Post by Cindy on Jul 24, 2015 11:48:41 GMT -5
For many years now I've been studying the fear of the Lord. I began doing so when I realized the truth that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom,(Prov 1:7; Prov 9:1`0; etc) so it seemed like a good thing to do. One of the biggest problems we generally have with the fear of the Lord is thinking of it in a negative way. Especially since we know the bible says that perfect love casts out all fear. That seems to make it kind of confusing at first. Wouldn't that mean that the more we love the Lord, the less fear we'd have? Not at all! In fact, I've found the opposite to be true. The more my love for God has grown, the more my fear has also grown. The reason for this is because the term, "fear of the Lord" doesn't mean a dread or terror, it means a reverence and awe of God. In fact, in some versions today, at times the word "reverence" is used instead of the word "fear" as in Col. 3:22. Yet at other times, it's been changed to "be afraid" as in Matt. 10:28. So the idea of fearing the Lord carries all these meanings combined.
Just as any child of good parents fears doing something to displease them because they love their parents, (and because they don't particularly enjoy punishment) so we fear doing anything to displease God because we love Him and want Him to be proud of us. And, if we're wise and have studied His Word, we're very aware of the fact that God will discipline us if we do disobey Him, just as our earthly parents did. It didn't make us stop loving or respecting our earthly parents when they disciplined us, it only increased our love and respect for them, and that's how it works with our God too.
As I was studying the first chapter of Jonah today, I realized that it painted an excellent picture of the fear of the Lord. To me, it's one of the best ones I've seen. Let me refresh your memory about this chapter. The Lord tells Jonah to go to Ninevah and tell them He's going to destroy them for their wickedness. Jonah doesn't want to do this so he runs away from God (or tries to anyway) and boards a ship going in the opposite direction. The very next verse tells us that the Lord immediately sent a huge violent storm that threatened to break up the ship he was on. The sailors had no idea why this was happening, they only knew it was a storm unlike anything they'd seen before...it wasn't "normal"! They began praying to all their various gods trying to figure out which one was doing this, but of course got no answers from their idols. Their fear grew because of that and they began throwing out cargo to lighten the ship in hopes of saving their lives, still wondering what else they could do as they knew this wasn't normal, and still asking everyone to pray to their god to try and find the right one to placate somehow. That's when the captain finds Jonah sound asleep below deck, unaware of all that's going on. He wasn't sleeping the sleep of peace, he was sleeping the way people do who are trying to escape their troubles. He didn't want to know about anything. The captain wakes him up and tells him what's happening and that they're all going to die, so he should pray to his god too in case his is the one that's responsible. While that's going on below deck, the sailors have decided to cast lots to determine the cause of the storm, if perhaps one of them is the reason. God causes the lot to fall on Jonah and so the crew go to him and start asking him all kinds of questions to determine the reason for the storm.
At this point, Jonah finally does the right thing and tells the truth. He explains that He worships the Lord who made the sea and the land and that he was running away from Him because he didn't want to do what he'd been ordered to do. This totally astounds the sailors! Here they've just discovered that there is a God above all other gods, who created everything, and that this God is the one responsible for the storm that is threatening their very lives. They can't imagine that anyone who knew about such a great God would purposely and knowingly disobey Him! They just couldn't fathom such a thing. Then they asked him what they should do to him to cause this God to relent and let them live. Now Jonah told them they had to throw him overboard and then the storm would stop. Unlike Jonah who wasn't concerned about thousands of people dying, these guys hated the idea of purposely sending someone to certain death, so they decided to first try rowing back to shore. Of course, this didn't work, the storm instantly got even worse, though it was hard to imagine that it could. I thought it was interesting because it shows how we seem to constantly want to depend on ourselves instead of God. They were actually doing the same thing Jonah had, though in a different way. They'd been told what to do, but they didn't like it so did something else instead - they disobeyed. The storm getting worse and worse, showed this too them and they relented and did as they were told, throwing Jonah overboard. As soon as Jonah hits the water, the sea becomes as smooth as glass and the storm is completely gone, and they're even more afraid! Because of their fear, they offer sacrifices to the Lord then and there. It's at this point that we see that they now have a true "fear of the Lord".
