"Fearing" a loving God

Fear of the Lord?

Is that a good or bad?

Turn with me to

Proverbs 9:10 ESV

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

What do we mean by “fear”?… or more correctly…what does the Bible mean by “fear”?

The Hebrew word translated “fear” is “yirah”

The sense in which this word is used is to “reverence”

Vines Dictionary says of

TO FEAR

A. Verb.

A. Verb.

yare˒ (יָרֵא, 3372), “to be afraid, stand in awe, fear.” This verb occurs in Ugaritic and Hebrew (both biblical and post-biblical). The Bible attests it approximately 330 times and in all periods.

Basically, this verb connotes the psychological reaction of “fear.” Yare˒ may indicate being afraid of something or someone. Jacob prayed: “Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children” ().

Used of a person in an exalted position, yare˒ connotes “standing in awe.” This is not simple fear, but reverence, whereby an individual recognizes the power and position of the individual revered and renders him proper respect. In this sense, the word may imply submission to a proper ethical relationship to God; the angel of the Lord told Abraham: “… I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (). ...

Two ends of a spectrum… Fire

Fire is a wonderful discovery…

Fire has many benefits; it ...

it has many benefits

keeps us warm

helps us cook food

provides light to see our way

it soothes us (candlelight/fireside)

But fire also has some hazards…; it can...

Burn us

Kill us

Release toxic fumes

Destroy things

The Fear of the Lord is like fire…

there is a spectrum of rich understanding that needs balance!