Fear of the Lord
Prov 1:7-8 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction. “
This verse from Proverbs is arguably the wisest thing ever said by the wisest man that ever walked the earth. King Solomon was chosen by God and granted immense wisdom.
1 Kings 4:29-31 God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men.
Solomon spoke often of the fear of the Lord as did all the prophets, most of the Apostles and even the very words of Jesus. God is the judge. He is the potter. He alone is the one we should fear. Fear of the Lord is actually a provision of God’s amazing grace. Godly fear is part of what keeps us in line and following His ways as without it the temptations and appeal of the lusts of the world would be magnified. So the irony is that fearing the Lord is essential for salvation and for us to stay on His path. Sadly and unfortunately, most churches and pastors have used human logic and determined that preaching on fear is a bad thing and would scare people away from God. The corollary of course is that by preaching only the Love of God, people would be attracted to such an uplifting message and would come to Him in greater numbers. This faulty precept of men has contributed greatly to the great apostasy we now find ourselves in. No, Solomon had it right, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Godly fear comes to us out of God’s great love for us, so we may be righteous in His sight and spend eternity with Him.
At the end of Eccelesiates in verse 12:13, Solomon brings to conclusion his great teaching on the meaning of life teaching by saying this: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. This is pretty profound to me. Here is the wisest guy on the planet telling us the whole matter of our life is to fear God and obey Him. I purposefully chose the “God is Love” picture for this post to reinforce the fullness of God and that we cannot in our human logic understand Him. Unless we are given wisdom from God, as He alone chooses to reveal to us, the mysteries of God will indeed be folly to us.
While not a scientific analysis, I took my concordance and counted the number of references to the word FEAR and the word LOVE. Here is what I found. The word fear, feared, fearest and fearful appear 528 times in the Bible. The word love or loved appear only 405 times. Reading thru the verses, this comparison gives Love the benefit of the doubt because many of the verses use love in a negative connotation, like loving the things of the world. My point is that fear and specifically the fear of the Lord is a consistent repeated theme throughout the Bible; yet we never hear about it from our pastors or teachers except in passing. This needs to be rectified if the church is going to come out of the world andmove beyond the delusion most our under about their salvation, grace, sin, righteousness and eternal judgment. I picked out some of these 528 passages to give the reader a flavor of this persistent message from God. I did a post many months later titled The Treasue of Jesus that show how mission critical fearing God is for us to be in His will and walk in holiness with Him. Please click the hyperlink title to access that updated post.
Now let’s run through a variety of the over 500 passages that speak to fearing God.
Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Jesus made it perfectly clear who we are to fear.
1 Peter 2:17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Peter gives us wise instructions that include fearing God.
Romans 3:12, 18 There is none who does good, no, not one.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Rom 11:20 because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear
Psalm 2:11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. We learn to hate SIN when we fear the Lord.
1 Sam 12:24 Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.
Heb 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptablyly with reverence and godly fear
Deut 28:58 That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD
Psalm 103:13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.
Acts 10:22 And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.
Psalm 31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee. Fear of the Lord is a GOOD THING –for it we receive His blessings.
Luke 12:4-5 And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! Parallel passage from Luke said a little differently.
Revelation 15:3-4 They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested.”
Isaiah 11:1-3 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. His delight is in the fear of the LORD. The delight of Jesus was the reverent fear of the Father.
Psalm 36:1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. People that sin, that practice lawlessness have no fear of God. They shall perish.
Jeremiah 32:39-40 ‘then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. ‘And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. Speaking of the coming new covenant here, God tells us that fearing Him will keep us walking with Him, so we will not depart. Instead of teaching the truth, the church has taught heresy like Once Saved Always Saved instead. I have never heard or recall a sermon about the Fear of the Lord.
Okay, enough fear passages for now, but you get the point. These are serious lessons on life that have been forgotten in how the apostate church teaches about the Lord. There are still well over 500 verses left to cover!!!!I
Think about all the incidents where men came into the presence of angels. When angels appeared to Daniel, Zacharias, Mary, and in every other case I have looked into, the Word says, they were afraid, they had an outward expression of deep fear for the Lord. If the presence of mere angels did this to men, can you just imagine what it would be like to be in the presence of God Almighty himself? Moses, Paul, Peter and John each had that experience and in every case, it is recorded they trembled in fear, shook in fear or fell to their faces and were greatly afraid. The writer of Hebrews told us in Heb 11:31 that it is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
I look at all these false revivals and false signs and wonders movement. These churches claim God himself has descended upon them, yet do they show fear? No, instead they dance like crazy, laugh like hyena’s or chant in tongues. Oh how great the apostasy. Where is the fear of the Lord?
