Fearing God

The Bible uses the concept of "the fear of God" or "the fear of the Lord" repeatedly. What do we know about the fear of God? What does it mean?

One of the first things we know is that the lack of fear of God is ... a very bad thing (Psa 36:1; Job 15:4; Rom 3:18). And it is the common condition of Natural Man. Not good.

What else do we know? We know that the fear of the Lord has many benefits. The fear of God provides things like confidence (Job 4:6; Prov 14:26) and motivation for holiness (2 Cor 7:1). It is the beginning of knowledge (Prov 1:7) and wisdom (Prov 111:10; Prov 9:10; Prov 15:33). It produces hatred of evil (Prov 8:13). It prolongs life (Prov 10:27). It turns you from evil (Prov 16:6). It offers riches and honor and life (Prov 22:4). These are all good things.

But just what is the fear of the Lord? "Oh, that's easy," they will tell me. "It's reverential awe." We know this because many Bibles use the phrase, so it must be true. And I'm not suggesting it's not. I am concerned that our modern English doesn't quite encompass the older English word, "awe". We think, "Wow!" But the dictionary tells us that the archaic use was "dread, terror." So we're back to "fear" meaning "fear". Even in the modern understanding of the word, "awe", the dictionary definition includes "A feeling of respect or reverence mixed with dread and wonder." Wikipedia says it is a "mixed emotion of reverence, respect, dread, and wonder."

What about the original terms? The Hebrew version is יָרֵא -- yârê'. It simply means fear or even terror. But the New Testament version is φόβος -- phobos. Perhaps you recognize it. It's where we get our term, "phobia", which means fear. We're right back to the question, then, aren't we? Is it fear -- actually being frightened -- or is it "reverential awe"? And the answer is "Yes!"

We should see God with reverential awe. That is not mere "wonder", but respect and reverence mixed with genuine fear. Why? Because God. Because of who He is. Because of His power and might and holiness and justice. If you walk through the variety of times in Scripture that humans encountered God, you find that they did so with fear and trembling. They were afraid they would die. His presence made them horribly aware of their sin. Adam and Eve hid themselves (Gen 3:8) because they were afraid (Gen 3:10). When Jacob dreamed his famous "Jacob's ladder" dream (Gen 28:12-15) in which God made him great promises, his response was fear (Gen 28:16-17). God's prophet, Isaiah, cursed himself as a man of unclean lips (Isa 6:5). Peter cried, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!" (Luke 5:8) At Mount Sinai the people of Israel begged Moses to never have them face God again (Exo 20:19). Genuine, abject fear is a reasonable response to the presence of God. Those of us who know Him can be a step away from the paralyzing fear that might be reasonable because we who know Him have the Advocate of Christ on our behalf (1 John 2:1), our Mediator (1 Tim 2:5). We can have the comfort of being "hidden with Christ in God." (Col 3:8)

Jesus took our sin and clothed us in His righteousness (2 Cor 5:21), so abject fear is not required. But only someone who does not know God would be wholly at ease in His presence. The fear of the Lord is a good thing with lots of benefits; the absence of that fear produces no good thing. It is only wise and rational to fear God -- to see Him with reverence and awe that includes both wonder and respect along with dread. In fact, it is that fearful aspect of God that makes His mercy so much more grand, knowing what we deserve and what He is capable of and knowing that He sees us in Christ's righteousness all the same. Marvelous mercy!