The Fear of God

      Exposing the Full Truth about God


      By Grantley Morris


      God is warm. He is so tender, indescribably loving and lovable. Made perfect in the sight of the fearsomely Holy One by being enveloped in Jesus’ spotless purity, we can spiritually get so mind-bogglingly close to Almighty God that we can snuggle into his very heart, reveling in his goodness in rapturous peace and contentment.

      In links below I have devoted thousands of words to developing this thrilling theme. To embrace the full, glorious truth about our magnificent Lord, however, we must not permit the intimacy we can enjoy with the most loving Person in the universe to lull us into letting his indescribable superiority shrink in our estimation. To exploit his love is more foolhardy than tampering with a nuclear warhead. A billion nuclear explosions are a gentle sigh relative to the fury of his righteous anger.

      The God of everything that will ever exist is so vast and mind-blowingly complex that it is beyond our capacity to embrace the full truth about God. Every time we grow a little in our understanding of one aspect of his nature, it seems to push from our minds other, equally significant, aspects of his nature. It is like a need to carry in our arms a thousand loose tennis balls at the one time. So I worry that in our minds the truth mentioned in this webpage could displace the truths we desperately need to cling to of God’s love, forgiveness and patience.

      The Lord and Judge of all is so patient, forgiving and tolerant of evil that we get impatient with him when we see the evil in this world that he patiently endures. But God’s goodness demands that there be an end to his tolerance. He cannot be good and not blaze with fury when people he loves do things that hurt other people he loves. He can be patient for a long while, but he cannot be good and forever leave evil unpunished.

      Here’s a prayer that I suggest you read to God before plunging into this page.

        Father,
        I long to know you in all your wonder, beauty, perfection, goodness, gentleness, power, love, patience, holiness . . . O, Lord! You are so magnificent that I can’t imagine even adequately completing this list, much less exploring the depths of each item. Please vastly increase my capacity to know you. Protect me from a seriously distorted view of you that would hinder me from reaching the enormous spiritual potential you have seeded within me through Christ.

        Cause me to make it my ever-increasing, lifetime quest to keep falling both more in love with you and more in awe of you than I could ever imagine.

      “David was afraid of the LORD that day” (2 Samuel 6:9). What day? When the ark of God was in danger of falling and Uzzah touched the ark to steady it. “The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God” (2 Samuel 6:7).

      “ . . . and all the people greatly feared the LORD . . .” (1 Samuel 12:18). When? When, to show his displeasure about the Israelites wanting a king like other nations, the Lord sent a thunderstorm that destroyed their harvest. This was more than a demonstration of power; it was a devastating blow to their livelihood. A couple more such instances and they would be facing not just a severe economic downturn but starvation.

      After an encounter with God:

        Numbers 17:12-13 The Israelites said to Moses, “We will die! We are lost, we are all lost! Anyone who even comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to die?”

      It is commonly thought that to fear God means to respect him. This is correct but what often escapes us is that it means to respect God like someone operating a circular saw respects the whirling blade. A skilled workman who loves his job is not nervous when using his saw. Nevertheless, he knows that if at any moment he fails to act wisely, the consequences can be devastating.

      You might recall reading of the terror of many Old Testament people when they had a supernatural close encounter. Often angels had to reassure those they were appearing to by telling them not to fear. Most likely there was a certain fearsome quality about the very appearances, even though it was no doubt toned down so that humans could bear it. (This is probably a major reason why angels often appear in human form.) However, it seems the primary reason for these people’s terror was that they believed it was impossible to see God and live:

        Judges 13:22 “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!”

      We might be tempted to dismiss this as superstition, but even the great prophet Isaiah reacted that way:

        Isaiah 6:5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

      Even to Moses, who saw God’s “back,” the Lord said:

        Exodus 33:20  . . . “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

      So when we read, “The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend,” (Exodus 33:11) it is clearly a figure of speech referring to intimacy and openness, and was never intended to be understood that he saw God’s actual face.

