Back in the late 1970’s, while
Mary-Esther and I were pastoring the West Berlin Church of the Nazarene, one of
our German parishioners gave me an audio cassette. On it, a German pastor presented
a new way of understanding “the fear of the Lord” in scripture. Over the years,
as I have reflected on it, the concept has slowly matured in my mind. It is
still a work in progress, but I have not yet read anything quite like it.
When the average parishioner is
asked, “What does the biblical concept of the ‘fear of the Lord’ mean,” the
answer will vary widely. The one most people give will tend to gravitate toward
being afraid of God’s wrath if we don’t do what He wants. John Calvin writes of
a Christian standpoint which points to a sincere desire not to disappoint Him
or to disgrace His name.
The Scriptures themselves seem to
indicate that the practice of the fear of the Lord elevates the human
condition. Here are a few examples from scripture that speak to the benefits of
fearing the Lord.
1. “The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Prov. 9:10; Psa. 111:10)
2. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools
despise wisdom and instruction.” (Prov. 1:7)
3. Isaiah even brings
this theme into connection with his prophecy about Jesus, A shoot will
come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of
understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the
knowledge and fear of the Lord— and he will delight
in the fear of the Lord. (Isa.11:1-3)
When Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes,
he was likely an older man. He had seen and experienced, in abundance,
everything human beings long for – love, wealth, and power. He was arguably the
wealthiest man in the world (his annual income of gold alone was $3 - $4
billion in today’s value), and was king of the most powerful nation in the Middle
East.
He wrote about how all his
possessions, his wives and concubines, and his power did not satisfy him. He
considered them all vanity and/or useless. In the last paragraph of
Ecclesiastes, he addressed some final remarks to his son and articulated an all-important
principle. He told his son to beware of anything that would seduce him away
from a life of wisdom:
"Now
all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his
commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." (Eccl. 12:13)
The significance here is that Solomon
links these two commands together and seems to give them equal billing. We know
to obey God’s commandments. They formed the basics of the code of ethics in
both the Old and New Covenants. But in addition to his, from this perspective,
the question becomes, “What makes fearing God so crucial? What makes it such a
bottom-line issue?” What is it about the fear of the Lord that leads to wisdom?
What makes us fear to let God down or dishonor His name?
There must be something more
fundamental to a godly life, both for individuals and society. There are
several places, found in the wisdom literature, where light is shed on the
answers to these questions.
As a child, on his
father David’s knee, Solomon first learned and gained an appreciation for wisdom
and the Fear of the Lord. It was David who wrote: "Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the
Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your
tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it." Psa. 34:11-14, (quoted in 1 Pet. 3:10-12)
Later, it was Solomon who passed
on his father’s teaching when he wrote in Prov. 8:13:
"To
fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and
perverse speech."
In these two passages we see both
positives and negatives of four practical principles which go to the core
values of this concept. We will examine each of these in greater detail in
future posts.
1. A commitment to truth,
2. A pursuit of peace,
3. A life of humility, and
4. A life-style of doing good.
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon seems to
be suggesting that these values or attitudes constitute the fear the Lord, and when
present, create in us the desire to keep the Commandments. To “Fear the Lord”
means to commit to do what God loves, and not do what God hates, no matter what
it may cost.
Each of these four positive
attributes also have their counterparts: 1) telling the lie, 2) sowing strife,
3) being prideful, and 4) doing evil. We will see further implications
of this relationship later in our study.
We also see how the
seven deadly sins encapsulate the antithesis of the Fear of the Lord. The words
evil, pride, the lie and the spreading of dissention are all found there.
"There
are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes,
a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked
schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out
lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers." (Pro. 6:16-19)
My current working definition of
the fear of the Lord is to take God seriously and obey Him above everything
else in all He commands and does.
In the next several posts we will
attempt to unpack each of these four ethical principles and show their
significance to the Christian witness in complex culture*. There are many ways
in which each of these four concepts are intertwined with major biblical themes.
Furthermore, if practiced as a lifestyle, they provide the attitudes that render
in us a desire to keep the Commandments.
Tune in next time for more. What
do you think?
*See a previous post on my concept of
“complex culture”.
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