Fear of God

Proverbs 9:10 NIV

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Do You Know Someone Afraid of God?

Before I knew anything about the “fear of the Lord” I found out about the fear of my dad.  When he spanked me, I knew I had been spanked.  I have a friend who had a fear of his mom.  When he disobeyed her, his mom had him stretch out his arms and hold them there until they began to burn like fire.  Several years ago I was passing out invitations to our church in the neighborhood and as I was walking away from one house, a man in his twenties stepped out, looked at my flyer and told me that if he ever found me stepping up on his porch again, he would kill me.  There are plenty of reasons why we become afraid.  Some of us are afraid we won’t be able to pay our bills.  Others are afraid of getting sick.  Many are afraid of getting fired or going into certain neighborhoods.  I am afraid of skiing.  Perhaps you are afraid of going to the dentist.  Certainly all of us have been afraid and sometimes for good reason, other times without cause.

Many are afraid of God.  They are afraid of making Him mad because they have done something wrong or they might have done something wrong.  There are world religions built around the concern that God is angry about something and needs to be appeased.  For those like the Hindus, this is even worse because there are so many gods to worry about.  The Bible talks several times about the “fear of the Lord” or the “fear of God” and it is important that we understand what it means by that.  Is it good for people to be afraid of God?  Should we be fearful of Him?  How do we act toward God if we are afraid of Him?  Aren’t we to have God as our friend?  How can we be friends if we are afraid of Him?  What is the psychological effect of the fear of the Lord upon us and how does it look behaviorally?

The Apostle Paul in his masterpiece letter to the Christians in Rome quoted from Psalm 36, contending that regardless of background universally among all people, "There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3:18 NIV)  Before that, he states, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. (Romans 3:10-11 NIV)  These two verses appear to be in parallel, describing the same character trait.  Fear of God seems to be equivalent to being righteous, possessing “understanding” and seeking God.  The Psalm that the Apostle Paul quotes, which was written about eight hundred years before by David, the second king of Israel, gives this description of what it looks like if you don’t fear God.  There is no fear of God before his eyes.  For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.  The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good.  Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong. (Psalm 36:1b-4 NIV)

There are four clear characteristics here of the one who does not fear God.   This person is too proud to realize that there is real sin in him and even if he knew he was sinful, he wouldn’t care or give it much thought.  The things this person says are half-truths and intentionally or unintentionally deceitful.  He no longer grasps what is wise and intelligent because he doesn’t avail himself to true wisdom that comes from God; consequently his thinking is too shallow to grasp what is good and right and so he lives in rebellion against God.  This rebellion is planned and thought through by him so that he does what he does knowing full well it is wrong.  There is in the one without fear of God a casual approach to evil deeds, his moral compass is broken and he does what he decides is right for him without regard for what is actually “right”.  This passage has a clear summary of how the one who does not fear God lives but it is not so easy to see from David’s Psalm what it looks like when you do fear God.

Surprisingly, rather than listing all the characteristics of the one who fears God, David creates a picture of what God is like.  Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.  Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep.  O Lord, you preserve both man and beast.  How priceless is your unfailing love!  (Psalm 36:5-6 NIV)  Now this is interesting because you would expect that if someone was interested in finding out how it looks to fear God and not just what characterizes the one not fearing God, you would think this passage would tell you.  It certainly provides a clear examination of the personal qualities of non-God fearing people.  Yet rather that stating the opposite side of the coin, what a God-fearing person looks like, it talks about God Himself.  However, when you think about it, this description of God does say something quite clearly about fearing God even if it is a bit unexpected and unusual in its presentation.  The one who fears God has a very decided view of Him.  He sees God as loving, faithful, righteous and just.  This is not a dry theological comment.  It drips with affection and happiness.  No one could have this sort of feeling toward another and be called non-committal about the relationship.  A person who fears the Lord is in awe of the goodness and rightness and love of God and does not cower in dread of God but is excited about being with Him.  Verse 7 of Psalm 36 provides a clear sense of what someone who fears God thinks of Him.  How priceless is your unfailing love!  Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.  (Psalm 36:7 NIV)

This is of course a far cry from what we normally think of what fearing God entails.  Most studies on the fear of God focus on the Hebrew definition of fear…that it speaks either of cowering, abject quivering in ones boots over the might and power and sternness of God or that it is watered down a bit from that…describing respect.  So either our relationship with the Lord is to be like one we would have with an absolute despot who can on a whim have us struck dead or give us great honor and power or it is like that of a student with a law professor who is really smart and cool but kind of like us…just better and more successful.  However, that is not how fear of God seems when we read Psalm 36.  The person who fears God does not pay attention to His power or to His competency but rather to His love and goodness, His rightness and fairness. We must remember that fear means one thing when we are talking about sinful beings who are self-centered and egotistical and full of sin but something all-together different when talking about God.

