The Fear of The Lord
Introduction
Last week my message focused on why we should be doing our jobs because God is not coming down from heaven to do it for us. In last week’s message I also mentioned “WWJD” and how although we may consider what Jesus would do, we oftentimes do not follow suit. In the close of the message I shared with you what I thought our reason is for not doing what we are supposed to do. I think we do not do what we are supposed to do, not only as it pertains to sin, but also as it pertains to what God has given us authority to do is because we do not FEAR the Lord. One of my definitions of fear is “False Expectations Appearing Real.” When you think about what happens when we are “fearing” something, a lot of the times what we are in fear of does not happen, hence the “False Expectations Appearing Real.” This is not the definition I like when thinking of the fear we should have of God. That fear is more closely aligned to respect because you believe that He will do exactly what He said He would and therefore your actions are governed by this belief. So when thinking of fear as it pertains to God, I like this definition “My Father’s Expectation Are Real.” The expectations that God has of me and you are very real and therefore it is coupled with an understanding of the consequences of ignoring His expectations (or choosing not to meet them.) A lot of people see fear as a negative thing, but in reference to God, it is very, very positive.
Let me give you a few everyday example of fear that is positive. When you are on your job there are certain things that you do not do because you “fear” losing the job. So you show up for work as scheduled and you perform your duties so that you can remain employed. Even if you do not like your job you do it because you fear losing the job. Another case in point is where a spouse is being physically abused by the other spouse. In one situation, the abused spouse got tired of the abuse and pulled a gun. This spouse pointed the gun and told the other spouse, if they ever laid a hand on them again, they’d be dead. The spouse doing the abuse believed their spouse and immediately stopped for fear of their life. Now consider this, the desire to abuse did not leave the spouse, but the spouse held it in check because of the fear of being killed. Consider this example. You’re in your kitchen cooking and you get ready to take something out of the oven. What do you do? If the oven is hot, you get a towel or something to be used to protect your hands from being burned. You could take the food out of the oven without the use of a towel, but you’d suffer the consequences of being burned. So the fear of being burned makes you protect your hands when you remove something hot from the stove. In each of these situations, an individual’s behavior was changed because of the fear they had of the consequences. The consequences were so real that the person refused to act in a way to bring those consequences into reality. This is what I am talking about when I speak of our Fear of the Lord.
Let me share a couple of Scriptures that also illustrate the above examples. Turn to Exodus 1:15-17, 21.
The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah, and the other was named Puah; and he said, ‘When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.’ But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live…..And it came about because the midwives feared God, that He established households for them.” (Exodus 1:15-17; 21) In this reference, we have a situation where the Hebrew midwives were give explicit orders to kill all of the male babies born to the Hebrew women. The King ordered this in an attempt to reduce the number of men that could eventually grow up and go to war against him. This would also allow him to reduce the number of children born in future generations. However, because these women feared God, they did not do what the king had ordered. If the king had known, these women would have been put to death so in essence they feared God more than death. Have you ever thought about what would have happened if they feared the king more? Moses would have been killed as a baby and the Children of Israel would have been in Egypt a lot longer. In return for their fear of him, God established households for them. There are benefits to walking in the fear of the Lord. Let’s look at another example.
“And Ahab called Obadiah who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly; for it came about when Jezebel destroyed the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and provided them with bread and water.)” (1 Kings 18:3-4) Here is another situation of a man who feared God more than his own life. If you recall the stories of Jezebel you’ll remember that she was an evil woman who hated the prophets of God because she served pagan god Baal. At one points she was killing God prophets and Obadiah hid a hundred of them in a cave saving their lives. He did so because he feared God. Again, had he gotten caught, he would have been killed. One more example before we go into the actual scriptures pertaining to the fear of the Lord.
“And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” (Job 1:8) I know you all know the story of job. Here is a man who feared God so much that God found Himself bragging on Job to Satan. Would it not be great to walk in such a fear of the Lord that God would take time out to brag on you. Can’t you envision God sitting on His throne and talking to Jesus saying something, “Son, that Valerie really does fear Me and see how she walks? I am very proud of her.?”
Do we fear God so as to actually change how we do things or are the consequences of our actions (or inaction) so remote and/or removed from our sight that they do not motivate us to fear them? This morning I want to walk you through several Scriptures on this subject in hope of making the consequences more real to you and thus spark a desire for each of us to become more aware of what walking in the fear of the Lord really means.
I. The Fear Of The Lord
There are several Scriptures that I will cover today. My goal with these verses is to provide minimal commentary so that you will gain your own understanding of the verses.
“And to the man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.” (Job 28:28) Job repeated what God said to man. To fear God is wisdom. When we have a fear of God, our actions are dictated by that fear. The ability to change one’s actions based on a fear of the Lord is wisdom.
“The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring, forever; the judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. (Psalm 19:9) David said that the fear of the Lord is clean and enduring while God’s judgments are true. This is what I was talking about in reference to consequences. You see, as Christians, we will be judged on what we did for God in our service to Him, not on our sins that have been forgiven. We will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, but as Christians we will be judged on what we did “as a Christian.” So those consequences for our “inaction” are part of what God will judge us on. Remember FEAR “Father’s Expectations Are Real!”