Looking at the story as a whole so far, we see that fear plays a major role in it. First the men are afraid of the storm, then they're afraid of their predicament of having to throw Jonah overboard as they imagine, rightfully so, that a Great God like this, wouldn't take kindly to murder, but that is exactly what they've been ordered to do. (they have no way of knowing that a great fish would swallow Jonah after he's out of their sight). When the storm stops as suddenly as it started and things become calm so unnaturally fast, they realize they have been brought face to face with this Great God and they have a very normal reaction of fear. And this time, it's not because they're seeking anything, because now they're perfectly safe, but it's because they sought the Lord and found Him!
That's why to me this story shows what the fear of the Lord is so well. It's not when we're seeking something else, be it safety, or food, or healing, or anything else. It's when we stop seeking things, and seek the Lord Himself, for when we do that, we will find Him. And when we find Him, when He reveals Himself to us, we discover that He's greater then we could have ever imagined!
This story always reminds me of when Jesus stilled the storm at sea. Remember what happened then? Like here, the disciples were terrified they'd lose their lives and woke up Jesus to save them. Jesus calms the storm, and then what happened? AFTER the storm has been calmed by Him, we're told, “They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”” (Mark 4:41) They'd been seeking God, seeking the Messiah, and even thought they'd found Him. But they were enjoying all the great learning, and being able to do stuff with Him and seeing what He could do, when suddenly they were confronted not by just a man with extra powers, but with God Himself! The God who created all things! They were no longer seeking things, no longer seeking experiences and feelings, but were seeking and had found God Himself!
We don't see much, if any fear of the Lord in today's world; at least not the so called "civilized world". I've often felt that we've civilized ourselves further and further away from God. Now days, instead of fearing God and turning to Him, we turn to doctors, therapists, organizations, the government, our jobs, electricity, or some other man made thing to help us. Mostly, we turn to ourselves. We might throw God in there somewhere, but never first, and never only God.
Why don't we have any fear of God now? Because in order to fear God, we have to first recognize His superiority and our total reliance on Him, and that goes against everything we've been taught all our lives. It's not until we really, truly, realize God's sovereignty and superiority, that we will begin to understand just how little "control" we have over these lives of ours. Our biggest downfall is the lie we have grown up believing with all our hearts: that we can be in control of anything, including ourselves and our own life. When we finally realize that we are not self sufficient, not able to control what happens in our life, or in the life of those we love; that we can't "make" anything happen at all, that we may be able to begin to experience the fear of the Lord. Sadly though, the world pumps of full of "self confidence" instead of God confidence, and self sufficiency instead of relying on or at least recognizing that God is really the only one in control of things. When we learn to fear the Lord, we'll be content with our life no matter what is happening, because we'll realize that He is in control, and that we can trust Him to do what's right, even when everything looks so very wrong. Amazingly, God tells us that those who fear Him, will lack no good thing! (Psalm 34:9–10)
The fear of the Lord though, isn't just some feeling you try to generate within yourself; it’s the result of believing in and really knowing the true God which brings about obedience to Him. The way we come to know our God better is through His Word, and studying it with Him every day. By that I don't mean that you need all kinds of commentaries and dictionaries etc. You don't. All you need is your Bible and your God. When I say, "study with Him", I mean talk to Him about what you're reading. Ask Him questions about it, and expect an answer, looking for it in His Word as you continue to study. I mean digging in His Word with Him, going where He leads and discovering a tremendous relationship that continues to grow day by day as you go on an adventure of learning about this great God who is "your God".
I strongly recommend studying the fear of the Lord and all it means and entails, as doing so helps us grow in the fear of the Lord ourselves, and nothing can be better then that! (assuming you're already saved anyway). To help those who are interested in studying this, I suggest first looking up every passage in your bible that has the phrases, "the fear of the Lord" or "the fear of God" in them, and studying those in context. Next I suggest, if possible, going through some other translations and seeing if you can find other verses that speak of it, where in your translation the phrase may have been changed to reverence or something like that. In fact, you could do this by searching your own translation for the word "reverence". Other words to search for are "terrified," "afraid," and "awe". Notice as you study the bible in your regular study time too, how various people react when they're confronted with God. Such as Isaiah in Isaiah 6:5 or John in Revelation 1:17, Habakkuk in Habakkuk 3:16, the disciples in Mark 4:41, and Matthew 17:6, and Manoah in Judges 13:22, and of course the sailors and captain on the ship with Jonah or the people on the ship with Paul and so on. In all those instances and many, many more, we see a picture of the fear of the Lord. I've made a list of 85 different verses that are about the fear of the Lord, so as you can see, it's something the Lord most definitely wants us to know about! (and those 77 are not the only ones in God's Word, just the main ones I've found) Most of all, enjoy your time with the Lord as you learn just how great He is!