An example from the Old Testament might help us see this more clearly.  In Genesis, our earliest documented history of the world there is in chapter 22 a most intriguing perspective on the fear of God.  It is the famous account of Abraham hearing God tell him to bring his son Isaac up on a mountain to offer him as a sacrifice there.  Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"  "Here I am," he replied.  Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." (Genesis 22:1-2 NIV)  Immediately Abraham made preparations and the very next morning he brought his son along with the wood and fire up Mount Moriah where he then at the top lashed his son to an altar and prepared to strike his son dead with a dagger.  Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.  But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"  "Here I am," he replied.  "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." (Genesis 22:10-12 NIV)

Let us consider this carefully.  God said that Abraham feared God and how He proved this was by Abraham’s behavior, he did not withhold his son.  By “withhold”, The Bible meant that Abraham was about to kill Isaac out of loyalty to God.  When we say “fear”, we generally mean that we are afraid of some outcome…there is something we don’t want to happen because if it did, it would be terrible.  The thought of it is dreadful to us.  Now what was it that was dreadful to Abraham?  Could there have been anything more horrid that having his son dead…or perhaps being the one who killed that son?  At one hundred-ten years of age or so, Abraham knew he would die eventually.  He could not have been afraid of his own dying.  Would he have been afraid of becoming poor?  Probably not at one-hundred ten years of age…not anymore anyway…Was he afraid of his wife leaving him for another man or of her dying of old age?  What would have made Abraham afraid of God?  Most likely, and it cannot be much of a stretch to say this, his greatest fear when it came to God was that the Lord might take his son from him!  If he had a fear of God, that would have topped his list and yet by his own volition, he was about to kill his son because he had fear of God.  That sounds crazy but of course it wasn’t.  Fear of God had nothing to do with being afraid of the worst thing that He could do to him because the worst thing that God could have done to Abraham was take his son and Abraham was doing that himself.  Fear of God was just what Abraham revealed; it was following God regardless of the cost.  More than that, it was absolute trust that God would do what was right and good no matter how things appeared.

Hebrews 11: 9 tells us that Abraham believed God could and would raise Isaac from the dead even if he did kill his son on the mountain.  Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. (NIV)  Of course God did not raise Isaac from the dead because He told Abraham to not kill his son.  But before that Abraham confidently raised his knife to kill Isaac because he had faith God would not let Isaac stay dead.  And here we see what it means to “fear God’ because this is what it was for Abraham.  To “fear God” means to trust Him explicitly with your life and with the lives of all those you love and to trust God so much that you will do whatever He tells you to do.  “Fear God” is unbending belief that God is good and can be trusted with everything and everyone you hold dear.  The test for you is when He tells you to hand to Him what matters most to you and let the Lord do with it as He pleases.  So few Christians ever get to this place of absolute trust in God and because they don’t, their lives are shallow and fearful and demanding and short-tempered and even greedy.  They may have their salvation but no real relationship with God that changes the quality of their lives.  You cannot and will not move forward with Christ unless all you treasure is His and you can walk away from any of it if He tells you to do so and still be devoted to God.  Your test will come, perhaps today, maybe tomorrow and you will have to decide if you really do love and trust God.  If you do and you show you do, nothing will be more certain to you in the crisis or the painful time than God’s love and care for you and you will be peacefully calm and secure in it.

Anger

James 1:19-20 NIV

 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

Do You Ever Get “Too” Angry?

A few years ago I was driving and someone without warning cut in front of me and nearly hit my car, and flew ahead of me, switched lanes again and then had to screech to a stop when the signal light turned red.  I was steamed.  I think I would have been sickly happy if the guy’s tires had blown out and he had flipped his car a thousand times because he would have “deserved it.”  At least that is how my anger perceived things at that moment.  Ironically, the two of us ended up side by side at the stop light and I had my opportunity to flash the guy my great wrath.  I turned my head as I pulled beside the guy and stared disdainfully at him, hoping he would look back and catch my ire.  Oh boy, he sure did.  The other driver turned to me and we locked eyes and he felt the fullness of my rage.  Then he did something that caught me off-guard.  He gave me the one fingered hand-signal of contempt and made motions that he was ready to fight me on the side of the road.  I was not ready for that.  I sized him up and felt pretty confident that I could handle myself ok with him but was I really going to let my anger take me that far?

Is anger helpful to us?  Does it make us better people, more capable of getting our work done, better able to parent our kids, give us what we need to be good husbands and wives?  Has anger saved marriages or enhanced friendships?  Should we be grateful for our anger and proud of the times we lost our tempers?  We all have known people who had “bad” tempers and most of these people we try to avoid but some we can’t because they are a part of our families or authorities at work or school.  Perhaps there is a “Tempers Anonymous” somewhere that has already been organized for those who get mad easily.   Maybe we know someone who should register with the group.  Should we be concerned about anger and those times when we lose our temper?  How should we evaluate our own anger?

