“Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.” Deuteronomy 4:10
Fear is an instinct. It is a response evoked when something scares us. Little babies know fear, and they cry. It’s built into us. The fear of the Lord is different. God is a fearful God. It is frightening to think of him in his totality. Last week we talked about God’s name being reverend. He alone is worthy of that. It’s not a title but a name and one he alone deserves. Such homage and respect is due only to him. This in itself should evoke a response of fear, not one to run from God, but to yield and bow down before him.
Micah 6:6 says “Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?” Micah is asking how he can come before such a great God. Even as humble as we could come, how can we do it? Jesus is our ability to appear before the Lord.
In Acts 10 Peter is explaining the gospel to Cornelius, a man who wasn’t a Jew. Peter said “But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” He wanted Cornelius to understand that it is a right thing to fear the Lord. God accepts this proper attitude. He doesn’t want to intimidate or bully us. God wants our respect, and unfortunately he doesn’t get much today. Mankind is losing his fear of God. Even we as children of the Lord need to be careful about it. The Bible warns us of this fact. If we maintain the proper attitude toward God, we’ll be all right.
Fear is learned. If we fear someone, something caused it. The more we learn about the Lord, the more respect we have and a greater desire to humble ourselves to such a holy God. When Moses saw the burning bush in the wilderness, the voice told him to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. Moses was afraid. The fear was not at the burning bush that wasn’t consumed but at the voice that came from it, the voice of God. When told to take off his shoes, Moses quickly obeyed. He knew he was on holy ground.
The people needed to learn why and how to fear the Lord. In verse 10 they were to gather at the mountain. Before the tabernacle, there was Mount Sinai. Today, our place of reverence is the church. It’s our house of God. We don’t come here to cook up something. This place is sacred. Jesus said his house shall be called the house of prayer. Here is where we learn and study God’s word. We see the same in verse 10. “Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear…” It was the place to learn reverence. For Israel it was the mountain, then the tabernacle. Today it’s the church.
God told Moses he would “make them hear my words.” This is the basis—the word of God. We have the written word spoken to Moses. The books of the Bible are all inspired by God. When we read Moses, we read the words of God. When we read Paul, John, David, Isaiah and all the rest, we read the words of God. We even know the words of Satan, and we know our adversary better because of it. This is how God wanted it. We find every aspect of Christianity and the whole framework of God. We see ourselves. The last book was written around 100 A.D. and it’s still like it was written for only you and for only me.
The fear of God goes hand in hand with obedience. Deuteronomy 17:18-20 says “And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.” What was good for the king was good for the subjects. God told Israel that when he gave them a king, he would be given a copy of his word. He was to read it every day, and it would teach him the proper attitude of fear of the Lord. He’ll know his place; he’ll be subject to God. He would be taught, and he would teach the people.
As shown in these verses, the fear of the Lord teaches us so that we’ll know right from wrong. The Lord is pleased with obedience and displeased with disobedience. Obedience satisfies us, and when we do our best to please God, he is satisfied. God helps us do it because we fear him. We see the right attitudes we must have toward God and each other. How unworthy we are in ourselves to know the Lord helps us keep a right attitude of fear. We need the Lord and the help and fellowship of others.
There is no secret recipe for learning the fear of God. It’s a response of faith and love. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon said “let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” If we strive to fear God and keep our personal and public life, in church and out of church, in that fear, God will give us the strength to do it. It is the conclusion of the whole aspect about the will of God—fear him and keep his commandments.
We’re not getting everything right, but when we do our best to trust the Lord, we’ll not only have him as our judge but our helper. Hebrews 12:28-29 says “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.” This isn’t said to scare us but to encourage us. God gave us grace. Let’s take it and serve him in reverence and fear.
A Christian is the happiest in the fear of the Lord. Like Moses barefoot on holy ground—was he scared? You’d better believe it. Was he happy? Absolutely. It changed his life. Does it make sense to say fear makes us happy? Yes it does when it’s the fear of God.
Grace gives us the ability to rightly fear without being afraid, even barefoot on holy ground. God help us to be barefoot in fear and stand firm on that holy ground. Our prayer should be “teach me that I might learn to fear every day of my life.”
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 