Fear of God
January 9, 2012 | 
Author After [the re-dedication of the restored temple] had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.” As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled.
~ Ezra 9:1-3
Can you say that you have the same fear of God that Ezra displays here? The Jews, God’s ‘chosen people’, were a people group “set apart”. they were to be holy to the Lord and that included a list of 603 civil and ceremonial laws that separated them from all the people around them. At the heart of many of these laws was the provision that they were not to mix with other people groups – not out of some sort of supremacy, where they thought that they were pure and the rest of the world was impure (though that did happen), but because mixing with other people meant a combining of families, traditions, and – eventually – religions. It would water down their faith and reduce their “different-ness” in the sight of those who were not part of this chosen people group. In light of this revelation that the people of Israel, now in captivity or dispersed when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had captured the land promised to them by God, had opted to forsake their heritage and inter-marry with the people in the lands that they were now inhabiting, Ezra reacts with furious repentance.
Was he angry at the people? No, he was reacting in fear of God. Tearing your clothes and pulling your hair is a sign of anguish and humility – he is, on behalf of the people of God, humbling himself before the Lord. He didn’t sit and ponder its implications for a while, or discuss it over dinner, he immediately recognized what this news meant to the people of God and he reacted as he would if his children had been murdered before him. This is the dedication that he has toward God – that he knows God, the heart of God toward His people and what God required of them, and in that knowledge, he has also grown to love and respect God and the power that God has over all of His creation. This is the same God who spoke and the universe leapt into existence, who created the earth to be inhabited, then created its inhabitants and placed man on the earth, created in His image, to rule over this world and everything on it. This same God then selected a certain people group, promised them land, fulfilled this promise under the pretense that they would serve Him according to His laws – and when they had separated themselves from this promise, He did as he said He would do and allowed in other rulers to oppress them and eventually remove them all from the land. And here they stand, on the precipice of finally coming back into the land – the temple that they had built to this God who is finally delivering them from the captivity and oppression that they’ve experienced for the last 70 years was coming to an end, and he finds that the ‘People of God’, had been sinning against God even more while they were being punished for their sins against Him. This is the God that Ezra is reacting to – this is the God that Ezra is in fear of.
In the rest of this chapter we learn that because of his public call for repentance and humility, most of the people followed in repentance and, when God’s answer to them came that they should separate themselves from the wives they’ve taken, symbolizing their repentance of their allegience to foreign gods, they follow through, despite the pain that will cause them.
Dear Christian, are you in tune with God to the point where you know what He despises in your life? Do you know the God who, through the death of His Son on the cross on your behalf, has purchased you? Do you react in the same manner as Ezra when you see people outside of the church sinning against Him? Is your heart broken when you see people in the Church living in sin? Do you collapse in repentance when you see sin in your own home or in your own life? Our nation, our churches, our homes, and our lives need a good solid injection of the fear of God. To understand not only His loving-kindness and long-suffering, His love and mercy, but also His power and glory, His justice and severity. With a proper understanding of these things, no one will want to sin and our hearts will be broken for those who we see who live in open rebellion against God. Resolve today to ask God to fill you with fear and respect for Him and to prompt you on to transform your own life, your own home, your own church, and, as a result, your own nation to honor the God who has redeemed us all. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Will you do the same?
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Why is it that I do the things that I do? Fear of God. In one way or another, everything we do is related to our fear of God. From the most pious legalist who reads their Bible 87 times a day and stands in fiery indignation over anyone who can’t hold to their standards of holiness, to the atheist who responds to their conscience and occasionally helps people outside of their own natural character, and everyone in-between. All of this, is from the fear of God.
