Fearing God

"The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge."

-Proverbs 1:7, HCSB

This idea of "fearing God" is something I have just recently started pondering on. It is a foreign, understudied concept for many of us. I mean, doesn't Jesus want to be our Friend and Father? Why does the Bible encourage fear of God?

It all lies in our definition of fear. When Scripture talks about fearing God, there is more to it than the quaking, trembling sensation that we feel when a wolf is bearing down on us (what, that's never happened to you?). Instead, it is a far larger concept.

Robert Strimple described it as a "convergence of awe, reverence, adoration, honor, worship, confidence, thankfulness, love, and, yes, fear." C.S. Lewis described a person who fears the Lord like this: "...one filled with awe, in which you feel wonder and a certain shrinking or a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a visitant of or prostration before it."

I have been reading R.C. Sproul's book The Holiness of God, and a large focus of this book is the fear of God. You see, God is holy, and holy is a big descriptor. Holy means more than just pure, although that is certainly part of it. Holy literally means "separate." God is separate from everything and everyone else. There is nothing like Him or even close to being Him. He is completely separate and set aside from the world, so there is no sin in Him. He is an entity that we cannot even fathom, and even to say this has really been a bit of a struggle for me. God's holiness isn't just hard to define, though; it is even harder to approach.

In Isaiah 6, we see the prophet Isaiah before the throne of the Lord. The angels and other beings are flying all about, praising God and His holiness. God is in His full glory, beaming in holiness on His throne. Isaiah, the prophet of God, responds to this immersion in holiness by dropping to the ground in worship, and yes, fear of the Lord.

Isaiah, when confronted by the holiness of God, didn't have any other response other than "woe is me!" He was overcome with everything Robert Strimple mentioned in his definition of fearing God: he was filled with awe, reverence, honor, fear and worship to start, and once he realized that God wasn't going to smite him on sight for his sin, he experienced adoration, confidence, thankfulness and love. Isaiah feared the Lord.

I've gone through all of this to get back to my focus verse for today, Proverbs 1:7. This verse is considered the theme verse for the book of Proverbs, and it is huge. If fearing God is the beginning of knowledge, then we need to fear God. We need Isaiah's approach to God. We need to look at God with awe, worship, adoration, confidence, love, honor, thankfulness and even an element of fear. He may be our Father and Friend, but He is also our Creator God.

Sovereign Lord.

King of Kings.

Ruler of Everything.

Punisher of Sin.

Holy, righteous, pure.

This is the God we serve, this is the God that has saved us from our sins. Let's look at Him through the lens of all that He is, not just a portion of it. He's a holy God; let's live lives that reflect a fear of the Lord. He commands no other response.