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“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7a). This oft-quoted Bible verse has found its way into many Sunday Schools and Scripture Memory programmes. But on reflection this verse can be difficult to understand, especially if there is an incomplete understanding of what it means to “fear”.
“Fear” in everyday usage is often very negative. It is normally reserved for an extreme, crippling dread, terror, or distress situation. People fear danger, pain or harm. If we tell others that we fear God without explaining what this means, people will definitely misunderstand. We will conjure up a wrong image in our listeners’ minds: a caricature of God as an Apathetic Almighty who gleefully crushes people under harsh indictments.
On a fundamental level, we must recognise that God is Almighty. In His presence, we will inevitably fall far short of His unapproachable light. The Prophet Isaiah saw God in a vision seated on a throne. He couldn’t help but exclaim: “Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). Likewise, the natural reaction of people when they recognise how great God’s glory and holiness is, will be to fear Him. There is no other possible reaction. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that the Lord is God.
But there is another side to this fear. Christians as God’s children can fear but not be afraid (A.W. Tozer). A lovely passage from Hebrews 12:18-24 describes this contrast beautifully. It contrasts Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses the Ten Command-ments, and Mount Zion, the city of the living God. Where Mount Sinai was blackness and darkness and tempest, Mount Zion is filled with light and peace: the company of angels, the Church, and Jesus. The same Almighty God is present on both Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. But through the blood of Jesus that reconciles us to God, God accepts us as His children and the quality of “fear of God” is changed by “love of God”.
As God’s children, fear will be tempered by love to become an alloy most wonderful and strange: we will fear but not be afraid. The famous singer/songwriter Chris Tom-lin’s song, ‘Whom Shall I Fear’, goes: “The One who reigns forever, He is a friend of mine. The God of angel armies is always by my side.” Indeed, the God who reigns forever and whom we rightly ought to fear, is also our special friend and most loving heavenly Father. This is the paradoxical beauty and joy of the “fear of God” belief and practice of our Christian faith.
