Several times throughout Scripture we find the command, “Do not fear.” Now, it has been said that it is repeated a total of 365 times. While I don’t think that it occurs that much, it probably is true that it could rightly be called the most frequent command given in the Bible. (I tried to count it myself but gave up. It certainly is said a lot of times but more likely not the 365 often claimed.) This does not mean that Christians are to be fearless however. Actually, the Bible calls us to be fearful. We are repeatedly commanded to “fear God” and told that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). We are to be fearful of God and not of anything or anyone else.
This fear of God is not a cowering in a corner afraid that God is going to somehow strike you down for something that you have done or didn’t do. That He is in some way out to get you. Rather, it is being in awe of God. In awe of who He is. Of His majesty and worth. Being in awe of His great love for you and the mercy that He has shown you in Christ. An awe that leaves you amazed and trembling at the same time. Think back to a major storm that you have witnessed. Where you saw the strength of the wind and the destruction that it brought about. Didn't it leave you with a feeling of dread and amazement at the same time? That it could pack such a punch making strong sturdy trees bend over like straws and moving things that you could only dream to pick up. Part of you feared for your life and the other part just couldn't get over the strength of such a storm. It was not something that you would ever want to tangle with or be on the opposing side of but you marveled at it. (Such is the reason why the one who has this type of fear of God runs to Christ in order to be reconciled to God and marvels at the forgiveness he or she finds in Him where he or she is so undeserving of it.) This is the kind of awe and amazement the disciples had of Jesus when they witnessed His power and authority over the wind and the waves. When they exclaimed, “Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (Mark 4:41). The kind of awe and wonder which John Newton wrote about that we sing today. ''Twas grace that taught my heart TO FEAR and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed." It is the respectful fear that a child has towards his father. Wanting to honor and please him. Not wanting to cause him to frown.
Our problem then typically is not found in being fearful but in the fact that our fear is misplaced. When it comes down to it, we frequently fear man more than we do God. We find ourselves more concerned about what others may think or say about us than we are about what God does. We become more afraid of offending others by not agreeing with them than we are of offending God by sinning against Him. People appear to be so much bigger to us with God seeming to be so small. The reason why Abraham wound up lying, not once but twice, concerning his relationship to Sarah, was because he clearly was more fearful of what the people might do to him should they find out that she was his wife rather than being fearful of dishonoring God by failing to tell the truth (Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-18). King Saul even states that his disobedience to the Lord resulted from his being afraid of the people (1 Samuel 15:24).
The only way for us to overcome our fear of man is to fear the Lord instead. It is the fear of the Lord that casts out all our other fears. I’ve heard it compared to the staff of Aaron gobbling up the staffs of the Egyptian magicians when they were turned into snakes (Exodus 7:12). The fear of God “gobbles” up every other fear that we may have. We see this once again illustrated for us with the disciples’ witnessing of Jesus calming the storm. At that moment, they were no longer afraid of the wind and the waves starting up again but of the One who had power and authority over such. They wind up being more afraid of Jesus than they had been of the storm itself. Their fear of Jesus was greater than their fear of anything else. Their fear of the one who is Lord over the storm trumped their fear of the storm. The Hebrew midwives could courageously defy the orders of the Pharaoh when it came to his command to murder all the male Hebrew children born due to their fear of God (Exodus 1:17). They did not fear the king and the consequences of disobeying him because of their fear of the much greater King and of going against what He would have them to do. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego clearly must have feared God more than the fiery furnace when they chose to disobey Nebuchadnezzar's order to bow down to the statue rather than disobey God in worshiping it (Daniel 3). And the same must have been true of Daniel. For him to continue in obedience to the Lord in prayer knowing what would be awaiting him could only have been on account of him fearing the Lord more than he did the den of lions (Daniel 6). William Gurnall put it well when he wrote, “We fear men so much, because we fear God so little. One fear cures another. When man’s terror scares you, turn your thoughts to the wrath of God.” If we want to be free from the crippling and paralyzing fear of man, we need to cultivate the fear of God in our lives.
And when you think about it, it only makes sense to be fearful of God and not man. After all, we will not be standing before man one day to give an account for our actions but God and the worst that any man can do to us on this earth is take our physical life. They cannot harm or destroy our soul at all. As Jesus reminds us, “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” (Matthew 10:28). And if the Lord is on our side, as the Psalmist says, we have no need to fear anyone else because “what can man do to me?” (118:6).
If we want to grow in this fear of God, we need to continually fix our thoughts on God and learn more about Him in His Word. This will also keep how much greater and more powerful He is than anything in His creation before our eyes. God had the Israelites assemble at the foot of the mountain for them to hear His words “so that they may learn to fear” Him “all the days that they live on the earth” (Deuteronomy 4:10) and the king was to read God’s law all his days “so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes” (17:19). May God increase our fear of Him and decrease our fear of others as we come to know Him more from His Holy Word.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Lee
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