnation from a Holy God, and hopefully a motivating factor for surrender to His Lordship.
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:31
For the believer, it is a reverence that keeps us surrendering to His Lordship. We aren’t afraid of punishment or God being mad at us (since Jesus paid the full price of our sin on the cross!), but we understand how much He hates sin. We want to honor our Father who demonstrated such sacrificial love towards us and has secured for us an eternal inheritance with him.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:28-29
Many studies and researchers will tell you that as much as 70-80% of people have a respect for God or acknowledge and appreciate a higher power. But respect and acknowledgement alone do not lead to surrender, and they are not the beginning of wisdom. If you’ve lost or never had a fear of the Lord, begin searching for His character. Study the Bible and look for His defining characteristics. With every story or passage ask, “Who is God according to these verses?” and “What did God do or how did He act in them?” Over time, you will begin to see more clearly the God of the Bible, and like Moses at Mount Sinai you will find yourself in reverent awe of our Holy God.
The author of Hebrews knew how critical this perspective was for continuing in faith. In fact, the context for these awe-inspiring verses of Chapter 12 is encouragement to press on. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” Our endurance is directly related to how we see God. We could summarize it like this: Fear of the Lord fuels our faith in the Lord, and our faith in the Lord yields fruitfulness through the Lord.
Take time today to fix your eyes on the God of the Bible in all His glory. Don’t be afraid of Him but walk in fear of Him.