So, what is the fear of God? The Bible sure has a lot of references to it. While the exact phrase “fear of God” is used only eight times in the ESV, references to fearing God appear over 100 times throughout the Bible. Adam, in the Garden while hiding himself and trying to cover his sin, said “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself” (Gen 3:10). In Genesis 8:15, Sarah, after initially laughing when she heard God tell her husband that she, at nearly a hundred years old, would bear a son, lied to God because “she was afraid“. I think one of the greatest portions of text on this subject comes from Isaiah chapter 6:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!“ ~ Isaiah 6:1-5
What an awesome and horrifying image! To stand before the throne of the King of Glory, the God of all creation, and to see His power and majesty? How can you not cry out with Isaiah in that same place and ask God to forgive all of your sins? The same can be said for people who God has chosen in the past as heralds of His message to the people. Each of these people have heard directly from God on a specific subject and they were called to go and tell everyone about it. Those experiences produced in them a fear of God that led them, through the rest of their lives, to follow Him as they had been called.
So, what about those of us who haven’t seen God’s throne room directly or heard from Him audibly? How are we to fear Him, or even to know to fear Him? God has revealed Himself to us in two different ways. First, He has placed into our hearts His law (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10, 10:16), as well as “eternity” (Ecc 3:11) which R.C. Sproul explains in his Reformation Study Bible as: “The heart knows that history is not meaningless, but is frustrated in its efforts to discern the pattern of events”. Second, God has also revealed Himself to us in nature:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ~ (Romans 1:18-20)
So, if all of us know about God, and He has revealed Himself to us, how should we respond? Jesus, who said that He was the Son of God and then proved it when God the Father raised Him up from the dead (Acts 13:30; Romans 1:4), has told us clearly:
I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! ~ (Luke 12:4-5)
So, how does that translate into our lives? The atheist or agnostic, who outwardly rejects the “notion” of God as one rejects butter for their baked potato still acts morally in relation to the law of God that He has placed into their hearts along with the understanding that God really does exist and that there will be a day in which they will have to account for their deeds. They, much like a religious “seeker”, who attends church for the experience and to stamp their “religion” card as they live their lives in their own sight, do so because they too have eternity in their hearts and know that there must be something more than we can see in this life in store for them. Everyone, in one way or another, finds ways in which they can appease their guilt which God has provided as a gracious gift for us. Everyone has a fear of God in them in one way or another. Most people seek to fill this fear with a religious experience – something that they can do “for God” to appease Him. God has made Himself very clear through the Bible – you are wholly destitute before God (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:23), and there is nothing we can offer Him (Psalm 51:16), but He has provided a way for us to be reconciled to Him (John 3:16-18). Most people, however, reject that offer in favor of a god of their own making – one that will enable them to keep their pet sins while religiously judging the pet sins of others. That’s the case with Islam, Mormonism, Hinduism, etc.
How should a saved Christian respond to this fear? As everyone should – with reverence toward the King of all eternity, with fear and trembling before the God who will judge all in the last day, with awe-filled wonder at the might He displays and the works of His hands. When I feel a desire to sin: a lustful thought that I allow to linger little long, decisions made based on my desires instead of prayerful consideration, thoughtless words laid out before others, what we take in through our eyes on television or our ears through our music, or even how we respond to those we love the most – our spouses or our children… In those times, where is the fear of God before my eyes? Every act, every word, and every thought is already weighed in my mind before it comes out and each response is a choice. All of these are seen in relationship to how much I desire to have my thoughts expressed, or my desires fulfilled. The struggle is a battle between my own pride and how much I fear God. Who, at that moment, is more important to me? That is the battle that ultimately decides what I will and will not do. I am confident that even in the atheist, the agnostic, the religious “seeker” (Mormon, Muslim, Catholic, Evangelical Christian, Hindu, etc), and the converted and transformed Christian – in everyone the battle is the same.
It is my prayer that my daily walk would open up with a direct and firm understanding of the God of the Bible – who stands strong and unmoving, yet cares enough to shape my life into the likeness of His Son, and that everything that I think, do, and say would be a reflection of that God who is working in my life and what He has done for me. May all of you focus a little more on your fear of God today, and may you think a little harder on why you are choosing to act in the way that you are.