Are you among those who don’t like the idea of fearing God? Let’s tame that down to Reverence or Awe. Much more manageable!
Except that’s not God. A king or pope, maybe, but God is less definable.
The word FEAR evokes strong emotion. What DO we fear? Pain, drunk drivers, gun-toting crazies? Death, for sure. Fear is a built-in system that moves us to avoid harmful encounters. A good thing!
But what’s to fear about God? God is good. God is love. God died to save us.
Talk to Moses about fearing God. His first close encounter with YAHWEH was that burning bush. Please, Sir, he says, send somebody else. “No, YOU are to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. No ifs, ands, or buts—GO!”
Go to Mt. Sinai, with its great cloud of thunder, lightning, and smoke as God descended in fire. Moses was on his face with every encounter.
Moses feared God. He’d seen Him face to face—and lived. God is love, yes, but also judgment, sometimes serious judgment, as Moses learned. He was actually barred from entering the Promised Land after he struck a rock to get water, instead of speaking to it as God had commanded.
Sin makes our world ripe for judgment. Old Testament history and the prophets say so, loud and clear. War is a forever backdrop. Our Civil War was a horror, but it held our country together and freed countless slaves; World War 2 exposed the Holocaust. During these atrocities, many people were into praying.
Where is prayer today, in our country? Might its absence make us even more ripe for judgment?
God of the Big Bang, Creator of an enormous space-time universe. He himself entered this universe as Jesus our Savior, to bring salvation.
Incomprehensible LOVE.
But He says:
To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life…. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. (Rev. 21:6-8)
FEAR GOD! It might just keep you from doing bad stuff.
I’d like your take on this tough topic. Do you KNOW God well enough to fear Him? Comment below, or email egus@me.com.
THANK YOU ELLIE – your best blog ever – or maybe the most timely? Thank you for reminding Christians to look with reverence at the One who has adopted us, who has mercy on us, and from whom we expect justice (not to be taken lightly).
I would like every “lite” Christian – if there is such a one – to have a glimpse of our Mighty Yahweh! After we picked our faces up off the ground, we might toss out our “feel good” devotionals that only reveal a small part of the TRUTH.
A friend gifted me with one of these. One selection this week: Daniel 3: 16 & 17 ~
“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.”
Fine. But not the whole scripture. ~
Verse 18: But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Our God is not in the palm of our hands, but the very opposite.
Marcia, you said it well. Would you like to write my next blog? : ) You have a great grasp of the full scope of “Godness,” and I love your reference to the “But if not” of the three willing-to-be martyrs. Their tribe still exists, and I often ask if I would have strength enough to join them.
A subject too often missing from Christian pulpits today. Because some proper understanding of the fear of God leads to worship with reverence and awe…