Anger is one of the rawest of all emotions and is mentioned often in the Bible.  I remember how surprised I was to discover that God Himself gets angry.  Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses… (Exodus 4: 14 NIV)  The Lord's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God. (2 Samuel 6:7 NIV)  Even Jesus, “meek and mild” flashed a temper.  He (Jesus) looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. (Mark 3:5 NIV)  Anger is a part of our divine nature, not something to be thought of as a curse but rather one of the ways we see God in us.  Yet anger, like every other part of the human personality has been warped by sin and we have lost its holiness. 

We see the very first flash of human anger described in the ancient book of Genesis.  The third person of recorded history, Cain became angry when his brother Abel was honored by God for the quality of his offering.  In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. (Genesis 4:3-5 NIV)  This anger of Cain’s is important to study because it provides a glimpse into the immediate effect of sin upon one part of our divine nature.  Most of us have learned to control our anger because we have grown accustomed to the sin damaged personalities we possess.  We are sophisticated in our approach to our lusts and rebellion.  Cain was not.  He was a novice to the damage his own sin was doing to his personality.  Like a baby just learning to walk, Cain had not adjusted to being a sinful person and when faced with for perhaps the first time God’s unwillingness to accept his bad behavior, something many of us would just slough off and perhaps ignore, Cain became unglued.   Anger, which God built in Cain for his protection against sin and temptation, became his undoing when it teamed up with sin.

God warned Cain about his warped anger.  Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?  If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." (Genesis 4:6-7 NIV)  This is a most interesting set of statements God makes to Cain and it gives us much to consider when it comes to anger.  First, the anger at its pioneer stage as a union with sin was linked to something specific.  Cain was angry that his offering to God was not accepted.  Abel and what Abel did was not the reason Cain was mad.  Cain was angry because his sacrifice was insufficient.  We almost never consider this when it comes to our own anger.  Nearly always we decide that we are angry because someone else did something or thinks something or won’t do something.  We are wrong here though.  Our anger starts with us and what we have done, what we have thought or with what we have not done. 

Now, those of us familiar with what happened next understand God’s warning about sin crouching at his door.  At this point Cain had sin merely at his door; it had not come inside his house.  His anger was not the sin but it was the warning bell of sin. We all, including Cain, can be angry and not sin.  The Apostle Paul, who was an expert on anger, knew that was so.  "In your anger do not sin":  (Ephesians 4:26 NIV) But Paul was quoting a slightly longer statement found in an older book than his, the Psalms.  In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. (Psalm 4:4 NIV)  Anger is the alarm that something is not right with us and if the alarm is to do us any good, we must get away and silently figure out what sin is crouching at our door.  For Cain, it was murder.  He was about to murder his brother Abel.  For me, it could be greed or selfishness or rebellion.  For you it could be lust or idolatry.  For someone else it might be stubborn pride or a lack of gratitude.  We all have our sins that come crouching at our door.  We should never be surprised by them.

Many of us have been embarrassed by our anger but for the wrong reasons.  Cain clearly wasn’t but we have been humbled by anger.  When it is public and we yell at someone or snarl or pound our fist in anger, we can be humiliated by our anger.  Our mistake is that we think it is the anger that is embarrassing when it isn’t.  It is the sin that we have let get too close to us that should make us red in the face.  Although it may not be clear to the waiter or our husband or the kid who ran into our car, it is to God and it should be to us.  Anger has sounded the alarm.  We have sin at our door.  We have either done something that has corrupted us or we are about to do something that will soon corrupt us.  We must never think that the other person has angered us or the trying circumstance has angered us.  It is the sin within us that has stimulated our anger and we must be silent and consider what sin it is that we have.

I had a friend who had a huge problem with anger and he used to get mad at me quite often.  I could always tell when his anger was starting to rise because his neck and cheeks would become red and although he might be smiling, I knew he was furious about something.  I had a warning sign that this man was angry.  Well, we have a warning sign about sin.  It is our anger.  When we become angry, we must, if we are to live closely with Christ and have His power guiding us rather than our sin, get off to ourselves and consider what sin has been exposed by our anger.  Then with the cruelty and compassion of a surgeon, cut it out.  Confess it and cut it out.  We should never take too seriously someone else’s anger but always with the gravity of a Supreme Court justice take seriously our own.  We never know how far the sin our anger uncovers will take us.  For Cain it was the destruction of his family line for they never recovered from his sin.  We though can chart a different course.  We can be holy.  And, if Jesus is being forthright with us (see Luke 19:17), we could be kings.