“The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life…” (Proverbs 14:27, ESV)
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Proverbs 9:10, ESV).
“The fear of God is… astonished reverence. I believe that the reverential fear of God mixed with love and fascination and astonishment and admiration and devotion is the most enjoyable state and the most satisfying emotion the human soul can know.” (A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship)
In his quite difficult to read (for me) but profound book, Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer writes about the fear of God:
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| Isaiah cried out 'Woe is me!' He fear God. He saw the Holy One, he realized his sinfulness. |
“In olden days men of faith were said to ‘walk in the fear of God’ and to ‘serve the Lord with fear’. However intimate their communion with God, however bold their prayers, at the base of their religious life was the conception of God as awesome and dreadful. This idea of God transcendent runs through the whole Bible and gives color and tone to the character of the saints. This fear of God was more than a natural apprehension of danger; it was a nonrational dread, an acute feeling of personal insufficiency in the presence of God the Almighty.
Wherever God appeared to men in Bible times the results were the same – an overwhelming sense of terror and dismay, a wrenching sensation of sinfulness and guilt. When God spoke, Abraham stretched himself upon the ground to listen. When Moses saw the Lord in the burning bush, he hid his face in fear to look upon God. Isaiah’s vision of God wrung from him the cry, ‘Woe is me!’ Daniel’s encounter with God was probably the most dreadful and wonderful of them all.
Conversely, the self-assurance of modern Christians, the basic levity present in so many of our religious gatherings, the shocking disrespect shown for the Person of God, are evidence enough of deep blindness of heart. Many call themselves by the name of Christ, talk much about God, and pray to Him sometimes, but evidently do not know who He is. ‘The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,’ but this healing fear is today hardly found among Christian men.”
[Quote from A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: Harper & Row, 1961), Page 78]
Walk in the fear of God
Serve the Lord with fear
Do you fear God?
THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.
Isaiah 33:6
ReplyDeleteHe will be The Sure Foundation for your times,
A Rich Store of Salvation and Wisdom and Knowledge;
The Fear of The LORD is The Key to this Treasure.
Thank you for this post. I'm about to finish reading it and thoroughly grateful
someone is writing what needs to be said; though from history and even in the bible
Fear of The LORD has always been lacking and an issue since the beginning of human history.