See also: The Fear of the Lord, Fear of the Lord, and
I will teach you the fear of the LORD
Just as any child of good parents fears doing something to displease them because they love their parents, (and because they don't particularly enjoy punishment) so we fear doing anything to displease God because we love Him and want Him to be proud of us. And, if we're wise and have studied His Word, we're very aware of the fact that God will discipline us if we do disobey Him, just as our earthly parents did. It didn't make us stop loving or respecting our earthly parents when they disciplined us, it only increased our love and respect for them, and that's how it works with our God too.
As I was studying the first chapter of Jonah today, I realized that it painted an excellent picture of the fear of the Lord. To me, it's one of the best ones I've seen. Let me refresh your memory about this chapter. The Lord tells Jonah to go to Ninevah and tell them He's going to destroy them for their wickedness. Jonah doesn't want to do this so he runs away from God (or tries to anyway) and boards a ship going in the opposite direction. The very next verse tells us that the Lord immediately sent a huge violent storm that threatened to break up the ship he was on. The sailors had no idea why this was happening, they only knew it was a storm unlike anything they'd seen before...it wasn't "normal"! They began praying to all their various gods trying to figure out which one was doing this, but of course got no answers from their idols. Their fear grew because of that and they began throwing out cargo to lighten the ship in hopes of saving their lives, still wondering what else they could do as they knew this wasn't normal, and still asking everyone to pray to their god to try and find the right one to placate somehow. That's when the captain finds Jonah sound asleep below deck, unaware of all that's going on. He wasn't sleeping the sleep of peace, he was sleeping the way people do who are trying to escape their troubles. He didn't want to know about anything. The captain wakes him up and tells him what's happening and that they're all going to die, so he should pray to his god too in case his is the one that's responsible. While that's going on below deck, the sailors have decided to cast lots to determine the cause of the storm, if perhaps one of them is the reason. God causes the lot to fall on Jonah and so the crew go to him and start asking him all kinds of questions to determine the reason for the storm.
At this point, Jonah finally does the right thing and tells the truth. He explains that He worships the Lord who made the sea and the land and that he was running away from Him because he didn't want to do what he'd been ordered to do. This totally astounds the sailors! Here they've just discovered that there is a God above all other gods, who created everything, and that this God is the one responsible for the storm that is threatening their very lives. They can't imagine that anyone who knew about such a great God would purposely and knowingly disobey Him! They just couldn't fathom such a thing. Then they asked him what they should do to him to cause this God to relent and let them live. Now Jonah told them they had to throw him overboard and then the storm would stop. Unlike Jonah who wasn't concerned about thousands of people dying, these guys hated the idea of purposely sending someone to certain death, so they decided to first try rowing back to shore. Of course, this didn't work, the storm instantly got even worse, though it was hard to imagine that it could. I thought it was interesting because it shows how we seem to constantly want to depend on ourselves instead of God. They were actually doing the same thing Jonah had, though in a different way. They'd been told what to do, but they didn't like it so did something else instead - they disobeyed. The storm getting worse and worse, showed this too them and they relented and did as they were told, throwing Jonah overboard. As soon as Jonah hits the water, the sea becomes as smooth as glass and the storm is completely gone, and they're even more afraid! Because of their fear, they offer sacrifices to the Lord then and there. It's at this point that we see that they now have a true "fear of the Lord".
Looking at the story as a whole so far, we see that fear plays a major role in it. First the men are afraid of the storm, then they're afraid of their predicament of having to throw Jonah overboard as they imagine, rightfully so, that a Great God like this, wouldn't take kindly to murder, but that is exactly what they've been ordered to do. (they have no way of knowing that a great fish would swallow Jonah after he's out of their sight). When the storm stops as suddenly as it started and things become calm so unnaturally fast, they realize they have been brought face to face with this Great God and they have a very normal reaction of fear. And this time, it's not because they're seeking anything, because now they're perfectly safe, but it's because they sought the Lord and found Him!
