Wednesday Bible Study: Fear

 

A few days back, a relative had an adverse reaction- to a Bible verse I posted on social media.  While the verse's overall theme- and my intent- was to show God's mercy, it used early on the word, "fear".  Her reaction was, basically, God has always been here for me, helping me out when my life was messed up, and now I'm supposed to be AFRAID of Him?  I tried to explain, that 'fear' in this context didn't mean a "He's scary" as much as it indicated a step beyond reverence, and that the way she interacted with God was fine IF she was a believer and obedient.

Which is a good answer for a FB comment.  But her question is a good one, especially if you haven't really dug into your Bible.  And I thought today, I could expand on it a bit.

There are three big groups of people who really could look at the word fear three different ways.  The first group fits exactly what I said in my reply.  If, you believe in the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins, and you do as God told Abraham:

Gen 17:1  When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless...

This is the obedience God asks.  And again, here the words in English aren't exactly the best way of reading it, because the Hebrew and Greek of the originals express so much more than the English of today,  Blameless does NOT equal "perfect".  Take David for one example.  He is described as "a man after God's own heart", and with the many mistakes he made, how could that be?  Because every time he made a mistake, he came right back in repentance and humbleness to God.  With the one exception:

1Ki 15:5  because David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. 

It was there that David compounded one sin with the next and the next, until he was FORCED to come in repentance.

The second group of people are those like three examples I have in mind- Samson, Saul, and Solomon.  Understand, then, the Spirit didn't come and STAY with someone, as He does after the promise of Christ.  If you acted against God, He left- and that happened to these three.  For the sake of this study, let's apply the same lesson from them to us.  Because while the Spirit won't LEAVE a believer now, He WILL go silent.

Saul thought he could do God's will HIS way. You know, pray the occasional prayer, when you're in deep enough, forget to thank Him for all He's done, the "God is for Sunday" attitude.  In the end, he found himself, alone, cut off, with God refusing to answer his prayers ( 1 Samuel 28:6), until at last he paid for his disobedience with his life.  This can happen to us if we choose to believe but not really LIVE like we do. 

Samson was a bit different:  He didn't disobey God, except in ONE THING- and that thing brought him to the same place.  God didn't QUITE abandon him as he did Saul- but he did "walk away", and he did not know that the LORD had left him. (Judges 16:20).  Here the ending was he came back to God, but God did not spare him the consequences of his actions:

Jdg 16:28  Then Samson called to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 

Jdg 16:29  And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 

Jdg 16:30  And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. 

So here, the Lord DID answer him in mercy; but He DIDN'T stop the world coming down on top of him.

Solomon, we just went through his story in three parts, so to sum up: He chafed at not being able to do what only God can do, and spent a lifetime trying to see how to just do it himself- only to find that he couldn't- to do it himself was "vanity, and a chase after the wind." (several places in Ecclesiastes)  His surrender and return to God benefited all of us who read Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon- but the forfeit was his son- who followed the earlier example rather than the later, and destroyed Solomon's kingdom.

The third kind of people are those who do NOT believe.  Where the first kind have fear as something that reminds them God is merciful, and the second have the reminder that they need to respect God for the consequences of 'partial obedience', these third have one great thing to fear, and Jesus says it over and over:

Mat 10:28  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 

The unrepentant sinner, the unbeliever, THEY have something terrible to fear- there is a limit to God's mercy to them.  Jesus died to give them a way to escape judgment; they are rejecting it, and Him.  In the end, they should fear themselves, because they are condemning themselves to hell.

So yeah, the fear of the Lord can be a confusing concept- IF you do not read your Bible, if you don't look for someone to explain it to you.  But if you DO these things, Solomon will tell you:

Pro 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.