Dear friends,

Start here.

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Have you ever wondered?

If you are like me, you have blown past verses like this one…

[Psa 111:10 KJV] 10 The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do [his commandments]: his praise endureth for ever.

…many times with the simple takeaway that “the fear of the Lord is a good thing.” A true statement….but obviously, there is a lot more in these verses than that! Surely, the Holy Spirit is not randomly assembling wise-sounding statements that don’t have any concrete meaning. So, how do we dig deeper?

You may have also wondered how to reconcile the plethora of “fear of the Lord” verses with this verse:

[1Jo 4:18 KJV] 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Are we supposed to fear God or not? And if so, what kind of fear is this?

Today, we’re mostly just going to present several very simple Biblical examples of fear of the Lord. These anecdotes should not be difficult to understand, and they will give us a foundation for further exploring the fear of the Lord in the next post, God willing.

Is this a big deal? Yes, this is a big deal.

In case you are wondering how big of a deal this is in the Bible, consider the frequencies of these phrases:

• “Fear of the Lord”: 30 hits
• “Fear of God”: 8 hits
• “Feareth the Lord”: 7 hits
• “Feareth God”: 5 hits
• “Fear the Lord”: 30 hits
• “Fear God”: 10 hits
• “Feared the Lord”: 9 hits
• “Feared God”: 5 hits
• “Fearing the Lord”: 1 hit
• “Fearing God”: 1 hit

That’s a total of 106 hits. So, yeah….this is a huge topic in the Bible! Let’s go to some Biblical narratives to get some context…in other words, let’s interpret the Bible with the Bible.

Live oxen good; dead oxen bad

[1Sa 11:7 KJV] 7 And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent [them] throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the FEAR OF THE LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.

Basically, newly anointed king Saul needed to raise an army to defend a certain region of Israel from imminent attack. If you read chapters 10 and 11, you can get several clues as to why Saul took the very confrontational approach that he did, but I’m going to bypass those for brevity.

So, what does “fear of the LORD” mean in this story? It’s not too complicated: I fear that my oxen will be killed, so I will obey the command of Saul, who has been duly anointed king by a prophet of the LORD.

Can’t touch this

[2Sa 6:6-9 KJV] 6 And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth [his hand] to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook [it]. 7 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for [his] error; and there he died by the ark of God. 8 And David was displeased, because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzzah: and he called the name of the place Perezuzzah to this day. 9 And David was AFRAID OF THE LORD that day, and said, How shall the ark of the LORD come to me?

Uzzah touched the ark to prevent it from falling, but this was a violation of Numbers 4:15:

[Num 4:15 KJV] 15 And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear [it]: but THEY SHALL NOT TOUCH [ANY] HOLY THING, LEST THEY DIE. These [things are] the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.

(And here is strong evidence that the ark was indeed a “holy” thing:

[2Ch 35:3 KJV] 3 And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the HOLY ARK in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; [it shall] not [be] a burden upon [your] shoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel,)

Also, it should be noted that Exodus 25 spells out how the ark is to be carried; using staves which have been run through 4 rings which were attached to the ark. God did not say anything about using a cart. If they had followed this command, they would not have had to deal with stumbling oxen in the first place.

Anyway, this whole affair made David “afraid of the LORD” that day. Is it hard to understand what is meant by “And David was afraid of the LORD that day”? No, not really. God had just struck Uzzah dead for touching the ark. This made David afraid of any further violations of the LORD‘s prescribed methods for handling the ark. David did not want any more casualties.

Life lesson: Don’t lie to God when you are donating to the church

[Act 5:5 KJV] 5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great FEAR came on all them that heard these things.

Ananias had lied to the church about what percent of his assets he was actually donating. Peter confronted him about it, and he dropped dead. I don’t know if God actually struck him down, or he died from shock. Either way, God is clearly involved in this story:

[Act 5:3 KJV] 3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back [part] of the price of the land?

[Act 5:4 KJV] 4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

Given later verses in this chapter that talk about the many signs and wonders wrought by the apostles, it is most likely that Peter knew about Ananias’s subterfuge via miraculous revelation from the Holy Spirit.

So what does it mean when it says that “great fear came on all them”? Simple, it means everybody was afraid of lying like Ananias, because of the LORD‘s omniscience and his recent miraculous exposing of Ananias, and subsequent confrontation in front of the apostles.

2+2=4

I think you will agree that the three examples I just gave are similar to how we sometimes use the words “fear” and “afraid” in our own day and age.

So, in the simplest possible terms: The fear of the Lord in these stories refers to the fear of the Lord’s punishment for disobedience.

God is not to be trifled with. In all three of the stories I presented, either an animal or a person died. So, if you are considering going your own way; if you think God is dead; if you think the 21st century is a good time for mankind to finally outgrow such outdated notions as theism; if you believe in God but you don’t think he really gets your situation, and you have figured out a better way; if you think the temptation is greater than the tools and resources God has given you to resist, and you plan to yield to the temptation; if you think God got the universe started but he’s not concerned about your daily decisions; if you think that the Bible has gone through so many copies and translations that it’s no longer possible to tell what God really thinks about anything; if any of these hypotheticals applies to you or me, then we should be afraid.

But this is not the whole story. God bless, thanks for reading, and please come back for Part 2.