      Moses reminded the Israelites of their reaction at Mount Sinai (Horeb) when they heard the audible voice of God:

        Deuteronomy 5:24-29 And you said, “The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived? Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey.” The LORD heard you when you spoke to me and the LORD said to me, “I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good. Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever! (Emphasis mine)

      Later, Moses again referred to this event and cited it as the reason for the Lord providing prophets. Moreover, Jesus – the Son of God become man – is the ultimate fulfillment of the Almighty speaking through human flesh because of our inability to have direct contact with the full glory of God (Acts 3:20-26; 7:37).

        Deuteronomy 18:15-19 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.

      The devastating power of God’s presence is such that not even the New Covenant can change this fact of life:

        1 Timothy 6:16  . . . who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. . . .

        John 1:18 No one has ever seen God . . .

      This truth is repeated in the First Letter of John:

        1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God . . .

      The most overwhelming divine encounter is like a split second glimpse through welder’s goggles at the sun from planet earth, 93 million miles away.

      The Almighty is more astounding than our imaginations can cope with. Just as no one could walk on the sun and live, so – at least this side of eternity – no one could survive seeing God. What seems like a harmless pinprick in the night sky is actually a mighty sun many times more powerful than our own sun. What makes it seem harmless is the enormous distance between it and us. Likewise, if you have little fear of the Lord, it is proof of your distance from him.

      As I have said elsewhere:

      Ideally, we should be so in love with God that fear doesn’t factor because God’s happiness means so much to us that we would rather die than sadden him. If we truly loved, to know we had disappointed the Lord would devastate us so much that something terrifying could not make us feel any worse. Nevertheless, there is genuine reason for fear.

      If few of us have this fear of sinning against God, it is not because we live in the age of grace, but because we barely know the God of the New Testament; the God who in Acts struck Ananias and Sapphira dead, killed Herod for his pride, and blinded Elymas for opposing Paul; the God of the Corinthian believers who were afflicted, or even killed, for the flippant way they treated holy communion; the God into whose hands, warns Hebrews, it’s a fearful thing to fall; the God whom Jesus said is the one Person in the universe to fear because he alone can destroy body and soul in hell (Scriptures).

      The Judge of all the earth is our Father. Do we see this as an opportunity to be lax or do we see the implications of the Judge being our father the same way Scripture does?

        1 Peter 1:17 Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.

      Translators, as they wrestled with the hard to explain concept, added the word “reverent” to the original text of the above verse. They chose the expression “reverent fear” to differentiate between the way God’s obedient children fear God and the way we would fear a monster. Nevertheless, Scripture emphasizes that if we disobey, there is genuine reason for fear, and that’s why the translators knew they would not be completely true to the text if they merely said “reverence” and omitted all reference to fear.

      Rarely do we view disobeying the Almighty Lord with the seriousness that God does. It is said a pirate killed a man. He was so horrified by his sin that it ruined his sleep for days. Yet he kept killing. He reached the point where he could murder someone and sleep like a baby, using the corpse as a pillow. We, too, having been surrounded by sin all our lives, have a conscience that in many areas has become disturbingly dull, and we must fight Satan’s attempt to keep us that way.

      The apostle Paul pleaded with us to behold both the kindness and the severity of God (Romans 11:22). Let’s keep praying for the grace to keep both truths in focus so that we might fall deeper and deeper in awe and in love with the most astounding and beautiful Person in the universe, whom to know is life eternal.


      Vital Links

        God Loves Everyone: The Terrifying Implications

        Why God’s Anger is Comforting

        Does God Love Me? God’s Love Revealed to You

        Coping with Guilt Feelings

        Life’s Mysteries Explained Encouragement when Feeling Defeated by Sin


        Warning: This website is H-U-G-E! More Topics


        Not to be sold. © Copyright, Grantley Morris, 1997, 2005. For much more by the same author, see www.net-burst.com These writings may be freely copied provided this entire paragraph is included and it is not placed in a webpage, nor in anything that is sold. For use outside these limits, written permission is required. Freely you have received, freely give.