THE FEAR OF THE LORD

David McCullough in his book Mornings On Horseback tells this story about young Teddy Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States): Mittie (his mother) had found he was so afraid of the Madison Square Church that he refused to set foot inside if alone. He was terrified, she discovered, of something called the "zeal." It was crouched in the dark corners of the church ready to jump at him, he said. When she asked what zeal might be, he said he was not sure, but thought it was probably a large animal like an alligator or a dragon. He had heard the minister read about it from the Bible. Using a concordance, she read him those passages containing the word ZEAL until suddenly, very excited, he told her to stop. The line was from the Book of John, 2:17: "And his disciples remembered that it was written, 'The ZEAL of thine house hath eaten me up.”

This illustrates the legitimate fear of a young man who thought God would eat him up if he came to Church because of lack of explanation of the scripture, but one way I think it was good he had such fear of God. We must tremble before the Lord because He is indeed an awesome God but at the same time we don’t have to stay away from him, we can feel safe in his presence because He is also a good and loving God. Unfortunately many take his loving-kindness for granted and do not exhibit any fear of God at all. They live as though God does not exist. God is replaced with self; he is mocked by the media, ridiculed by the skeptics and reduced God to a benevolent being who will suit our fancy. Roosevelt said, “A thorough Knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.” Let’s look at what the Bible has to say about the fear of the Lord. What is the fear of the Lord? Why should I fear God and what are the rewards of the fear of God?

I. What is the fear of the Lord?

The word fear first appeared in the garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned against God they were afraid to meet him. They ran away and hid from God. Have you ever done something that you should not have done and been afraid of getting caught? It is a frightening thought to be caught in the act of wrong doing. When you do the right thing there is nothing to be afraid of. But there are people who do some of the most gruesome things yet are not afraid of anything, what makes them not to be afraid? In the Old Testament those who have sinned against God, the wicked people were terrified of God whenever He showed up. They ran away from the presence of God. That kind of fear was generated because of the judgment and the impending punishment that was due to them because of their sin.

A modern man may feel he has emancipated himself because he is no longer afraid of a hell of fire after he dies. But modern men have other fears. They are afraid of bacteria that my invade their bodies to produce illness. They are afraid of losing their jobs, of being dependent in their old age, afraid of war, afraid of failure, afraid of death. To add the fear of the Lord to these and many other fears that haunt men today seems to add to a list of fears that is already too long. Perhaps if we feared God more we would fear everything else less.

What is the fear of the Lord? It is often translated as “Reverence for the Lord.” Reverence is showing awe and regard for the power of God. It is realizing that we are created beings and not the creator and the sustainer of the universe. It is recognizing that we are dependent on God. To revere also means to regard with the deepest respect, and esteem.
Revere suggests awe coupled with profound honor. So to fear the Lord is to have deep respect for God, because of that I try my best to honor him by the choices I make in my life. I do certain things that please God and avoid certain things that are displeasing to God.

II. Why should I fear God?

In the Old Testament people were afraid of God because they had seen his mighty acts. When God appeared on mount Sinai, smoke came up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder and when the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke they trembled with fear.” (Exodus 19:18-20:19) Who wouldn’t be afraid when God shows up in a spectacular way? “Moses said to people, do not be afraid. God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”(Exodus 20:20). Why should I fear God? The fear of the Lord keeps me from sinning. When I fear God I am making a commitment to live according to the revealed word of God. Like the Psalmist I would say, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”(Psalms 119:11). Only by having the fear of God we can avoid sin. Just by listening to someone’s speech we can usually figure out quite quick whether this person fears the Lord or is just wise in his or her own eyes. Gossip, sarcasm, complaining, a critical tongue, lavish and irresponsible spending, are a few evidences of a lack of the fear of God. Our conduct towards the opposite sex is an indicator of how much we fear God.

Most of us are familiar with God’s attributes such as his loving-kindness, mercy, compassion, grace, forgiveness and so on but we often overlook the fact that He is a holy God, and a jealous God (Joshua 24:19). His wrath can consume all his enemies (Psalm 59:13).His anger can destroy us (Deut 6:15). When we don’t recognize the awesomeness of God we become arrogant, flippant in our devotion to God and careless of our conduct thinking that we can just get by with any and every thing. We are wrong!