We are to rejoice in our fear says Psalm 2. We are to serve God with fear it says in Psalm 5. Uzzah, who touched the Ark was smitten, Eli’s sons were slaughtered for want of godly fear, Nadab and Abihu were burned to death from fire from heaven because they offered a false sacrifice. Ananias and Sapphira were stricken dead for telling a lie to the early church. While James indeeds tells us that God’s mercy triumphs over God’s judgment, we the present day church have forgotten all about the judgment and only preach the merciful side of God. This is a grievous error as the 528 verses that speak to the fear of the Lord attest.
Genuine fear of God, is a regulator to our practicing of sin and doing unrighteous deeds. Teaching this fear and the hell and brimstone of God’s judgment may be just what unrepentant sinners need to hear to turn them towards God and his mercy. As a businessman, I always believed and experience has proved to me, that STICKS are more effective motivators than CARROTS. The mercy and love of God are carrots, the judgment of God are the sticks. Even Psychology 101 agrees with this. While not a student of this subject matter I have over my years looked into this and have seen validation that avoidance of pain is a better motivator than the seeking of pleasure. Maybe this is the way God set it up, since he was the creator of all. I stopped going to my local church when the pastor said he wasn;t going to teach about the wrath and judgment of God but instead only teach about the Love of God. Half a gospel does not a gospel make!.
God instilled the fear of Him in us. He did this out of His love for us. If we hold fast to this fear we will be much better equipped with the provision of His grace to walk in all of his ordinances. The men of God mentioned in the Bible that walked in all the ordinances of God, people like Noah, Cornelius, Job, Zacharias all feared the Lord. Godly fear is a good thing, it is part of God’s provision to us. We should not avoid it, we should teach it, preach it and live it, knowing it will keep us on the path to life. Without this fear, we can be easily taken off course by Satan, telling us similar lies to what he told Eve. “You shall surely NOT die”.
Please don’t twist my message here. Of course we should be teaching others about the great love and mercy of God. But Paul told us that we must teach the whole counsel of God. There is a reason God mentions the fear of Him 528 times. Who are we as mere men to subtract from the clear teachings of God and instead teach the precepts of men? Maybe if I had been reminded about this fear and the judgement of God, I might have sought His face sooner in my life. Maybe I would have repented of my sins earlier. As it was, it took me well into the middle ages, where my fleshly mortality began to show itself when I began to really meditate on what God expected from me. If we teach our kids the fear of God at an early age, maybe they stand a better chance of not following the ways of the wicked that so many are now ensnared with. While souls can be brought back from evil, it would be far better and and less risky if we the church do our part and teach godly fear to discourage the practicing of lawlessness. So instead of playing offense, we wait until Satan gets a hold of someone and then try to play defensive to win them back. How dumb is that?
Jesus is coming soon. None of us know when our souls may be required by Him. It could well be before He comes. So we must be ready. The wrath of God is very real. But in his great mercy He gave us a way out, a way to be reconciled with Him forever. We need to act on His gifts and the fear of God just might be the extra kick in the pants we need to get over the hump.
May God Bless You Richly!!!!
Praise the Lord.
As in school, as in life, as in many churches…………falsehoods and easy life without consequneces of wrongs, sins , actions.
WE live in the days of lott and Noah.
Lets get down to Holy Living.and preaching righteousness, repentance, and Living all and only for the Lord.
His will be done…………His kingdom come.
Live right , teach holiness and repentance……………..i promise ye shall be persecuted
as a outright devil.
Do it with pure love because you want to save them……….or speak not at all.
You will still ………….be looked at like a Devil.
And this…………………by other christians.
THe fallling away………………..Is now. NOW>
Its real and its happening huge all over.
WE must save some……………………..we must .
Everyone…………………let us pray in one accord.
Let us be willing to forsake all. Just Gods will be done.
Forsake it all. The time has come.
Pray feverntely…………………..To be used of the Lord.
A livng sacrifice………….and all for the glory of God.
Pray for others………….and be willing to relocate if God wills it.
The time is upon us …………..these days be evil.
God answers every prayer according to His will.
Pray and see if God does not desire , like minded bretheren to be gathered.
We must be about the Fathers business.
We with others will do all for His kingdom and Glory.
Pray. God is faithful. Paul, everyone pray .
We should gather.
The church must , We must.
Pray about it. We all want to be used of God.
WE all desire others to hear the gospel.
Why ponder and wait.
But test all things…………….pray about it.
Deep within from our Father His will shall be revealed.
When once it is……………act. Step out on faith.
As Abraham did ……..when he was called of God to forsake all and look for the promised city. The time has come. Pray.
@Charles Oh I wish I knew then (when my kids were young) what I know now. So many of us are impressed by this culture to treat our children as friends and buddies. Kinda like how Jesus is portrayed in many places today. Instead of a holy, righteous, jealous and yes loving God we see a Santa Claus in the sky that only blesses and has not a jealous bone in His body. That is another jesus. The fear of God is a very good thing and a fear of our natural father’s punishment for wilfull disobedience is a very good thing also. We must learn this and come to know and love the righteous judgments of our Holy Father. As a very rebellious teenager, I knew some kids who were the goody two shoes of the neighborhood. But their dads were strict and they knew they would be severely chastised and punished for what would only be a pat on the butt for me — assuming I got caught. Of course God sees everything and there is no getting away with it. God is serious and means business and we can easily forget that in light of His mercy and patience. The joy of the wicked is but for a short time!
Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God
Pete, thank you
I appreciate you writing about the fear of the Lord, like you pointed out, not to many people want to talk about “Fear “when it concerns the father.
Fathers in their households are the shadow of “The Father “when it comes to raising and nurturing children.
When me and my wife were establishing and learning our roles as young parents in our children’s life, she questioned me a about something I had said to our youngest son that she felt would cause him to fear me.
She said you don’t want him to fear you, that it would simply not be right.
What she said sounded very good to our intellectual minds, but it is not what the WORD says (psalm 103: 13).
There has to be a balance of love and fear (goodly or godly fear) established in a Childs life so that a balance can be established for his or hers benefit.
My wife came home from substitute teaching one day and was upset with the reaction of school administration concerning a child.
The third grade child would be disruptive by arguing with the teacher, not listening, and on occasion would get physically aggressive with other students.
The” new” administrative “new” policies and reaction concerning this child called Antonio and others like him are as follows: Bring the child to the school psychologist, who in this particular situation threw a lunch box and hit the teacher in the back, and ask him” Antonio are you having a problem at home, lets talk about it” as she slides him a piece of peppermint candy across the table.
Antonio makes numerous trips to the psychologist for his disruptive behavior to receive candies and sugar coated words because there is simply no “FEAR” attached as punishment.
We could go on and on about our school systems, but that is not the point, the point is establishing a balance of fear and love and having the “WISDOM” that only God can bring, as to which needs administering.
Our heavenly Father is a good daddy, he knows exactly what needs administered and when. We must do the same in regards to our roles as parents, supervisors at work, and to our friends and family when the Holy Spirit leads; it helps create a balance in our lives and theirs.
As Brother Pete has said, an imbalanced God of only love is being preached today, that is a worldly father who cannot raise full stature, well pleasing sons. Children, who think they are being nurtured, are disillusioned. King David tried to build a “NEW “cart of approach to God, like counterfeit Christianity or the ecumenical movement is trying to do regards to creating just a “ Love God “ to worship, it is not the truth. A good Father has love in one hand and correction in the other, which produces a godly fear for the benefit of the children. As always, I wish to edify and not offend.
God bless, Jer.:33:3
Great question. Learning about God and getting to know Him is a life long pursuit. Some of the more mature aspects of the mystery of Godliness will not be understood by a four year old. We absolutely need to make sure our children and all people know about the existence and the character of God. That includes both HIs great love for us and His Holiness and jealousy for all of our hearts. He created us for His purposes, not for ours. It is Christ IN US, the hope of glory that will reflect the light of God onto others. So we need to be a living example otherwise we have no testimony to our children or others. THe fact is none of us have all the understanding. The key is having our hearts right with God. If we seek Him, He will answer. He is a diligent rewarder of those who seek Him (Heb 12)
We obey God just like we would (hopefully) obey our parents. We do this because we LOVE THEM and want to please them. We also know that just like in the natural, if we disobey parents, we will get disciplined and punished. God disciplines us also, it is for our good. It is only by this discipline and our response to that discipline that we become sanctified. So fear of the LORD is not a cowering down, running away kind of emotion. It is a gut check in your spirit that you are hurting your Father when you sin and you will endure chastisement when you disobey. Once you realize that practice of sin separates us from God and that is how/why our true inner peace is taken away, we will become fearful of sinning. The fear of God helps us to obey and purify our hearts. That is what God wants, a pure heart.
I wrote a few posts after this one that focused on the Fear of the Lord. They may be helpful
http://truthinscripture.com/2009/11/18/the-treasure-of-jesus/
http://truthinscripture.com/2010/04/10/the-foundation-of-all-wisdom/
Thank you for this post. As I was reading it I was reflecting on the teachings I have absorbed in the past few years from ‘popular’ christians / ministries and So much of what is preached is how God wants us to have ‘the blessed life’ here and now on earth. The teachings do not and did not reveal the true fear of the Lord that is necessary. Like night and day between what is preached and what IS.
Having just recently having my own eyes opened (and still standing in fear and working out how to live in the reality I have been shown here in the world) my question is how to go about instilling the fear of the Lord in my young children, ages 4 and 1 year.
I feel like when I try to talk about it now, a. I am having to back-track and correct her on what I was previously passing onto my 4 year old from the false teachings I was accepting, and b. I’m not sure the words are coming out right – to make sense to her- of what I am wanting to teach her. I know it is God who reveals, but how do guide her right now when I myself am still seeking the Lord for understanding?