The Fear Of God
by Jim Reynolds(14)Shortly after we were married, my wife and I visited Grand Canyon. The cousins and such who call Tucson home dismissed our sightseeing with a cynical, “Good golly, it’s a gully” but, for one full day, we drank it in. We sat in the chill as the sun rose, splashing color on the rocks like one of those cartoon paint buckets that fills in the entire landscape with one swoosh. We spent the morning stopping at every pull-off, mesmerized afresh by a new angle and the changing light. By afternoon, we were beginning to tire, to skip some of the “points of interest,” but it was all still quite spectacular. Just driving the road felt odd and privileged because “right over there!” was something breathtaking and inexplicable, a natural wonder formed by something so utterly powerful that stone submitted to its force.
Fences have been erected at many of the tourist areas to keep people from taking what the locals call the “30 second tour.” The barriers are comically distant from the edge though, so most people venture past at some point. My lovely bride did and I still remember the feeling of being very afraid for her. She seemed to be surrounded and my heart thumped a little faster, wishing she were behind the man-made safety of the wooden rails. I feel a little foolish now, because I’ve seen the pictures. Despite my panic, she was probably still a good 50 yards from getting close to being 20 feet from having to step forward 6 paces to look over the edge. Completely safe, but so small. Still, something about the immensity of what was behind her threatened to swallow her and I was afraid.
Much has been written about the “fear of God,” and, more recently, about our complete lack of it, our disregard for the doctrine of holiness. I’ve never been comfortable with the idea of being “afraid” of God. I understand, as much as a mere mortal can, that He is all powerful, that the parts of the universe we haven’t even discovered yet still can’t contain His glory. But He is our heavenly Father, One who possesses infinite love. He knows the number of hairs on my head – and, in my case, they’re categorized by color. The Bible says we are the apple of His eye. He gave His Son to win me back from the hands of His enemy. Why should we fear the Hero of this story?
Fear has also been explained – and “minimized,” in my opinion – to “reverence.” What does it mean to “reverence” God? To submit to Him because He is an authority? To stand nearby and be respectful as if He were a school principle or a boring conference speaker? Even the slightly stronger definition of “awe” is stripped of real relationship. We don’t have to sit and gape at God from a distance like a love-struck teenager at a concert; He instead offers Himself to us.
All of these concepts seem to fall short of the Biblical version of meeting God. Every encounter with Him in the Bible leaves the human with quaking knees or passed out as if dead. When Isaiah saw Him, he cried out “Woe is me, for I am undone.” The word means to be silenced by coming to a violent end! Apparently to stand as close to Him as Isaiah is to wonder whether or not you are going to come unraveled on a molecular level.
Yet despite all this, God INVITES us forward! He dares us to approach His throne of grace and to do so boldly. In one of my favorite statements from Psalms, the poet says, “He stoops to make me great.” How can all of this work together?
While wrestling with these kinds of questions, our Youth Pastor, Scott, asked, “In the Isaiah account, why do the angels’ wings have to cover their faces?” We both agreed it was understandable that Isaiah confessed “I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.” He was telling the truth about being a liar, surely disqualifying him from the presence of One who is nothing but good. But what had the angels done that they needed to shield their faces? What could possibly be unholy about them?
Scott also pointed out the Psalm that says God lives in “unapproachable light.” I don’t claim to have the answer to these questions, but what if God being unapproachable has nothing to do with our unholiness? What if, by His very nature, He is as unreachable as our closest star? What if He is so distant, so “other,” He lives in an entirely different plane of existence, a realm unlike ours, parallel to nothing we experience? What if being “unapproachable” is as much a part of God’s character as His faithfulness or His mercy?
If so, then fearing Him has nothing to do with being afraid He might harm us. Fear would instead be the realization, the humbling acknowledgement that He is unapproachable yet inviting, that He is, in all mercy, reaching out to us and making Himself available and approachable. Unapproachable, yet inviting. Like the pretty girl who seems out of your league, but is flirting anyway. I don’t mean to be silly or crass; I’m just trying to figure out this idea myself! What if fear is all about accepting another one of those conundrums like love and wrath that can only exist side by side in such purity because He is God? Fear would be standing in the awe not only of who He is, but of how who He is doesn’t effect His willingness to “stoop.”
Perhaps to stand in fear of God is more like the photograph of my wife. Though risky, something in the grandeur and beauty of the Canyon drew her to walk past the fence, to approach the edge with caution, but also with wonder. There, for a moment, she stood in the center of something powerful and overwhelming and divine, dangerous yet compelling, wild but glorious. Safe, but small, she was privileged to occupy the same space as something alien and majestic, an entirely different element than her own flimsy flesh and blood. I haven’t asked her but perhaps it wasn’t just my heart beating a little faster.
Walk WITH Jesus,
Jim
Article submitted Thursday, June 24, 2010 & read 148 times.
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