Over 4000 years ago Abraham lived among the people who thought the same way; they were evil and did not honor the Lord. This is what Abraham said about that place, “There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me.”(Gen 20:11). Fear of God here has the sense of reverential trust in God that includes commitment to his revealed will (word). In that land there was no regard for God’s laws every one lived as they pleased. Our days are no different to the days of Abraham. Many just ignore the fact that God exists and they keep on living lives that are contradictory to God’s revealed word. Let’s not be fooled, we will reap what we sow. The writer of the Hebrews warns us by saying that “it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31). “That you have come to God the judge of all men. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”(Heb 12:23, 28) No matter who you are one day we all will have to give an account of our lives to a righteous judge who judges without any partiality.

The realization that one day I have to stand before the righteous judge and give an account of my life brought me to my knees. My many sins were so visible before my eyes. I so desperately wanted to escape the wrath of God. I realized that the only way to escape the wrath of God was to confess my sins to him and accept Jesus as my personal savior and receive his forgiveness. After having done that I have decided to live a life that is pleasing to God to the best of my ability.

It has been a learning curve for Wilma and me to work with an organization that taught and whose leaders modeled the fear of the Lord. Floyd McClung who used to be the Executive Director for YWAM tells how the Lord taught him a lesson in the fear of the Lord vs the fear of man. Floyd was the leader of the discipleship community of the Ark in Amsterdam those days.
Floyd loved drinking ice cold milk from the fridge but living in a community there are rules and restrictions on the consumption of community foods. He writes in his book about one night after every one had gone to bed he went down into the kitchen and opened the fridge, right there in front of him was a glass of milk. He knew that glass was not meant for him because he had already had his ration of milk. Yet because of his love for milk he started rationalizing saying to himself: well I am the leader I work the hardest, I can make decisions, I am in charge here I want this milk. So he gulped down the glass of milk. The next morning in the staff prayer meeting as he was trying to listen to God’s voice he was convicted of the sin of stealing. He was very uncomfortable he wrestled with the thought of having to confess this to the community after all he was the leader; he struggled with the fear of men, what will people say? Yet when he humbled himself and confessed how he had violated the rules the staff respected his humility and honesty.

At times the fear of the Lord will teach us to make amends for sin or to go back to a person and set things right where we need to. Where as the fear of man will prove to be a snare.

III. The rewards of the fear of the Lord:

The Bible is full of rewards to those who fear God. When we fear God we choose to do the right thing and avoid what is wrong, this is called wisdom we become wise by fearing the Lord because the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). When we fear God we hate evil therefore we can live a long life in security (Pro 14:26, 10:27).With so much emphasis on education in order to get ahead in life we should be careful not to confuse wisdom with knowledge. From God’s point of view the professor steeped in knowledge with multiple degrees may completely lack wisdom while an uneducated person who seeks to know and obey God may be a truly wise man.

This is basically what the wisest man who ever lived concluded in all his searching for meaning this was the bottom line: Ecclesiastes 12:5 “Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man.

The Fear of the Lord makes the Lord delight in us (Psalm 147:11). The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life turning a man from the snares of death (Pro 14:27). During his farewell speech the prophet Samuel addressed the Israelites with these words, “If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commandments, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God- good. But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers.”(I Sam 12:14)


What can we learn from these scriptures? We can either become the people of his delight or people of his wrath. We can either inherit his blessings or curses. We can either live a long life with security or face an untimely death. We can either experience his prosperity or inflict upon ourselves all sorts of troubles. We can either have God as our friend or our enemy. It all hinges on whether or not we fear the Lord, whether we respect Him.

IV. How can we grow in the fear of the Lord?

In the Psalms and Proverbs we find many exhortations to fear the Lord. I encourage you to do your own personal study on this very vital topic. Psalm 34 vs11 gives us a loving invitation to become a student in the school of the fear of the Lord. Come my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 1:29 indicates that we can choose to fear the Lord, and increase in our knowledge of God. It is a wise choice to pursue the fear of the Lord through the diligent study and application of His Word.

All of us have the privilege to wholeheartedly pursue the fear of the Lord. None of us has reached perfection yet but neither should anyone of us settle for sloppiness in our walk with God. The fear of the Lord is a conscious choice to line up our lives with the will of God and do away with any patterns that are displeasing to the Lord as revealed in his word. Let us join David in humbling ourselves and asking God to teach us his way. Give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name. (Psalm 86:11)