Learning To Fear God

by Chris Simmons

In Deuteronomy chapter 31, we read of Moses’ final exhortations, prior his death, to all of Israel before their entrance into the promised land. His exhortations included the need to be “strong and courageous” (verses 6-7) and to remember that God would go with them in order that He might fulfill His promise to give them the promised land as an inheritance (also verses 6-7). Moses then wrote down the law that God had given to him (verse 9) and commanded that the law be read every seven years (verses 10-11). Moses said there was a purpose to the reading of the law: he said in verse 12 that it was “in order that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law. And their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live on the land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.” Learning to fear God is what leads to the observance of His will and being blessed by Him.

Above all else, Moses made it clear that learning to fear God is a direct by-product of our reading, reflection and mediation of His revealed will. In Deuteronomy chapter 4, Moses exhorted all Israel to respect God’s authority by neither adding to nor taking away from His word (verse 2), by holding fast to it (verse 4), and by doing His will (verse 6). Moses reminded them of their assembly before God at Horeb “that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live.” When God foretold of their desire to be like all the other nations and have a king (other than God), He reminded them that when God chose one to be king, that the king would be responsible for writing himself a copy of the law in the presence of the priests and that “it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes” (Deuteronomy 17:18-19). If we hope to learn to fear God, we must learn to turn off the other things in our life and learn to spend the time with God’s word that we need to develop the proper fear of Him.

What type of fear for God are we to learn? The Hebrew word used in Deuteronomy 4:10 and 31:12 is yare' which is defined in Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words as “‘standing in awe.’ This is not simple fear, but reverence, whereby an individual recognizes the power and position of the individual revered and renders him proper respect.” We need to learn to show God the reverence, honor and respect that He rightfully deserves.

Learning to fear God begins when we start recognizing God as our Creator. Throughout Old Testament scripture, God is referred to as our “Maker.” That is, He who has made, produced or prepared all things and all people (Proverbs 22:2). When we stop and humbly consider that we are simply the work of God’s hands, we will begin to learn what it means to fear, honor and reverence our Maker. David wrote in Psalms 119:73, “Thy hands made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments.” As that passage notes, there is an ongoing relationship between God’s word and our recognition of Him as the One who “made me and fashioned me” in that it should prompt us to return to God’s word continuously to grow in our understanding of what God desires from us. Isaiah expressed this thought well in Isaiah 64:8, “But now, O LORD, Thou art our Father, we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and all of us are the work of Thy hand.” Ongoing reflection on the fact that we are but “the work of Thy hand” and that “it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves” (Psalms 100:3) should fuel our efforts to learn and grow in our fear, honor and reverence towards Him.

Learning to fear God also comes through our understanding that God is all-knowing, all powerful and is always with us. When we choose to stop thinking about the fact that God is always aware of every thought, word and action, we will fail to develop and maintain proper godly fear. Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 29:15-16, “Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD, and whose deeds are done in a dark place, and they say, ‘Who sees us?’ or ‘Who knows us?’ You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, that what is made should say to its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” In contrast to the attitude that says “who sees us?” is the attitude expressed by David who understood that he continually lived his life in the presence of God. Psalms 139:1-3, 7, “O LORD, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways … Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence?” Jonah learned that we can never flee from God and that He is always with us wherever we may go. If not completely disconcerting, should it not at least teach us godly fear when we think about the fact that God is “intimately acquainted with all my ways”? Those who walk with God, live with the understanding that God sees and knows our hearts each and every day. Job stated in Job 34:21-25, “For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, and He sees all his steps. There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. For He does not need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment. He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry, and sets others in their place. Therefore He knows their works, and He overthrows them in the night, and they are crushed.” Solomon stated in Proverbs 5:21, “For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He watches all his paths.” Will we not let this truth teach us to fear our heavenly Father?

Finally, we will learn to fear when we reflect on what God’s word says about our eternal destiny. Paul wrote in II Corinthians 5:6-10, “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord – for we walk by faith, not by sight – we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” It indeed is “a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31) in a sinful or undone condition. By the grace of God however, anticipation of the final judgment doesn’t have to be a dreadful proposition. Through the forgiveness found in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:7), our godly fear can actually provide us with a sense of longing and anticipation to be with the Lord. Paul, motivated by fear, had this attitude as he expressed it in Philippians 1:21-23, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better” (Philippians 1:21-23). May we use the prospect of standing before the throne of God one day to help teach us the fear, reverence and awe for God that we need today.

It is the universal need of all man to learn to “fear God and keep His commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Through our study of His word, and our reflection on the fact that He is our Creator, that He is always with us and that we will stand before Him one day, may we learn to fear Him.