Fear ... and fear

[All scriptures, unless otherwise stated, come from:
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.]

Whom did you dread and fear, so that you lied, and did not remember me, did not lay it to heart? Have I not held my peace, even for a long time, and you
do not fear me?

[Isaiah 57:11]

well that sure looks confusing to me, he asked them who it was they dreaded and feared,  then he says:\
 Have I not held my peace, even for a long time, and you
do not fear me?


So, let's talk about fear. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? I would say the answer depends on who we are fearing.   I think Jesus sums it up rather well when he said: 
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.   
Matthew 10:28

But let's get back to our Isaiah verse. The word "fear" is used twice in the English translation but in the original Hebrew there were 2 separate words. The first one is  "Yare'"  which means: to fear, revere, be afraid,   to stand in awe of, be awed, to fear, reverence, honour, respect 

 and the second word is "da'ag"  which means:
to fear, be anxious, be concerned, be afraid, be careful, to dread.  

[This information thanks to
The Old Testament Hebrew lexicon, Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Lexicon.]

Ok so what is the point of all that? There is a difference between fearing the Lord and fearing anyone else. the bible tells us that we are to fear God but we are not to fear other things or people, why is that? First of all because god is worthy to be feared, we will look at this later. secondly the fear of god is different from the fear of man. A lot of our fears are unreasoning and can cause panic when we are brought in contact with what we fear: a person who is afraid of spiders, for example, will keep as far away from spiders as possible and even if they just see one they will either run as fast as possible or be so afraid they can't move. If a person has a fear of god, however, it will cause them to keep as close to God as possible. The fear of God is  a reverent, worshipful awe and fear, that recognises god's sovereignty and holiness and doesn't want to displease god our heavenly father. Fear of God will help us stay on the straight and narrow road that leads to eternal life, where we will be with God and all his saints and angels forever and ever.

It is a good thing for us to cultivate the fear of the Lord in our lives.  Why is that? Because the safest place from the wrath of god is in the love of god. Have you ever been in the eye of a storm? It's raging all around your area but where you are it's quiet and safe, until the storm moves on that is. our sin makes God angry, actually it makes him furious. When we sin we are in essence saying that we prefer other things to him. That might not be in our minds but it is at the back of every sin. God is our creator and lord, the king above all kings and by rights he should always come first in our lives and we should always do what he wants, but you and I know it isn't like that. We fail to keep god's standard which is absolute perfection. We do and think and say  a lot of things he doesn't like and that deserve punishment. Fortunately for us, the Lord Jesus took all our sins on himself when he died for us. he also took the punishment for sin. all God's wrath at our rebellion and disobedience, all his anger at our preferring other things to him; the wrath and punishment for all that was put on Jesus,  who gave his life as a sacrifice to save those who believe.  If we accept the finished work of the cross, if we have faith in what God has done for us, then god puts us in the eye of the storm and keeps us there, unless we reject him and choose to walk away from him. Outside that place of safety is his wrath. he will pour it out on  those who reject him and refuse to believe. 

yes we do right to fear god, our creator and judge. When we die we will see him face to face. he will demand an accounting of us, and he knows us better than  we know ourselves. the bible says:
.... it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
[hebrews 9:27]
 Our fear of god should encourage us to stay as close to him as possible. It shouldn't be an unreasoning fear and panic that will cause us to stay far from him, that wouldn't accomplish anything and would be detrimental to our faith.

 the right sort of fear of the Lord should affect the way we live now and the choices we make. For example, say there is someone in your life who hurt you badly and they come to you asking your forgiveness. your natural reaction is to say "no way!"  and to hold a grudge against them for what they did to you, but you know God says in his word that if we don't forgive we will not be forgiven, so you choose to forgive that person even though it's hard. You have just allowed the fear of God to affect your choices and this is what God wants. The bible teaches:
 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
   fools despise wisdom and instruction.
[Proverbs 1:7]
or, as the Amplified version renders it:
The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning and the principal and choice part of knowledge [its starting point and its essence]; but
fools despise skillful and godly Wisdom, instruction, and discipline.   

So how do we develop the fear of god in our lives?  May I make a few quick suggestions?

1. Ask god to help us cultivate the fear of him.
2. Search the scriptures for verses that talk about the fear of God and meditate on them. Remember we talked about meditation before? It involves taking some time to think over a verse or concept an ponder what it means and how we can apply it to our lives.

3. As we read the bible we can take notice of people who feared god and see how it affected their lives, for example, the fear of god kept Joseph from sleeping with his master's wife.

We have seen that it is important to fear God, but what about our other fears? Remember that Jesus says:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.   
Matthew 10:28
and  Isaiah 41:10 tells us:
fear not, for I am with you;
   be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
   I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
There are other verses in the Scripture too that tell us to "fear not".  We should take our fears to the Lord, talk to him about them and ask his help to deal with those things so that he is the only one we fear.

Of course there is sooo much more to be said on this subject but I hope I have given you something to think about.


Questions::

Here are some questions to ponder. The answers should be kept between you and god and I hope they will help you to get a better understanding of the subject of fear.


1. What are some of the things you are afraid of?

2. Look at the definitions for the two Hebrew words that are translated as fear in English. Notice the similarities and the differences in the two types of fear.

3. why do you think god is worthy to be feared.

4. Is there anything else you think you can do to develop the fear of god in your life?

5. is there anything else you think you can do to deal with other fears in your life?