Praise, fear & obedience

Ps 112:1 – Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.

Praise, fear & obedience – three things that are ephasized all through the Bible. Praise is easy to understand, harder to do when things are going bad and sometimes you need to exercise doing it, it doesn’t always come naturally.

Fear is greatly misunderstood. On the one hand we must fear God, like it says in this verse and many others (Ecc 8:12, Ecc 12:13, Rev 14:7) but on the other hand we are told not to fear, God has not given us the spirit of fear (2Tim 1: 7), in love there is no fear (1John 4:18), not to mention the many times in the Bible it is written: Fear not! (+-170 times)..

So what is the contradiction? Many explain it that the fear they are talking about is deep reverence, not fear as in being scared. I don’t agree. When you read about what God looks like, He most certainly will instill great fear in you when you see Him. When you consider what He can do, you should be afraid.

But that’s where the point comes in: you should fear God – and nothing or no-one else.

When you’re scared of God, with a deep reverend sacred fear, and you understand who this God is, what He has done, is doing and is going to do and what He can do – you will obey Him, follow Him and not fall off the path of righteousness. You will not be scared of anything else, because there is nothing outside of this almighty God’s absolute control.

It’s exactly because there is no fear of God, that we believe we can take chances, God will always forgive us, and He is love – all warm and fuzzy and cute and loveable… I’m sorry, that’s not the God I serve. The God I serve has a face no-one has ever seen, or you’ll die. The God I serve holds the whole universe in His hands. The God I serve destroyed nations to save His chosen people (including women and children). His voice is like thunder (Job 40:9, Ps 77:18), and the sound of many waters (Ez 43:2). If you’ve ever heard that, it is something that frightens, that instills fear.

So how can I say you should fear God, when the Bible says there is no fear in Him? God is love and He fears no one and nothing. We are not love, we strive to love and we learn God’s love, but we need to fear God with a godly fear.

Because that fear leads to obedience. And obedience to God is more important to Him than sacrifice. You want to show God you love Him? Then obey His commandments. Do what He tells you to do. Be obedient, no matter what. Yes, you can do a lot for God, you can be a prophet or give all your money away or fast every week, or face the wrath of the other religions while you spread the Good Word… but if you’re not obedient to what God asks of you, it doesn’t matter. (He will still use you and what you do, God doesn’t waste anything, including actions and effort). But what really makes Him happy, what really pleases Him – is obedience.

Read Deut 10. I think it explains it quite well.