God as the Object of Fear
“Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord.” (Ps 128:1).
“Fear God.” (Rev 14:7).
This exhortation is not found only here in the text. In several other places in Scripture, it is pressed with great force upon the children of men (Eccl 12:13; 1 Pet 1:17). I will not trouble you with a long introduction, nor will I spend time discussing the context. Instead, I will turn immediately to the words themselves and briefly treat the fear of God. The text presents us with a matter of the greatest importance: God and the fear of him.
First, the words present us with God, the true and living God, maker of the worlds and upholder of all things by the word of his power. He is that incomprehensible majesty in comparison with whom all nations are less than the drop of a bucket and the small dust of the balance. He fills heaven and earth and is present everywhere with the children of men, beholding the evil and the good, for he has set his eyes upon all their ways.
Since the text presents to our souls the Lord God and Maker of us all, who will also be either our Savior or our Judge, reason and duty bind us to pay more earnest attention to what will be said. We must be more careful to receive these things and put them into practice. For as the words present us with the mighty God, so they exhort us to the highest duty toward him, namely, to fear him.
I call this the highest duty because it is not only a duty in itself, but also, as it were, the salt that seasons every duty. No duty we perform can possibly be accepted by God unless it is seasoned with godly fear. Therefore the apostle says, “Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear” (Heb 12).
I wish to speak about this fear. But because the word fear is used in various ways in Scripture, and because it may be profitable for us to see this variety, I will proceed by showing you the nature of the word in its several meanings, especially its chief meanings.
First, by the word fear we are to understand God himself, who is the object of our fear.
Second, by the word fear we are to understand the Word of God, the rule and director of our fear.
We will now consider the word fear in the first of these senses.
God Himself Is the Object of Fear
By the word fear, as I have said, we are to understand God himself, who is the object of our fear. The divine majesty often goes under this very name.
Jacob called him by this name when he and Laban quarreled together on Mount Gilead after Jacob had escaped toward his father’s house. Jacob said, “Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty.” A little later, when Jacob and Laban agreed to make a covenant of peace with each other, Laban confused the true God with false gods in his oath. Yet “Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac” (Gen 31:42, 53). By the fear, he meant the God of his father Isaac.
Indeed, God may rightly be called the fear of his people. This is not only because they have, by his grace, made him the object of their fear, but also because of the dreadful and terrible majesty that is in him. “He is a mighty God, a great and terrible,” and with God “is terrible majesty” (Dan 7:28; Dan 10:17; Neh 1:5; Neh 4:14; Neh 9:32; Job 37:22). Who knows the power of his anger?
“The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him” (Nah 1:5-6).
His people know him and have his dread upon them. By this dread, a godly awe and reverence for his majesty is created and maintained in them, one that agrees with their profession of him. “Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” Set his majesty before the eyes of your souls, and let his excellence make you afraid with godly fear (Isa 8:13).
There are several things that make God the fear of his people.
His Presence Is Dreadful
First, his presence is dreadful. This is true not only of his presence in general, but even of his special, most comforting and joyful presence. When God comes to bring a soul news of mercy and salvation, even that visit, that presence of God, is fearful.
When Jacob traveled from Beersheba toward Haran, he met with God along the way in a dream. In it he saw a ladder set upon the earth whose top reached to heaven. From the top of this ladder he saw the Lord and heard him speak, not threateningly or as though his fury had risen into his face, but in the sweetest and most gracious manner. God greeted him with promise after promise of goodness, eight or nine in all, as you will see if you read the passage.
Yet when Jacob awoke, all the grace revealed to him in this heavenly vision could not keep him from dread and fear of God’s majesty. “And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not; and he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen 28:10-17).
At another time Jacob received that memorable visit from God in which God gave him power as a prince to prevail with him. God also gave him a name whose remembrance would help him call God’s favor to mind. Yet even then and there, such dread of the majesty of God came upon Jacob that he went away wondering that his life had been preserved (Gen 32:30).
A person crumbles to dust at the presence of God, even when God shows himself to us in his robes of salvation. We have read how dreadful and terrible the presence of angels has been to people, even when the angels brought them good news from heaven (Judg 13:22; Matt 28:4; Mark 16:5-6). If angels, who are only creatures, are so fearful and terrible in their appearance to us because of the glory God has placed upon them, how much more dreadful and terrible must God himself be to us, who are only dust and ashes!
