The Fear Of God Series

We live in a world where words are weapons. Someone

said, "Words are weapons and we must wield them well if

we would win." Much of the success of cons and cults is the

direct result of their clever use of words. So many

arguments are often based on a perverted manipulation of

words, but we dare not, on that account, neglect our

obligation to take words seriously and be precise and as

accurate as possible. Words are important and their misuse

can be dangerous. Like the man who thought words always

mean the same thing. If he said he had good vision or that he

had good sight, it would make no difference, for they mean

the same thing. But then he realized it would be verbal

suicide to say to his friend, "Your wife is a vision, and mine

is a sight."

We want to look at the subject of fear. It is only a

simple 4 letter word, but it can lead to confusion if we

assume it always means the same thing. There are 14

Hebrew nouns and 2 different Greek nouns that are all

translated into English by the word fear in the KJV. That

means all of the distinction in the original must be gathered

from the context, and this can sometimes be difficult to see.

In II Tim. 1:7 Paul said to Timothy, "For God has not given

us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a

sound mind." I wondered about that many times because I

know Christians do have fear. Peter even tells Christians to

pass the time of their sojourning here in fear. In Acts 5:11

he says that great fear came upon all the church. Paul, the

very man advising Timothy confessed to the Corinthians in I

Cor. 2:3 that he was with them in weakness and in fear.

How do we reconcile these verses on the basis of the

word fear? The only way is to go to the original Greek. We

see then that the word fear in II Timothy is not phobos as it

is in the rest of the verses. It is the word deidia, which

means timidity. This resolves the contradiction. Does this

mean that the average person will never be able to find the

distinctions in words because they do not know Greek? Not

at all. If you take the Berkeley Version you will find the

word cowardice and not fear. The RSV and NIV have

timidity. A person who will take advantage of other

translations can find the different meanings of words. We

cannot depend upon one translation alone. An accurate

understanding of what God has revealed calls for the

reading of a number of translations. Unless we convey the

right meaning we do not convey the Word of God, but the

misunderstanding of man.

A study of the fear of God is one that calls for care and

accuracy. The word fear in relation to God can mean very

opposite things. There is a fear of God which is terror at his

might and wrath, and there is a fear of God which is

reverence, or worship. There is still another which is

knowledge and wisdom of God. The setting in these few

verses of Jonah give us an opportunity to see two different

kinds of fear in relation to God. First we see-

I. THE FEAR OF THE PAGANS.

Their first fears were the natural fears of men in a crisis.

They feared less they should perish, as the captain says in

verse 6. This fear was directly connection with their fear of

God, or rather the gods, for they were ignorant of the true

and only God. They knew that some god was angry and was

punishing someone. They feared being caught in the middle

where they would have to suffer for someone else's sin.

Many commentators point out here the social nature of

sin. You cannot keep the consequences of evil limited to the

offender. The drunken driver endangers all the innocent on

the road. The peddlers of dope may sleep like Jonah while

masses of their victims cry out in agony and fear. No

husband, wife, or child can act disgraceful without the rest

of the family suffering. These pagan sailors were far from

innocent, I am sure, but the recognized that their guilt is not

the cause of their danger. They were willing to cast lots to

find the guilty one, and when it fell to Jonah they asked him

in verse 8 to tell them on whose account this evil has come

upon them.

The whole account reveals the nature of their fear of

God. It was a fear of terror. God was not one you had

fellowship with, but one you tried to please just because of