Have you ever read a passage in the Bible that seems to contradict another passage and wondered how both things could be true at the same time? If you are like me, probably so! I was thinking about that recently, when I read this verse out of Isaiah 11:2:
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
This passage talks about different manifestations of the Holy Spirit that rested upon Jesus. I highlighted the last line above because I want to draw your attention to something. It says “The Spirit of the fear of the Lord” rested upon Jesus!
Some folks read that and think, “But I thought God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear. What gives?” They are right that God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear about the devil, life, our health, finances, eternal security, etc. but that is different than the spirit of the fear of the Lord. This fear of the Lord is different than being afraid of God.. The fear of the Lord is about godly reverence and honoring the Lord above all else.
Exodus 20:20 reveals the difference between the fear of the Lord and being afraid of God better than any other passage in the Bible. It says:
20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.”
Moses told the children of Israel to not be afraid and withdraw from God, because God has come to test them to determine if his godly reverential fear is in them so they don’t sin. Unfortunately, the people withdrew and ultimately got into sin and worshipped a golden calf later in the story.
I wonder what would have happened if the people feared God instead of being afraid of God? They probably wouldn’t have withdrawn from God when He came to test them. It’s also possible when God tested them he would have seen that not enough of his reverential fear was in them so he could have given them the spirit of the fear of the Lord. That’s speculative, but it is possible as the Lord gives us what we need when we are in lack if we go to Him in faith.
While we can speculate forever about what would have happened if the children of Israel would have feared God instead of being afraid of God, the main idea I want to focus on is we should never be afraid of God and we should always reverentially fear Him. Isaiah 11:3 confirms this as it says Jesus’s delight was the fear of the Lord!
If Jesus delighted in the fear of the Lord and we are called to follow Him, we need to delight in the fear of the Lord. So what does this look like practically?
Jesus is Lord above all else in our lives. We love what He loves and hate what He hates; or at least really want to. Fearing God means we tremble at His word and we obey when He speaks. We are surrendered in every part of our life and when we find that we are not, we cry out for help like Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane so the Holy Spirit can come upon us and strengthen us to obey.
Truly fearing God is a manifestation of grace, which Hebrews 12 reveals. By the way, next to Galatians, Hebrews is probably the strongest grace book in the Bible. With that said, look at Hebrews 12:28-29:
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
I want you to notice it’s grace that gives us the ability to serve God with reverence and godly fear. The reason we do this is God is a consuming fire! God burns and when we receive His grace and have a godly reverence He can burn sin and impurities out of our life without destroying us. How does He do this? I don’t know exactly, but what I do know is He’s the only one that can burn a bush with fire and the bush not be consumed. It’s one of His mysteries and its one we should embrace so we can walk in all He has for us as part of our discipleship journey.
I hope this article encouraged you to pursue God with everything you have! I’m praying the spirit of the fear of the Lord falls upon you and lights you on fire for Him and burns out any impurity in your life!
