“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow… Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.” (v12-13,16-21 abr)
Moses powerfully reminds Israel (and us) to fear the Lord our God, to serve and obey Him to the fullest of our abilities. Serving and obeying are straight-forward to define, but what does it mean to fear God? Wikipedia defines “fear of God” as “a specific sense of respect, awe, and submission to a deity”. Pope Francis says “The fear of the Lord… doesn’t mean being afraid of God, since we know that God is our Father that always loves and forgives us,…[It] is no servile fear, but rather a joyful awareness of God’s grandeur and a grateful realization that only in him do our hearts find true peace.” Those are the traditional definitions, though I wonder if there more than one type of fear of God?
“While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified.” (Mt 17:5-6) “While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground…” (Lk 24:4-5a) “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.” (Lk 2:9) “If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.” (Job 9:33-34)
There are multiple places in scripture where people have an encounter with God/Jesus/Angels – sometimes visually, though frequently they simply hear the name of God – and they are overcome by sheer terror. Can you imagine this: God has the unique ability to see into the innermost reaches of our hearts, all the dark corners that we never want to see the light of day, seeing all those terrible and vile thoughts and sins, and He could choose to expose us or strike us down with a single word at any moment. Does that not instill a level of fear in us? It seemed to terrify entire nations in the Bible.
Believe it or not, I think this terror of God is actually a gift – it can encourage people to submit to Him as the one true God. When people submit to Him, over time they begin to love, honor, respect, obey and serve Him – these are all good things. It isn’t God’s desire that we live in the terror of Him long-term, though He allows it as a step on the path to honor, revere and love Him. My challenge for today is to continually live in the fear of God, which will hopefully keep us in alignment with Him, submitting to His will every moment of every day. If we stop honoring, revering and serving God, we open ourselves back up to experiencing the terror of God when He seeks to draw us back.
Father God, all honor, praise and glory be to You O Lord God Almighty. We humble ourselves at Your feet Father, acknowledging that we have not always viewed You with the respect and reverence You deserve. Please help us to not only love You, but to give You the place in our hearts that You deserve. Father may we never forget the death from which You saved us, and the sacrifice You made. May every fiber of our beings revere You, giving You the awe and respect due the Creator God who sees our innermost being. Please help us to obey You each and every moment of every day as a response to Your love for us. In the name of our Messiah Jesus we ask this, amen.
~ Conqueror in Training