When Daniel received from heaven the vision of his salvation, the messenger said, “O Daniel, a man greatly beloved.” Yet the dread and terror of the person speaking fell with such weight upon this good man’s soul that he could neither stand nor bear up under it. He stood trembling and cried, “O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me” (Dan 10:10-17).
See, then, whether the presence of God is not dreadful and fearful, even in his most gracious and merciful appearances. How much more dreadful is it when he shows himself to us as one who disapproves of our ways and is offended with us because of our sins?
Three things especially make his presence dreadful to us.
1. God’s Greatness and Majesty
The first is God’s own greatness and majesty. The revelation of this, or of himself as no poor mortal is able to conceive him, is altogether unbearable. The person to whom he reveals himself in this way dies. John says, “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead” (Rev 1:17).
This was what Job wished to avoid when he desired to approach God. He said, “Let not thy dread make me afraid. Then call thou, and I will answer; or let me speak, and answer thou me” (Job 13:21-22). Why did Job speak to God in this way? It was because he sensed the dreadful majesty of God, the great and dreadful God who keeps covenant with his people.
The presence of a king is dreadful to a subject, even if the king behaves very graciously toward him. If there is so much glory and dread in the presence of a king, then consider what fear and dread there must be in the presence of the eternal God.
2. His Presence Reveals What We Are
When God gives his presence to his people, it causes them to see more clearly what they truly are than they could see by any other light. Daniel said, “O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me.” Why was this? Because by the glory of that vision he saw his own vileness more clearly than at other times.
Again he said, “I was left alone, and saw this great vision.” And what followed? “And there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength” (Dan 10:8, 16).
When we truly experience the presence of God, even our best things, our beauty, holiness and righteousness, immediately turn to corruption and polluted rags. The brightness of his glory dims them, just as the clear light of the shining sun extinguishes the glory of a fire or candle and covers it with the shadow of death.
We see the same truth in the prophet Isaiah’s vision. He said, “Wo is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” What had happened? How did the prophet come to see this? He explained, “For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa 6:5).
Do you think this outcry was caused by unbelief? No, nor was it produced by servile dread. This was a vision of his Savior, with whom he had already enjoyed communion (Isa 6:2-5). It was the glory of the God with whom he now had to do that turned his beauty into corruption, just as it had with Daniel. It gave him a still greater sense of the vast difference between his God and himself, and so a clearer sight of his defiled and polluted nature.
3. The Revelation of God’s Goodness
Add to this the revelation of God’s goodness, and his presence must become dreadful to us. When a poor, defiled creature sees that this great God, notwithstanding his greatness, has goodness in his heart and mercy to bestow upon him, this makes God’s presence still more dreadful. They “shall fear the Lord and his goodness” (Hos 3:5). The goodness of God, as well as his greatness, produces in the hearts of his elect an awe-filled reverence for his majesty.
“Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence?” Then, to engage our souls in this duty, he adds one of his wonderful mercies toward the world as a motive. “Fear ye not me?” Why, who are you? He answers that he is the one “which have” set, or “placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it” (Jer 5:22).
When God was present with Job and revealed the goodness of his great heart to him, what did Job say, and how did he behave in God’s presence? “I have heard of thee,” he said, “by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).
What do the trembling, tears, breaking and shaking of heart mean when the people of God receive from his mouth an extraordinary declaration of the forgiveness of their sins? They mean that their sight of his mercy is mingled with a dread of the majesty of God.
God must appear as himself and speak to the soul as himself. When the sinner is under these glorious revelations of his Lord and Savior, he cannot keep the beams of divine majesty from the eyes of his understanding.
“I will cleanse them,” says God, “from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.” And what follows? “And they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it” (Jer 33:8-9).
Sadly, there are many poor, frivolous and shallow professors in the world who behave under what they call the presence of God more like jesters than sober, thoughtful Christians. They behave more like fools in a play than people who are in the presence of God. They would not behave this way in the presence of a king, or even of the lord of their land, if they were receiving mercy from his hand.
