A fear that leads to humility

Is 44:6-8 - Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”

Why are we not to fear? The Lord, the King, the Redeemer, the first, the last, the only God who knows what is to come and what will happen has told us, “Fear not!” There is no Rock like our Rock. There is nothing as sure as God. As we remember our God in the midst of fear, we gain perspective that virtually replaces our fear from that on earth to the fear of our God in Heaven. We have heard it from Him. We are not to fear.

Ps 55:19 - God will give ear and humble them, he who is enthroned from of old, Selah because they do not change and do not fear God.

The promise is that we will be humbled if we do not change and do not fear God. We should be changed by the fear of God. It should change how we see our future, interact with people and deal with situations. It is prideful to fear because when you fear you are relying on yourself. God gives us none other than himself as the solution for all life’s problems and worries. And as we humble ourselves in the fear of God, he will exalt us as James 4:10 promises, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

A fear out of love

Dec 29, 2007

Is 44:2-5 - Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.

We are commanded to fear not because the God who made us, formed us and chosen us will help us. It really is that simple. IF we remember our creator and sustainer and our Lord, we will not need to fear. There is nothing greater than our God who reigns in holiness and goodness. The name Jeshurun is a poetical name for the Israelites which means “upright or straight.” It is a name like when Simon became Peter or Jacob became Israel. God calls his people a name which expresses his intimacy and love for them and gives them a way to see this fear they feel. Our mighty and intimate God says, “Fear Not!”

2 Sa 23:2-4 - “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: ‘When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.’

When someone rules in fear of God, the world is righted. The result of living the name Jeshurun is light and brightness. I love this verse.

fear and glory

Dece 28, 2007

Is 43:5-7 - Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

The beginning and end form an incredible truth that we should mediate on deeply… Fear not for I am with you…because I created you for my glory, whom I formed and made. Because we were created by an almighty God who was created for God’s glory alone, we can rest in absolute peace that nothing will hinder God in doing what we were created to do.

Nu 25:11 - “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them.

I so love the description of Phineas that I would name my child after him, if it weren’t such an unusual name. What a epigraph. Do we have the same zeal for God’s glory? The anger of God was turned away from the sin of the Israelities because one man zealously feared the glory of God. These two verses form an incredible truth for which we need to take to heart. Fear keeps a man from bringing man glory, while fearing God brings Him glory. Fear gives a great glory to whatever is that has more power than God. Fearing God gives all power to God and thus brings him glory.

It's a wonder we fear

Dec 27, 2007

Is 43:1-3 - But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.

These verses so paint a picture of why we should not fear, I fear it is hard to improve on them. But, I do want to make an observation, which is that it isn’t if we got through waters or through rivers or walk through fire, it is when. We all walk through these fires in life and when we do, we are to fear not, because our sovereign and powerful God who looking back has created us, redeemed us and called us by name. As we look forward we also realize that he will be with us, that He is our savior. God is behind and before us and beside us.

2 Sa 7:22-24 - “How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. And who is like your people Israel—the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? You have established your people Israel as your very own forever, and you, O Lord, have become their God.

There is no one like our God. The wonders he has done should lead us to fear Him and Him only. He has proved himself over and over again. He redeems us, performs great and awesome wonders, and he has established us as his own, forever… There is no one to fear!’

Hearts enlarged

December 26, 2007

Is 41:14 - Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

The Israelites are commanded to not fear because God is the one who helps them. The term “worm” is how they are referred to by other nations in that they are despised, weak people. But, God assures them that despite what the others think, that God is the Lord, the one who redeems them, the Holy One. The words that are in this passage are significant. The Lord is sovereign. Nothing can happen apart from his control. Redeemer means to buy back. Holy One means that nothing evil comes from Him. So putting them together, we understand that we don’t have to fear because the Lord that is in control is both good and intimately merciful. The more we understand our Lord, the stronger we will live.

1 Sa 12:24 - But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.

As in the previous passage, this too emphasizes the importance of knowing God’s character as a basis for fearing and serving Him. If we don’t know Him or don’t consider the great things He has done for us, than our hearts will grow smaller and our perspective of problems will grow bigger. It is when we consider the great things He has done and the great God that He is that our hearts are able to deal with situations in perspective because we fear our God!

Fear, Serving and Obedience

Dec 25

Is 41:13 - For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”

We are commanded to “Fear Not!” But this command is surrounded by two comforting promises. This verse is broken into three parts, and for each part, God clarifies His authority and identity by saying “I”. I, the Lord your God. I Say to you. I am the one. And the two comforting promises that surround the command are that he holds our right hand, like a father to a child, to guide, protect and to offer assurance that he helps us. The reason we fear not is because he is intimately involved in the affairs of our life to protect and help us.

1 Sa 12:14-15 - If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God—good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers.

It is impossible to separate our fearing the Lord, serving the Lord and obeying the Lord. These three seem to fit together as one. I do not think it is possible to do one without the other. You will not obey God without fearing Him. You cannot fear Him without serving Him. You will not serve Him if you do not obey Him. In this verse there is an encouragement and a warning. It is a striking image that when we fear Him, his hand his holding our hand. But when we do not fear him, his hand will be against us. It is so apparent how fear can be used for good or for bad. And, so much rides on how we treat this emotion. Will we in our lack of faith fear those circumstances around us? If we do, not only will our peace be disturbed, but God’s hand will be against us. But, if we seek Him in faith in our fear, God will hold our hand and He will help us.

Give and Help

Dec 24

Is 41:8-10 - But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Once again, God offers himself as a solution for his command not to fear. He has chosen them, called them and the led them. He is with them, He is their God, He will strengthen, help and uphold them in righteousness and in intimacy. It helps when the one giving the command is able to back up their command with the help needed to obey the command. There is one things commanded in this situation, “Fear not!” Everything else is accomplished by our Father in Heaven.

Dt 31:12-13 - Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

In order to fear the Lord, they must first listen to His words, and then they must learn to fear the Lord and then carefully follow all the words of the Lord. There is a process to fearing the Lord, and it comes by knowing not only how God has acted on behalf of the people and what He has commanded the people but by also being obedient to his commands. Fearing God leads to obedience. When we know who it is we are fearing, it changes our actions. Thus, God is both the giver of the commands and the helper in the commands. These two connect because it is the words of the Lord that leads us to fear the Lord so that we will not fear anything.