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.” (Psalm 111:10) Again we see that the fear of the Lord leads to wisdom. If you are wondering about your wisdom or lack thereof, ask yourself do you really fear God. Solomon, David’s son, said “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7)
“The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be shortened.” (Proverbs 10:27) Solomon said that our fear of the Lord will prolong our lives; ever thought about why? Well if you are using wisdom, and attempting to do everything you do according to God’s plan for your life, some of the decisions that we make that negatively impact our lives would not be made. There is wisdom in God’s word that can help prolong our lives if we fear the Lord.
“In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence and His children will have refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.” (Proverbs 14:26-27) When there is a fear of the Lord, because of the relationship that the fear fosters between the person and God, there exists a level of confidence that is unquestionable. When you interact with God, through prayer, praise, etc, you know He is actively interacting with you. You know that regardless of what you are facing, God is with you because your life is being lived in His fear. The fear of the Lord is the fountain that springs forth our lives.
“By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord, one keeps away from evil.” (Proverbs 16:6) Remember the examples I gave earlier, especially the one with the spouse physically abusing the other spouse? This verse is one that pointedly states that our fear of the Lord will keep us away from evil. This happens not only because we fear God, but again because we are walking with wisdom. I shared with you last week about how there were things that I did not do when I was away from my parents because I did not want to get in trouble. There are things that I will not do today because of my parents, my wife and kids, and you. This is all secondary to my fear of the Lord. My point is, all of us have something that motivates us to do something differently from what we really want to do. That “something” should be the fear of the Lord, not the fear of man.
“Do not let your heart envy sinners, but live in the fear of the Lord always.” (Proverbs 23:17) There are Christians living their lives in comparison with those who are not even trying to live for God. Because of this they find themselves in situations where they are trying to compete to no avail. The rules are different for Christians verses someone not professing to be one. When you consider the things that some people have we should not be jealous, especially if they are not living for Christ. Solomon said in Proverbs 15:16 “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord , than great treasure and turmoil with it.”
“And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear; but with righteousness, He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth….” (Isaiah 11:3-4a) In these verses, Isaiah was prophesying about the coming and conduct of Jesus. Noticed that He said that Jesus would have a fear of the Lord and would actually delight in the fear of the Lord. This was God’s Son and He had a great fear of God. Because of this fear that Jesus had, He walked with wisdom, understanding, counsel and knowledge. If you read the gospels’ record of Jesus life here on earth, you will find the complete fulfillment of this Scripture in His life. Not just one example, but many examples of Him walking in wisdom, knowledge and counsel. One more point I want to make here, Isaiah stated that Jesus would not judge by what He saw or made decisions by what He heard. This tells me that Jesus relied on His fear of God and the wisdom He gained from that to help Him handle all situations. I cannot tell you how many times I have responded to something I saw that I thought was negative and it was not. Nor can I tell you how many times I have heard something that set me on edge only to find out that it was a misinterpretation. When walking in the fear of the Lord and learning to apply its wisdom, we can save ourselves a lot of pain and heartache, for ourselves and for others.
“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.” (Acts 9:31) This peace that is mentioned in this verse comes to the Church after Paul was converted. Before Paul was converted, the Church lived in fear of being persecuted by Paul. However, they did not give up on their faith because as the verse points out, they continued to go on in the fear of the Lord. If you remember Paul’s conversion, when he had his interaction with Jesus in the first part of this chapter, his life was changed. This one interaction with Jesus and his continued growth thereafter led him to live a life that was full of the fear of the Lord as evident in the wisdom in which he walked in.
Conclusion
I stated earlier that I wanted the verses to speak for themselves with little additional commentary from me. I did not quote from every reference to the fear of the Lord or the fear of God, just a sampling so that you can understand its importance. This is one fear that you should never be ashamed of walking in. I fear God, I literally do. There are people who question why I do some things that I do and I will tell you it is out of my fear of God. After reading all of the scriptures pertaining to the fear of the Lord, I ask that you take a look at your life. If you list all of those things that you are doing that are against God’s will, is it because you do not fear God? When you think about not walking in what God has called you to walk in, is it because you do not fear God? When you pray and seek God’s advice and leading, do you expect Him to answer? When He answers, do you consistently follow Him because of your fear of the Lord? When you reach out to others in a loving Christian manner, is it because of your fear of the Lord? Are you afraid to curse someone out and give them a piece of your mind (that part that you really need to keep for your own sanity) because of your fear of the Lord or do you just let people have it?
Walking in the fear of the Lord is walking in wisdom in every area of our life. Everything we do should be shadowed by our desire to do what pleases God. We should not want to displease Him. Do you fear God? Is your fear strong enough to motivate you to stop walking against God’s will? Is your fear of the Lord strong enough to keep you away from evil? Is it strong enough to give you the strength to carry out what god has called you to do? Do you really fear the Lord?
May God bless you is my prayer.
