What Does It Mean to Fear God?
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
I was curious to know how many times I have preached this year from passages in that week’s daily Bible reading schedule.
I believe it to be about 1/3 of the time.
I looked it up and today is the 31st Sunday of the year.
Glancing through my sermon tracking spreadsheet – which I had to update with everything from this year because I haven’t been keeping up with it – I identified maybe 10 or 11 that would qualify.
I spent way more time on that than I anticipated, and that was just to get an estimate and not a hard number.
Today’s sermon is from tomorrow’s assigned reading.
The Book of Ecclesiastes is a strange book.
Solomon is trying to make sense out of life and human existence using his vast human understanding.
The only way that life has meaning is with God in the equation.
Take God out of life and it has not hope or peace or purpose.
Our text is that grand conclusion – the light at the end of the tunnel.
What should man do to find purpose in life?
First, Fear God.
Second, Keep His Commandments.
Why? Because God is watching and everyone will stand before Him in judgment.
That is what the wisest man who ever lived concluded after years of searching for purpose.
He could have saved himself a lot of time and heart attack had he just accepted that same truth from God.
It, after all, is no secret.
God has clearly revealed to us that we should all fear and obey Him.
Now, we toss about the phrase “Fear God” a lot, but I am afraid we do not grasp its meaning.
We all fear things.
I do not hide the fact that I am arachnophobia – I hate spiders.
It is an irrational fear like all phobias.
Are we to fear God like I fear spiders?
No one in their right mind would say so!
Now, I will tell you something else that I would say that I fear, but not irrationally.
I have a very healthy respect for the power of a thunderstorm.
I do not think I have astraphobia, but I do take notice of severe weather when it is around me.
I think this gets a bit closer to the mark of comprehending what it is to fear the Lord.
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary gives this definition for Biblical fear:
In scripture, fear is used to express a filial or a slavish passion. In good men, the fear of God is a holy awe or reverence of God and his laws, which springs from a just view and real love of the divine character, leading the subjects of it to hate and shun every thing that can offend such a holy being, and inclining them to aim at perfect obedience. This is filial fear
Here are a couple of things I pulled from Vine’s Expository Dictionary :
“to be afraid, stand in awe, fear”
“’reverential fear’ of God as a controlling movie of the life, in matters spiritual and moral, not a mere ‘fear’ of His power and righteous retribution, but a wholesome dread of displeasing Him.”
I find it very difficult to fully grasp what it means to fear the Lord.
I think that is in large part because that idea of fear as respect and obedience is not promoted in our culture.
I’ll give you a great example.
I have a healthy respect for the office of the President of the United States.
In recent decades, our culture has taught us to not respect that office or the man that holds it.
It used to be that be invited to visit the White House was a tremendous honor.
Now, it is nothing to not only decline such an offer but also use it as a chance to attack the person in office.
This is nothing new – I have personally noted it happening since George W. Bush was in office.
Listen, I do not care who the president is – as an American citizen I would count it as one of the greatest honors of my life to invited to the White House.
Let me give you another example.
Have you ever watched footage from courtrooms?
It used to be that if you were to appear in court in any capacity you dressed in the best clothes you had.
You addressed the judge as “Your honor” and you put on your best behavior.
Today, especially in the lower courts, there is no fear or respect for law or the people who represent it.
They are constantly having to reprimand people for what they wear and how they act.
I think the same goes for how people treat law enforcement today.
I have a healthy respect and fear of law and order.
The police represent that.
I know they are not perfect, but that is what due process is for, to help ensure that justice is rightly served.
I have a hard time respecting anyone or anything that casts aspersions on law enforcement and the laws they uphold.
Like I said, we are a few generations into a mindset of rebellion and cynicism that say we should not fear anything.
Look how well that is working out!
By the way, the reason that shift happened in our culture is simple.
In fact, it is in the Bible.
Pro 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
There is no wisdom or truth without the foundation of fearing God.
Our country has turned into a nation of fools because we have in our society lost our fear of the Lord.
I want to go a step further.
