The Fear Of The Lord

Opening Remarks

This blog will not satisfy everyone as it is selective when it comes to describing the fear of God. My focus is through the lens of its impact upon people who saw the Lord, in one form or another. I am not trying to describe the hidden glory of God in Christ, revealed in his life of descension and humility from equality shared with God. And, what of Solomon’s statement, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 1.7) That also is for another day.

Fear of the Lord

The fear of the Lord is unlike any other fear.

Most fears are debilitating or irrational: debilitating because they hamstring our confidence, or irrational, because they have no reason or cause, unless self-induced – horror movies.  Either way, there is little benefit accompanying most fears. Where fear may be beneficial is where it acts to preserve life – for instance, when we get too close to a cliff edge. This fear is life-preserving, which may be better called, caution.

The fear of the Lord is something different. It has to do with the vast differences between the glorious, all-mighty God and the response of human beings to this. Kevin J. Vanhoozer, states in his Theological Interpretation of the Old Testament, “Fear of God is the prime OT term for appropriate human responsiveness to God.”  The appearance of God’s presence in the Sinai wilderness had to do with the fear of God and the diminution of sin amongst God’s people. Put simply, they were terrified and asked Moses to mediate God’s word and will as they paled when God shook the mountain, thick darkness surrounding them. (Exodus 19.16-25; 24.12. Deuteronomy 5.22-33) They were literally terrified by the Lord’s presence.

Humans are incapable of casually loitering in God’s presence. It does not afford this kind of relational familiarity; God is not our buddy, our sidekick. We have diminished his name when we talk of God in familial terms. He is Father but he is not sugar daddy. He is Lord, sustain-er and creator of all we see and much more besides. The earth is but a footstool, the heavens, the domain of his power and majesty. Who can stand before this God?

Daniel had his breath knocked out when he saw Gabriel – he became frightened and fell prostrate. (Daniel 8.15-18). This creature of heavenly origins was enough to terrify Daniel, and it was only a messenger.  Much the same happened to Ezekiel when he saw the appearance of the likeness of God’s glory. These visions were only similitudes, resulting in the same – he fell on his face and was only revived when a spirit stood him to his feet.

The apostle John fell at the feet of the glorified Christ as one dead. (Revelation 1.17) The sheer enormity and otherness of God is no place for the faint, even the strong faint. These men all responded naturally and appropriately to the terror of their visitations, visions and appearances. We could call it a healthy fear, a fear of God, but it could also be described as a natural reaction to seeing something so beyond what they excepted, had ever seen or imagined. God is not the making of our imagination – we are in fact the making of His. We can’t imagine what God is really like, except where he is revealed for the purpose of our salvation and the judgement of mankind in the eschaton.

In these instances, a fear of God was just that – fear.  It can’t be softened by adding words like – reverential, loving, redemptive.  It may include these thoughts, but the initial reaction was what it always will be – fear, terror, loss of faculties, awareness of sin, a knowledge that no-one is good enough to be before his divine majesty.

The universe is unimaginably vast and beautiful (if the images do it justice), yet, terrifying, utterly inhospitable, and dangerous. We live on a tiny sliver (earth’s atmosphere) and think we know something. Our hubris will collapse at the revelation of Jesus Christ the Lord. Our knees will bend, our faces will turn away, our hands vainly attempt to shield ourselves from the awe-filled, glory of God.