WHEN MOSES LED the Israelites out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom, they had no basis by which they could understand what freedom meant to them. They understood fear in Egypt. Pharaoh could withhold resources and impose strict punishment. “Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, ‘This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’” (Ex. 5:10-11) It was an impossible situation for everyone in the Hebrew community. The overseers reviled Moses and Aaron. “You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (Ex. 5:21) They could not see past their anxiety and have confidence that this was a necessary part of God’s plan for their freedom.
Their new freedom produced even greater anxiety. The Israelites had seen Pharaoh’s army obliterated by the falling walls of water in the Red Sea crossing, and so understood that God was more powerful—and more to be feared—than Pharaoh. Moses brought them to Mt. Sinai, where for forty days and nights he was in the presence of God as the people waited below. When he returned with the Ten Commandments, their response was one of dread. “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear.” They said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” (Ex. 20:18-19) But Moses responded to them, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” (Ex. 20:20) Scripture then shows us that “The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.” (Ex. 20:21)
Fear is a normal human reaction to danger. God created us with this capacity for our own protection. When a sudden stimulus warns us of hazard, glands located in our brains, in particular the amygdala and the hypothalamus, trigger the limbic system to flood our bloodstream with epinephrine, which prepares us for fight or flight. It is a very rapid reaction, suitable to help us quickly react in times of imperilment. Such danger can be physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, or any combination of these things. But fear can be unreasonable; for any number of causes our response can be out of proportion, sometimes grossly out of scale, with the reality of the threat. We may laugh inwardly at a child’s fear of an imagined monster under the bed; we are alarmed by the obsessive, perhaps even psychotic fears of a grown person with a similar form of unreasonable fear.
Proverbs tells us that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7), and considerably more clearly that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Prov. 9:10)
There are two ways, both of which are factual and true, to understand the biblical fear of the LORD. The first is that the word fear used in this context can literally mean to experience terror. Jesus speaks of this. “I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” (Luke 12:5) This is a most reasonable fear; this fear should inspire terror in all of us, for there is no greater danger in this life than the circumstances which condemn us to everlasting hell. The second frame of reference that contextualizes appropriate fear is found in interpreting the word not as a response to God generated by terror, but one that is inspired by love. This is the same word (“yirah,” Heb.; “phobeo,” Gk.), but now clarified by the meaning of awesome and overwhelming reverence. This is the love response to God, one that “delights in the fear of the LORD.” (Isa. 11:3) Jesus speaks also to this reverence. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)
There is an anecdotal aphorism that “some people need to be scared out of hell, and others need to be loved into heaven.” Our observations of our own and others’ faith journeys underscore that this axiom is experientially true. For all of us, it may be one or the other; for some, it’s both. In any case, it is by God’s grace that we can feel the terror and/or the reverence. A faith without experiencing these depths of emotion may be a faith that is too sterile, perhaps devoid of the deepest struggles of working out our relationship with God. Paul speaks of these extremes. He exhorts us to “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Eph. 3:16), even as he cautions us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” (Phil. 2:12)
Be both grateful and sure that when we experience a terror of God, it is because he is guiding us away from danger. Our fear is reasonable, and his guidance is that of a Father with a miscreant child—discipline is necessary to prevent a bad outcome. His love for us is great, for “God is love.” (1 John 4:17a) His highest desire for us is that we experience his love. Be worshipful, overwhelmed with gratitude, when his presence is immanent, and we are in union with him in a transcendent moment of bliss. This too is a reasonable response, one that is also appropriate to its moment.
Q. How intensely and in what way do I manifest fear of the LORD?
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