War for Awe

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

The first battle for awe.

Eve was listening to the devil more than she listens to God.

The devil offered, godlikeness. Godlike power, godlike control, godlike centrality.

Rather than being fine with the awe being on God and her being a servant, she desired to be the one whom the awe was placed on.

And the war began.

Genesis 4:1-8

Genesis 4:1–8 ESV

1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” 8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

Cain brought an offering of fruit, but it wasn’t his first fruit.

He may have had awe for God, but not enough to bring his best. He regarded himself as worthy of the best.

If he would have had awe for God, he would have repented and came back with a more excellent sacrifice.

He didn’t have a sibling problem or a sacrifice problem. Cain had an awe problem and these other issues grew from that root.

Exodus 3:1-5

Exodus 3:1–6 ESV

1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Moses is called, and has a display that leaves Him struck by awe, afraid to look at the splendor standing before God.

Exodus 3:10-12

Exodus 3:10–12 ESV

10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

God will be with Moses, he won’t have to worry.

Exodus 4:10-13

Exodus 4:10–13 ESV

10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” 13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”

We see Moses making exusses, trying not to go.

Even though Moses had awe of God, his fear of his own inadequacy and political danger had blinded him to how awesome the one was who was calling him.

The awe of God that Moses had, had been superceded by his fear for the Egyptians.

If we have awe in the wrong thing, it will stop us from having awe in God.

Exodus 20:18-19

Exodus 20:18–19 ESV

18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”

The people are afraid to approach God.

Exodus 32:1-4

Exodus 32:1–4 ESV

1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

Our awe of God can be quickly displaced.

We desire to make god’s that are less intimidating. God’s who we have created and we can manage. They are less frightening.

1 Samuel 17:8-11

1 Samuel 17:8–11 ESV

8 He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

Here is the giant, but instead of standing in awe of God and remembering His strength. They are in awe of Goliath and afraid of him and his strength.

1 Samuel 17:26

1 Samuel 17:26 ESV

26 And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

David has awe of God, he isn’t afraid of the philistine because He knows who God is, he trusts in the living God.

David had a life-shaping, courage-imparting awe of God.

Misplaced awe makes you feel unable, alone, unprepared and afraid.

Misplaced awe will make you try to control that which cannot be controlled, and anxious when you cannot control it.

Awe of God produces courage, hope, and boldness to take action.

Matthew 2:16

Matthew 2:16 ESV

16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

The awe of Herod was on himself. He cared about his kingdom, his rule his honor. It caused his to slay all children under two.

Misplaced awe leads to murder, even genocide. It is behind abuse, rape, terrorism. When our awe is on the wrong things it leads to the worlds greatest atrocities.

Mark 9:30-34

Mark 9:30–34 ESV

30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. 33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

They are on the road, Jesus is telling them about the most sacrificial act…ever, and the disciples are arguing over which of them is the greatest.

The disciples were with Jesus, learning from Him. If you would have asked if they love Jesus they would have said yes. Yet they were placing themselves at the center of the story rather than Jesus.

I’m beginning to see this in churches today, we hear it on the radio. We are at the center, it’s about how Jesus loves us, what He can do for us. These statements are true but we must remember that our worship and praise needs to be on Him, not ourselves.