“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. . .”
There’s something fascinating about the English language: either it is poverty stricken, so that one word has to suffice for a dozen different ideas, or we who speak it are so advanced that we can convey a dozen different concepts in one word.
For example: I love my wife and I love rice pudding. Of course everyone knows that my two reactions are quite entirely different. Can’t we afford the four words the Greeks had for love, or are we so percipient that we can always rightly divide between interpretations?
This must always be one of the problems of translation. It can seldom be a simple matter of equivalent words. A chair may be ‘chaise’ in French or ‘stuhl’ in, German or ‘silla’ in Spanish or ‘cathedra’ in Greek or ‘moshab’ in Hebrew; but what about emotions and figures of speech and abstract things?
Now when we start reading the Proverbs we are immediately faced with a similar problem. What is meant by the FEAR of the Lord? I would say that it certainly does not mean being AFRAID of the Lord.
By nature we are afraid of the unknown, of the dark, of imaginary dangers. We would have been secure in Eden, but the cold dark hostile environment outside Eden has always been a place of uncertainty, insecurity and fear – the unknown. The mountain gods and forest deities; the spirits, invisible to mortal eye, but resident in trees and rivers; the terror by night, the pestilence that walked in darkness, the unseen destruction that wasted at noonday; the stars in their courses; and Grim Death itself; all these were harnessed to fear and driven like juggernauts before which men bowed in terror, exploited by the prostitution of their imaginations by the scheming Nicolaitans of all ages.
Of these, the unknown, men were afraid; fear motivated them to obey and placate angry, vicious, greedy gods.
Ignorance and insecurity are the parents of fear – an ugly, twisted, bitter destructive child which ought to be stifled at birth; if it isn’t ,it a own offspring is hate.
By tradition and custom there is another related cause of fear. When the imaginary gods manifested themselves as men then others were taught to fear those in whom the gods were manifested. So some men recognised that if others feared them, then they would obey :they could be manipulated and exploited, bribed by rewards of the return of a small part of what had been stolen from them previously and punished by pain, physical and mental, and by death itself. So the rich man in his castle kept the poor man at his gate by fear and the iniquitous doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings.
Fear of ridicule prevents many from action; fear of failure prevents many from attempting; fear of appearing foolish prevents some from speaking or asking a question.
So fear has ruled men’s lives. Much of it unnecessarily destructive and cruel. Some fear is perhaps wholesome.
I may be prevented from falling over the cliff if fear goes before me.
I may fear toothache, so I don’t eat too many sweets.
I may be afraid of punishment, so I don’t break the law.
But are all these motivations the same wholesome fear?
THEY ARE NOT!
The first and second may be good; the third is certainly not.
Fear of punishment may have kept many men and women from straying from the straight and narrow, but it is the poorest, lowest and most unworthy and least lasting motive. Yet fear has always been used by men to ensure their fellows obey them. The dog does not steal the meat, not because it knows it is wrong to do so, but because it has been pained when it has done so previously. The man who only desists from crime because he fears punishment will break the law if he thinks he will not get found out. Fear saps the initiative, weakens the determination, inhibits action, vitiates thought and even undermines love.
What then is this “fear” which is commended in the Proverbs? It cannot be the fear which an oriental (or occidental for that matter) would have approved in his abject subjects. That kind of fear is contemptible; it is animal, not spiritual. It corrupts the one who incites it and destroys the one who feels it.
God is not honoured by any who grovel and shiver with fear, and those who do are not blessed with confidence and true happiness. Young’s lists an interesting range of Hebrew and Greek words which have been translated ‘feart’. For example:
Terror: Ex.15:16 “Fear and dread shall fall upon them”
Fear of an unknown future possibility: Josh.22:24
Uncertainty: Prov.29:25
The fear unknown to Leviathan because he is stronger than all others and therefore a fear from being inadequate: Job 41:33.
But we have still not found the fear which is positive, constructive and the foundation of knowledge.
Reflect on the following:
“In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence …. the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life” (Prov.14:26,27). “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear”(1John 4:18).
How are we to understand the different meanings of the word “fear” in these two quotations?
The second is surely fear of the unknown, an irrational emotion, enervating, arising from ignorance and superstition.
The first must be different. It must be the response of an enlightened recognition of the majesty, glory, power and mercy of God. In this God is honoured because it appreciates Him for who He is and what He has promised.
It is sincere awe – not the hypocritical grovelling of the ‘umble fawning courtier, put on in the presence of an otherwise despised human monarch.
It is genuine reverence – not the vain words of the double tongued sycophant. It is a reflection of the Divine Love itself, selfless, spontaneous, and unconditional.
In human ‘fear’ man is terrified and repelled, afraid. In this ‘Divine’ fear man is calmed, attracted, and confident. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom”, said the Lord Jesus. What kind of “fear” does that beget in us? The human terror or the divine calm? But we are afraid that we are not worthy. True, we are not; but the very confession is an encouragement to cease to be afraid.
“I am no more worthy to be called thy son …” said the young man who had come to himself; but the confession was hardly phrased in his mind when his father, who had heard the thought even when he was a great way off actually RAN to receive him home. Would the father have been honoured in the grovelling terrified abject fear offered by men who cannot believe in the Love of God? Or will not our Father rejoice in that His children are so confident that they can return after they have wandered?
Israel were afraid of God, therefore they could not fear Him. Is that clear?
“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and delivereth them” (Ps.34:7),
and the whole Psalm is a song of confidence and a personal testimony that no one needs to be afraid if they know about God.
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest …” (Heb.10:19) – BOLDNESS?
Why, only the High Priest dare enter into that Holy of Holies and that only once a year; whence this boldness which has eliminated fearfulness?
“Let us draw near with a true heart in FULL ASSURANCE of faith …” (Heb.10:22) – DRAW NEAR? What, to those fiery cherubim which keep the Way of the Tree of Life? Yes, “ye who…were far off are made nigh”
(Eph.2:13). Israel were afraid that God could not get them into His Kingdom. The walls, the giants, they were too much. Had they given then God the reverence, awe, respect, love due to Him they would not have had to go back to die in the wilderness.
If we know what God has revealed about Himself we have no need to fear Him, unless we sin wilfully, and who in their right minds would sin so grievously against such Love and against themselves? We shall not fear what men may do, for though they ridicule, God will praise; though they kill the body, they cannot destroy the character, and He will give it another body. We shall not fear even ourselves if we have given ourselves to Him. But we shall love, honour, obey, revere Him whose pleasure it is to save us from ourselves, evil men and even death itself. This is surely that beginning of all knowledge on which wisdom builds a temple in which God is Love and loved.
Reflections on the Potter and the Clay