The Fear of God - 1

I know that it is a bit early to being talking about fear. Usually when it comes to fear and scary things, we of course think of Halloween. But this series that we are going to jump into will take us all the way through October (4 weeks). It’s about fear. But not just fear like we normally think about it. It’s about the Fear of God.

So, that being said, what’re you afraid of? What are some of your greatest fears? (take a few from the crowd) Some common fears are dentists, heights, spiders, water, public speaking, and of course…clowns! These are just to name a few. Everyone has something though, that they are afraid of. Here are the top ten phobias in the United States, according to World Atlas (https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-most-common-phobias.html)

Let’s see if you can figure out what these are just based on their names:

Mysophobia - Fear of dirt.

Agoraphobia - Fear of going to public places.

Social Phobia - Fear and anxiety of being in a social event or situation.

trypanophobia - Fear of hypodermic needles and injections

Astaphobia - Fear of lightning

Cynophobia - Fear of dogs

Aerophobia - Fear of flying

Acrophobia - Fear of heights

Ophidiophobia - Fear of snakes

Arachnophobia - Fear of spiders

Mysophobia

Now that being said, most people don’t enjoy being afraid or having some sort of phobia. Although…some people do enjoy it. Sometimes we like being afraid or frightened. Why do you think people spend so much money and time watching/making horror films that just seek to cause fear. Fear can be as little as something that makes you mildly uncomfortable to something that legitimately causes you to be terrified for your life.

Fear of The Lord

Read

There is a lot of talk about fear in the Bible. One phrase though that is commonly used to describe our relationship with God is “The Fear of the Lord.” As we just read, says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” The verses surrounding verse 7 deal with the importance of wisdom and instruction for “righteousness, justice, equity” (). However, the beginning of this wisdom begins with “fearing God.” Throughout the Bible the fear of the Lord is described as something to be desired. Something that was a good thing. But that seems confusing. Normally, as we said earlier, fearing things isn’t a good thing. And it even sounds like it’s contrary to other parts of the Bible where we are taught specifically to not fear anything.

There is a lot of talk about fear in the Bible. One phrase though that is commonly used to describe our relationship with God is “The Fear of the Lord.” As we just read, says, “

We’ve got to look at the context though. The “fear of the LORD” in Scripture is about a reverence, awe, and honor that is given to an all powerful, yet loving God. See, in the original hebrew language that this was written in, the word for fear is yir’ah. In the context, and I know that this isn’t an english class and that you guys aren’t in school at the moment but stick with me here. With the Lord in this sentence as the object, this word fear is used in two ways at once. The first way is as we usually think about reacting to fear: shrinking back. But the second part, which sounds contradictory, is a sense of drawing close in awe and amazement. It’s not a trembling dread that paralyzes everything (action and thought), but neither is it just polite reverence. It’s both.

This fear isn’t running from our scariest horror film villain or the thing that scares us most in life, it’s not even a distant respect for God. It comes from a relationship with God that stresses and emphasizes that He is both all-loving and all-powerful. It’s recognizing that God is God above everything. Everything. And yet He, the very being who created literally everything wants to have a personal, deep, and close relationship with you.

Healthy Fear of ____

This is a bit of an abstract thing to grasp, especially at your age. What are other things that we can have a “fear” of that aren’t by themselves malicious and dead-set on causing harm to us? Fire is a great example that comes to mind. Fire can be used to see in a room or to light our birthday candles or cook delicious mouth-watering food. It can also destroy an entire forest, house, or even a city. It can carry a tremendous power. We (or so I hope), all have a healthy fear of fire. We know it, get close to it, but also respect it’s power and potential.

Volcanoes are another. Volcanoes can do amazing things. They can create islands and new land, but we know that we must have a healthy fear of their power and capability so we won’t be cavalier and reckless when approaching them.

There are times when we should have a healthy fear of something, and then we don’t, and we suffer the consequences. This can be seen in our national parks. They deal with this problem regularly: that during tourist season, there is a serious lack of respect (“fear”) for the wild animals in the parks. Tourists routinely ignore safety rules, signs, and precautions that have been communicated to them (such as staying twenty-five feet from animals like bison and one hundred feet from bears and wolves); instead of heeding warnings, they try to treat wild animals like pets or friends. This results in some confrontations occuring between people and wild animals each season. Here’s an example:

https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/yellowstone-warns-visitors-to-keep-distance-from-wildlife-following-bison-attack

says, “

Fear of God also relates to knowledge. You can only truly know God if you fear Him first.

Dentists,heights,spiders,water,publicspeaking,andofcourse...clowns!This is just a small list of what people can be afraid of. Everyone struggles with some sort of fear (Allyson Horn, “Phobias: The Ten Most Common Fears People Hold,” ABC News Australia, May 1, 2015, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-01/ten- of-the-most-common-phobias/6439210). Sometimes we might even like being afraid; why do think people spend so much money to watch horror films that mainly incite fear? Fear can be as little as something that makes us uneasy to something that causes us to be terrified for our lives.

TheBibletalksalotaboutfear.Onephrasethatisusedtodescribeour relationship with God is “the fear of the Lord.” says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” The verses surrounding verse 7 deal with the importance of wisdom and instruction for “righteousness, justice, and equity” (). However, the beginning of this wisdom begins with “fearing God.” Throughout the Bible the fear of the Lord is described as something to be desired. But does that mean we should be afraid of God?

Weshouldalwaysconsiderthecontext.The“fearoftheLORD”inScripture emphasizes a reverence, awe, and honor given to an all powerful, yet loving,

God. “With the Lord as the object, yir’ah (fear) captures both aspects of shrinking back in fear and drawing close in awe. It is not a trembling dread that paralyzes action, but neither is it polite reverence (Plaut, p. 32). ‘The fear of the Lord’ ultimately expresses reverential submission to the Lord’s will and thus characterizes a true worshiper” (Allen P. Ross, “Proverbs,” in Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary 5, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991], 907). This fear isn’t running from our scariest horror film villain or even just a distant respect for God. It comes from a relationship with God that stresses both his love and power.

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