I am afraid that modern Christianity has lost its fear of God.
What most people practice in their worship has little resemblance to fear, holiness, or reverence.
It is not just the liberals or charismatics either.
I am convinced it is everywhere, and it starts at the top.
I do not think many high-profile Christians have much fear of God in them.
Just this week, another preacher was charged that I once would have counted among the good guys.
I am sick of it – some of it is hitting close to home with people I know or are at least familiar with.
As I have been trying to process all this, I had this thought:
Did these men have a proper fear of God in their lives and ministry?
If they ever did, they lost it somewhere to do the things they have done.
Psa 36:1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
Let’s examine what it means to fear the Lord this morning and do a little check up on ourselves.
I. The Fear of the Lord recognizes the difference between God and man.
There is a principle that many Bible teachers use to understand the meaning of a word or phrase.
It is often called the Law of First Mention, and that is exactly what it is.
It looks at the first time a word or phrase is used and sets a definition from it.
I have not found this technique to be universal, but it is often helpful.
The first time any variation of the word for fear is used in the Bible is in Genesis 3:10 when Adam answers the Lord as he was hiding after he ate the forbidden fruit.
Gen 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Adam knew what he had done.
Adam knew the holiness of God.
Fear made him hide.
Now, I do not think this is the best example of fearing God that we can find, but there is truth in it.
To fear the Lord is to recognize our sinfulness and weakness
It is also to recognize God’s holiness and greatness.
We thus recognize how infinite He is and how insignificant we are.
The more we understand that the more we will develop a true fear of God.
I think this is why when God appears to people in the Bible He has to tell them not to be afraid.
When you get a good look at Who He is, you will fear Him.
My favorite examples of this are in Isaiah 6 and Revelation 1.
Isaiah saw the Lord “high and lifted up”.
His reaction – “Woe is me!”
John saw Christ in His glory – remember that they had been close while He was on earth.
His reaction – “I fell at his feet as dead.” – Jesus had to tell Him “fear not”
II. The fear of the Lord is to properly honor Him.
The proper fear of God is not to be scared of Him.
The proper fear of God is to respect and honor Him.
The Book of Hebrews describes this:
Heb 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
Heb 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Reverence – supposedly the Greek word used here is based on the idea of having downcast eyes.
Strong’s defines it as “bashfulness, i.e. (towards men), modesty or (towards God) awe:—reverence, shamefacedness.”
Thus, to fear the Lord is to reverence Him in awe and humility.
Godly fear –
Strong’s defines it as “properly, caution, i.e. (religiously) reverence (piety); by implication, dread (concretely):—fear(-ed).”
Adam Clarke wrote that this is: “Religious fear. We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, but let that boldness be ever tempered with modesty and religious fear; for we should never forget that we have sinned, and that God is a consuming fire.”
III. The fear of the Lord is to obey Him
What we properly fear affects how we live.
Again, I am not talking about irrational fears.
I had, and still have, a healthy respect for my parents.
I do not cower in fright from them.
But what they say, I am going to do my best to do.
This is what I have tried to instill in my kids.
I don’t want to them be scared of me like I was some monster, but I do what them to respect me in love.
These simple illustrations reflect what it is to obey God through fear.
As a proof text for this idea, let’s look at Deuteronomy 10:
Deu 10:12 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
Deu 10:13 To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
To fear the Lord is to obey Him, knowing Who He and what He can do.
Again, this is not because we are scared of judgment.
We recognize His greatness and HIs grace toward us.
We recognize that He know and wants what is best for us.
We then respond in thankful, joyful service.
Listen, there are thing that I disagree with the government about being illegal.
However, I fear the government and the prospect of being in jail therefore I follow the laws that I do not agree with.
I want to be a good citizen.
Respect brings obedience.
To fear God is not to simply fear His judgment, but also His displeasure.
CONLUSION
- The fear of God begins with understanding two things.
- Know these well!
- The Greatness of God
- The Unworthiness of Man
- The fear of God should affect how we worship Him.
- The fear of God should affect how we live.
- The fear of God should bring us to repentance