Week 6: Fear of the Lord

Today FCA is taking part in Week 6: Fear of the Lord.

I wrote about fear of the Lord once, and am surprised to see that it is not the most popular topic on this blog or in conventional thought. While searching for a song to open up my meeting I could not find one, we like to think about God as a Savior, as a Father, but not something to be feared. It makes sense doesn’t it? Who wants to dwell on the fact that we should fear God, but really we ought to.

I’ve been plowing through Leviticus (rather slowly to be honest) and one thing that really stands out is that God is something to be feared. He is not to be taken lightly, God is to be taken more seriously than anything out there. Not a comfortable feeling huh? Well there are a few ways you can take what I just said and run with it, so let’s take a look at what fear means.

Am I speaking of the fear that gives you nightmares or makes you feel unsafe? No, God is a protector and there will never be a moment when you are under His hand that you fear for your life, that’s just not how it works. So what is this fear I speak of? Think of the feeling you get in the presence of a lion, or a thunderstorm, or a sunset. You feel this overwhelming sense of awe at the beauty before you, but you take it seriously. A lion, while beautiful, is not pedestrian; it is wild, unpredictable, awesome, and potentially dangerous. It reminds me of the quote from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, one of the kids asks a beaver if Aslan is safe and receives the reply: “Safe? Of course he isn’t safe! But he is good.” It is the same with God, God is by no means safe, but He is good.

My school is running some sort of 12-hour thing in the chapel that claims you can encounter God while He is here on earth. My first thought was something akin to humor. As if the God of the universe can be told when and where He can appear on earth. God created the cosmos! Do you think He listens to man when he calls, or does God appear to us when and how He wants to. It’s a dangerous trap to fall into, when you start thinking this is a pedestrian affair you start missing the point.

We will be taking a look at Psalm 111, which ends on the verse “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.” If you choose to follow God and approach Him with the proper standing then you are wise. If you fall into the cycle of thinking God is a distant and non-living entity then you will find yourself following a dead end.