That's why to me this story shows what the fear of the Lord is so well. It's not when we're seeking something else, be it safety, or food, or healing, or anything else. It's when we stop seeking things, and seek the Lord Himself, for when we do that, we will find Him. And when we find Him, when He reveals Himself to us, we discover that He's greater then we could have ever imagined!
This story always reminds me of when Jesus stilled the storm at sea. Remember what happened then? Like here, the disciples were terrified they'd lose their lives and woke up Jesus to save them. Jesus calms the storm, and then what happened? AFTER the storm has been calmed by Him, we're told, “They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”” (Mark 4:41) They'd been seeking God, seeking the Messiah, and even thought they'd found Him. But they were enjoying all the great learning, and being able to do stuff with Him and seeing what He could do, when suddenly they were confronted not by just a man with extra powers, but with God Himself! The God who created all things! They were no longer seeking things, no longer seeking experiences and feelings, but were seeking and had found God Himself!
We don't see much, if any fear of the Lord in today's world; at least not the so called "civilized world". I've often felt that we've civilized ourselves further and further away from God. Now days, instead of fearing God and turning to Him, we turn to doctors, therapists, organizations, the government, our jobs, electricity, or some other man made thing to help us. Mostly, we turn to ourselves. We might throw God in there somewhere, but never first, and never only God.
Why don't we have any fear of God now? Because in order to fear God, we have to first recognize His superiority and our total reliance on Him, and that goes against everything we've been taught all our lives. It's not until we really, truly, realize God's sovereignty and superiority, that we will begin to understand just how little "control" we have over these lives of ours. Our biggest downfall is the lie we have grown up believing with all our hearts: that we can be in control of anything, including ourselves and our own life. When we finally realize that we are not self sufficient, not able to control what happens in our life, or in the life of those we love; that we can't "make" anything happen at all, that we may be able to begin to experience the fear of the Lord. Sadly though, the world pumps of full of "self confidence" instead of God confidence, and self sufficiency instead of relying on or at least recognizing that God is really the only one in control of things. When we learn to fear the Lord, we'll be content with our life no matter what is happening, because we'll realize that He is in control, and that we can trust Him to do what's right, even when everything looks so very wrong. Amazingly, God tells us that those who fear Him, will lack no good thing! (Psalm 34:9–10)
The fear of the Lord though, isn't just some feeling you try to generate within yourself; it’s the result of believing in and really knowing the true God which brings about obedience to Him. The way we come to know our God better is through His Word, and studying it with Him every day. By that I don't mean that you need all kinds of commentaries and dictionaries etc. You don't. All you need is your Bible and your God. When I say, "study with Him", I mean talk to Him about what you're reading. Ask Him questions about it, and expect an answer, looking for it in His Word as you continue to study. I mean digging in His Word with Him, going where He leads and discovering a tremendous relationship that continues to grow day by day as you go on an adventure of learning about this great God who is "your God".
I strongly recommend studying the fear of the Lord and all it means and entails, as doing so helps us grow in the fear of the Lord ourselves, and nothing can be better then that! (assuming you're already saved anyway). To help those who are interested in studying this, I suggest first looking up every passage in your bible that has the phrases, "the fear of the Lord" or "the fear of God" in them, and studying those in context. Next I suggest, if possible, going through some other translations and seeing if you can find other verses that speak of it, where in your translation the phrase may have been changed to reverence or something like that. In fact, you could do this by searching your own translation for the word "reverence". Other words to search for are "terrified," "afraid," and "awe". Notice as you study the bible in your regular study time too, how various people react when they're confronted with God. Such as Isaiah in Isaiah 6:5 or John in Revelation 1:17, Habakkuk in Habakkuk 3:16, the disciples in Mark 4:41, and Matthew 17:6, and Manoah in Judges 13:22, and of course the sailors and captain on the ship with Jonah or the people on the ship with Paul and so on. In all those instances and many, many more, we see a picture of the fear of the Lord. I've made a list of 85 different verses that are about the fear of the Lord, so as you can see, it's something the Lord most definitely wants us to know about! (and those 77 are not the only ones in God's Word, just the main ones I've found) Most of all, enjoy your time with the Lord as you learn just how great He is!
See also: The Fear of the Lord, Fear of the Lord, and
I will teach you the fear of the LORD
!!
