Fear God alone - by Lohn Heaton
This aspect of fear is real and the Scriptures record occasions when God’s enemies and His people were so stricken. One has only to consider Belshazzar witnessing the hand writing on the wall, Israel at Mt. Sinai, or Isaiah in the presence of God’s holiness to understand fear in this sense. Christians who are wholly committed to the goodness of God generally tend to view these events as anomalies, exceptions to the rule of God’s grace. Perhaps they are right. After all, I haven’t seen any detached hands, smoking mountains, or pillars rattling down around my feet lately.
These events, however, are recorded in part to serve as signposts to God’s nature. They set the stage for the deeper treatment of fear in God’s Word. In the final analysis, God does not normally confront us in ways that evoke strong emotions of fear; rather, He commands us to fear Him, as though it were a choice. Touch the Bible in either Testament and you will find it replete with exhortations to fear God and keep His commandments. When read in isolation we miss the burden of these warnings and are tempted to take God less seriously than He intends. We satisfy ourselves with errant notions that God really doesn’t want us to be afraid. Such ideas lead to anemic Christianity.
The apostles and prophets unanimously teach us that fear is a choice, something we must will to do. The Scriptures urge us to decide what we will fear and what we will not fear, indicating that fear is something we consciously control. At bottom, Scripture teaches that we must fear God and no one else.
In Isaiah’s day the ancient Syrians conspired with Israel to threaten Judah with annihilation. Under the circumstances King Ahaz and his people “were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind” (7:2). They felt fear the way we normally experience it, as raw emotion. In the face of slaughter, however, Isaiah boldly commanded both king and people, “Do not … be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread” (8:12–13).
By calling his people to regard God as holy, and to fear Him, the prophet was establishing the fact that fear is fundamentally an ethical choice. In other words, we conform our lives to the mandates of those whom we fear. If on the one hand we fear others, we will seek to appease them or defend ourselves improperly. Ahaz himself feared both men and other gods. Not surprisingly, we find him making unholy alliances with Assyria, and sacrificing his firstborn son to Moloch. Such extremes serve to illustrate that misplaced fear leads to ethical chaos. Failure to fear God leads to moral disorientation, and subjects us to the tyranny of whatever else we fear in His place.
If, on the other hand, we fear God, we need not fear anything or anyone. Fear is an appropriate motivation in Christian piety; in fact, it is essential to true piety, and it is commanded by God. The Hebrew midwives feared God and fearlessly ignored Pharaoh’s orders to kill their male children. So the issue is never to fear or not to fear; the question is rather, Whom shall I fear? Over and over the Scriptures teach us to fear God, and no one else. ■
Heaton, J. (1996). A Pastor’s Perspective: Fear God and No One Else …. (R. C. Sproul Jr., Ed.)Tabletalk Magazine, October 1996: Fearing God, 54–55.
