Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.(KJV)
There are many misconceptions about our God. We want to make Him into our image, our ideas about what is loving and true, instead of coming to Him truly we still hold that little portion back that says "I know this better than He does".
What is "the FEAR of the Lord"? Why should we fear Him? He is SUPPOSED to be loving, so how can this be true at all?
The wisdom of the proverbs gives us that this fear is a beginning point.
Ok, I've heard that this word in the Hebrew is different than our word for what we call fear. It is more of a reverence of His holiness, not really to be afraid. Really? What about those prophets who got knocked down to the ground out of their fear? Isaiah 6:5 and Isaiah 8:13
Fear:
יראה
yir'âh
yir-aw'
Feminine of H3373; fear (also used as infinitive); morally reverence: - X dreadful, X exceedingly, fear (-fulness).
Dread:
ערץ
‛ârats
aw-rats'
A primitive root; to awe or (intransitively) to dread; hence to harass: - be affrighted (afraid, dread, feared, terrified), break, dread, fear, oppress, prevail, shake terribly.
When we truly understand how powerful and holy He is, it makes us afraid...but that is just a beginning point. The Lord (when we continue to seek Him out truly) won't leave us there, but then in His kindness uses that understanding of who He is, and how powerful He is, to transform us and strengthen us in the way of holiness, to withstand all the evil and darkness that will lie in wait for us further up the road. But instead of continuing to be strengthened and to truly reject their own ways to the Lord's ways, some people instead turn away to get their "religion" from rock music, from the "wisdom of the world" and worldly wise "teachers" who do not get their information from the Holy one of Israel, and/or they turn to their own fleshly understanding... these are all terrible sources of information, truly.
The fear of the Lord is THE BEGINNING of wisdom. It (that fear) is the breaking point for many. If Abraham had turned away from the Lord when the Lord had him choose between Him and Isaac his son out of his fear, and his fleshy love of his son, would Abraham have been called the father of the faithful? Thinking of this situation in my flesh, I wonder if Abraham might have had just a smidgen of doubt and fear at the beginning of that test...but the Lord brought him through it, and through Abraham all the nations can find faith in God through Jesus.
Jesus said
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. (KJV)
That is the love God has. That is the love that God grows in His true ones, the kind of love that leaves father, mother, sister, brother, or "friends" that will flatter you into thinking you know more than God. The kind of love that trusts the Lord even though He takes everything away like He did to Job, the kind of love that could face torture and death and still praise God as Stephen did as recorded in the book of Acts.
That is the kind of love that this world has very little (does it have ANY?) understanding of. This world says to love your neighbor as yourself, but leaves off the greatest commandment: to Love God above ALL.
I have been having a difficult time accepting the fact that many that I THINK are loving and "righteous" choose their own flesh over God, and I was going through much turmoil over this. In the end I trust that the Lord really does know what He is doing, and I have to leave these lost ones with Him. He is my focus, not them. He is my all in all, not them. If they are His, they will follow Him too, and if not God is still God and the victory that will come through Him will still come regardless of who decides to fall away. Those who I have thought to be "righteous" if their righteousness is their own it is but filthy menstrual garments. Why would anyone want to keep that? Ugh! The righteousness of God purges all of THAT away, when we follow Him through the thick and the thin, and to the giving up of everything, then and only then will He give us everything.
There are many misconceptions about our God. We want to make Him into our image, our ideas about what is loving and true, instead of coming to Him truly we still hold that little portion back that says "I know this better than He does".
What is "the FEAR of the Lord"? Why should we fear Him? He is SUPPOSED to be loving, so how can this be true at all?
The wisdom of the proverbs gives us that this fear is a beginning point.
Ok, I've heard that this word in the Hebrew is different than our word for what we call fear. It is more of a reverence of His holiness, not really to be afraid. Really? What about those prophets who got knocked down to the ground out of their fear? Isaiah 6:5 and Isaiah 8:13
Fear:
יראה
yir'âh
yir-aw'
Feminine of H3373; fear (also used as infinitive); morally reverence: - X dreadful, X exceedingly, fear (-fulness).
Dread:
ערץ
‛ârats
aw-rats'
A primitive root; to awe or (intransitively) to dread; hence to harass: - be affrighted (afraid, dread, feared, terrified), break, dread, fear, oppress, prevail, shake terribly.
When we truly understand how powerful and holy He is, it makes us afraid...but that is just a beginning point. The Lord (when we continue to seek Him out truly) won't leave us there, but then in His kindness uses that understanding of who He is, and how powerful He is, to transform us and strengthen us in the way of holiness, to withstand all the evil and darkness that will lie in wait for us further up the road. But instead of continuing to be strengthened and to truly reject their own ways to the Lord's ways, some people instead turn away to get their "religion" from rock music, from the "wisdom of the world" and worldly wise "teachers" who do not get their information from the Holy one of Israel, and/or they turn to their own fleshly understanding... these are all terrible sources of information, truly.
The fear of the Lord is THE BEGINNING of wisdom. It (that fear) is the breaking point for many. If Abraham had turned away from the Lord when the Lord had him choose between Him and Isaac his son out of his fear, and his fleshy love of his son, would Abraham have been called the father of the faithful? Thinking of this situation in my flesh, I wonder if Abraham might have had just a smidgen of doubt and fear at the beginning of that test...but the Lord brought him through it, and through Abraham all the nations can find faith in God through Jesus.
Jesus said
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. (KJV)
That is the love God has. That is the love that God grows in His true ones, the kind of love that leaves father, mother, sister, brother, or "friends" that will flatter you into thinking you know more than God. The kind of love that trusts the Lord even though He takes everything away like He did to Job, the kind of love that could face torture and death and still praise God as Stephen did as recorded in the book of Acts.
That is the kind of love that this world has very little (does it have ANY?) understanding of. This world says to love your neighbor as yourself, but leaves off the greatest commandment: to Love God above ALL.
I have been having a difficult time accepting the fact that many that I THINK are loving and "righteous" choose their own flesh over God, and I was going through much turmoil over this. In the end I trust that the Lord really does know what He is doing, and I have to leave these lost ones with Him. He is my focus, not them. He is my all in all, not them. If they are His, they will follow Him too, and if not God is still God and the victory that will come through Him will still come regardless of who decides to fall away. Those who I have thought to be "righteous" if their righteousness is their own it is but filthy menstrual garments. Why would anyone want to keep that? Ugh! The righteousness of God purges all of THAT away, when we follow Him through the thick and the thin, and to the giving up of everything, then and only then will He give us everything.
Hi Susan,
ReplyDeleteGreat break down on the fear of the Lord.
Loving others is very painful especially when the ridicule and step on your love. Keeping our eyes on Jesus and knowing that He knows this pain very intimately and can help us through the difficult moments. When I am feeling trashed and abused I have to make myself think about Jesus, when He hung on that cross. He felt more trashed and abused than I every will feel. It is an honour to suffer for Him.
Blessings hon,
<><
True, Child of God. He felt the weight of sin though He never did or thought anything sinful. He got the punishment for sin that He never committed. I know the feeling of being "unjustly accused" for something I didn't do, but still I am guilty of many wrongs. He was unjustly accused and punished AND NEVER did anything wrong. I cannot even begin to comprehend that. I can say with that thief on the cross that we deserve punishment, but He deserved no punishment at all.
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