What are you fearful of? What is it that gets your heart racing, your palms sweating, your body shaking? I was curious about what most people fear, so I looked it up online and found that the #1 fear of people is snakes, followed by things like heights, flying, spiders, mice, being alone or being in a crowd. I, personally, am fearful of my son Zach starting Junior High next year!
What, exactly, is fear? According to dictionary.com, fear is “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, or pain, whether the threat is real or imagined.”
Isaiah 8:12,13 tells us to “not fear what [the world] rears, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the One you are to regard as holy. He is the One you are to fear.”
Our small group has been studying the fear of the Lord for the last several weeks, and in our study of different scripture, we have come across some different pictures of God that really struck me.
The first is found in Exodus 19. This is when the lord came down to Mt. Sinai to speak with Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments. All the Israelites were to prepare for this moment and would gather around the mountain, but NO ONE was to go near the mountain. If anyone even touched the mountain, they were to be put to death.
Vs. 16-19: “On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled.” v.18: “Mt. Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder.”
I don’t know if you can get a vivid picture of this scene or not, but thunder, lightning, loud trumpet blasts, smoke covering an entire mountain, the mountain itself trembling violently - that would be enough to send me to my knees in fear!
But then we see what seems to be an entirely different picture of God in the New Testament. In John 8, we see God Incarnate reaching out to the woman caught in adultery and offering forgiveness. In Mt. 20, we see God Incarnate showing compassion to two blind men, touching them and healing them. In Mark 1, we see God Incarnate filled with compassion for a man with leprosy, reaching out His hand and touching the man.
It seems as if we have 2 different pictures of God. On the one hand, we have the trembling in fear. On the other, we have compassion, love, mercy, and grace. How can these 2 pictures be reconciled? How can we experience the love, mercy, and grace from a God we are to fear?
There is another definition of fear: reverent awe. An example of this would be standing on the beach with the ocean waves crashing against the shore. We are in awe the those waves because we recognize the power of those waves. We respect that power.
God is to be feared because He is holy, because he is just, because He is so much more powerful than any power known to us. But, He is also so much more loving, gracious, and merciful than any other love known to us. If you take away that love, grace, and mercy, then we are left with only trembling, terror, and fear. But, PRAISE GOD, we do have the love, grace, and mercy. “Perfect love drives out fear.”
As we worship and praise God for His love, grace, and mercy, we must also worship in fear - not the distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, or pain, but rather the reverent awe, recognizing that our God of love, grace, and mercy and our God of judgment, holiness, and power is One and the same!
**by Alani Thompson, Worship Green Room devotion 5-4-2008**
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