“The Fear of the Lord is the beginning…”

…by Greg Heisy

I was asked by Don Hoover to take a closer look at the concept of “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” which is Ps. 111:10

I broke it down into parts, and started with the first half of the phrase: What is ‘The Fear of the Lord’?

Over the next several days I studied each mention of ‘The fear of the Lord, The fear of God; God-earing in the Bible. I asked the Holy Spirit to give me His understanding of that phrase" The Fear of the Lord”. On the surface, it would appear that ‘The Fear of the Lord means being afraid of the power of God, the wrath of God, the vengeance of God, the justice of God, the ‘eye for an ‘eye-ness’ of God’s retribution.

These are some of God’s attributes that lead people to fear Him. It’s these scary attributes of God’s character that cause many surfacy believers not to trust God, but rather, to fear God. (Maybe you remember one of the most famous lines from C.S. Lewis’ “The Tales of Narnia”,where Lucy is curious about the mysterious Lion King, Aslan, whose distant roar strikes terror into the heart. She asks, “Is he safe,” and the reply comes back, “no, He is not safe, but He is good.)

My thoughts about the meaning of the phrase, The Fear of God were similar to C.S.Lewis’ analysis of Aslan. Did you happen to notice that I have switched from the phrase “The fear of the Lord” ,used in Psalm 111:10, to the Fear of God, used mostly in the Old Testament! I have come to believe that ‘The fear of God’ and the Fear of the Lord are two different things! Here’s an example of the use of the phrase, “The Fear of God”, from the Old Testament in 2nd Chron 20:29-30 29 “The fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard how the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel. 30 And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.”