Even in their most extraordinary seasons, they behave as though the sense and sight of God and of his blessed grace toward their souls in Christ tended to make people reckless. In truth, it is the most humbling and heart-breaking sight in the world. It is fearful.
[Objection:] Would you not have us rejoice at the sight and sense of the forgiveness of our sins?
[Answer:] Yes. But I would also have you, and indeed you will, when God truly tells you that your sins are pardoned, “rejoice with trembling” (Ps 2:11). Then you have solid and godly joy. A joyful heart and tear-filled eyes go very well together in this, and this will be true to a greater or lesser degree.
If God truly comes to you and visits you with the forgiveness of sins, that visit removes your guilt but increases your sense of your filth. The realization that God has forgiven a filthy sinner will make you both rejoice and tremble. Oh, what blessed confusion will then cover your face as you, even you, so vile a wretch, stand before God to receive your pardon from his hand, and with it the firstfruits of your eternal salvation!
“That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame,” because of your filth, “when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God” (Ezek 16:63).
His Name Is Dreadful
Second, as the presence of God is dreadful and fearful, so is his name. Therefore his name rightly bears the same description: “That thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD” (Deut 28:58).
What is the name of God but that by which he is distinguished and known from all others? Names distinguish one thing from another. Thus humanity is distinguished from beasts, angels from humanity, heaven from earth, and darkness from light. This is especially true when a name signifies and expresses the nature of the thing named, as names did in the beginning.
Therefore the name of God is the object of our fear because his name expresses his nature: “Holy and reverend is his name” (Ps 111:9). Again, he proclaimed the name of the Lord: “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty” (Exod 34:6-7).
His names I Am, Jah, Jehovah and others are intended to express and declare his nature, including his power, wisdom, eternity, goodness and omnipotence. Therefore the name of God is the object of a Christian’s fear.
David prayed that God would unite his heart to fear his name (Ps 86:11). Indeed, the name of God is a fearful name and should always be reverenced by his people. His “name is to be feared for ever and ever,” not only in his church and among his saints, but also in the world and among the nations: “So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all kings thy glory” (Ps 102:15).
God tells us that his name is dreadful and that he is pleased to see people afraid before his name. One reason he executes so many judgments upon people is that others may see and fear his name. “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun” (Isa 59:19; Mal 2:5).
The name of a king is a name of fear: “And I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts” (Mal 1:14). The name of a master is a name of fear: “And if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord” (Mal 1:6). Indeed, rightly fearing the Lord is a sign of a gracious heart. Again, he says, “To you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings” (Mal 4:2).
When Christ comes to judge the world, he will reward his servants the prophets, his saints, “and to them that fear his name, small and great” (Rev 11:18).
Since the name of God expresses his nature, and since he is by nature so glorious and incomprehensible, his name must be the object of our fear. We ought always to have a reverent awe of God upon our hearts whenever we think of or hear his name. Above all, we should have this reverence when we take his holy and fearful name upon our own lips in a religious setting, such as preaching, prayer or holy conversation.
I do not mean that it is lawful to mention his name in frivolous and empty speech, for we ought always to speak of it with reverence and godly fear. I say this to remind Christians that they must not show lightness of mind or use empty words during religious duties while they are mentioning the name of the Lord. “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim 2:19).
Whenever you mention the name of the Lord, do so with great dread of his majesty upon your heart and with great sobriety and truth. To do otherwise is to profane the name of the Lord and take his name in vain, and “the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” God even says that he will cut off the person who does this, so jealous is he for the honor due to his name (Exod 20:7; Lev 20:3).
This shows you the dreadful condition of those who use this fearful name of God lightly, emptily, deceitfully and profanely, whether through blasphemous curses and oaths or through fraudulent dealings with their neighbors. Some people can find no other way to persuade their neighbor to submit to a fraud than by falsely calling upon the name of the Lord as a witness that their wickedness is good and honest.
Such people should quickly consider how they will escape devouring fire and everlasting burnings when they are judged for profaning and blaspheming the name of the Lord (Jer 14:14-15; Ezek 20:39; Exod 20:7).
His Worship and Service Are Fearful
Third, as the presence and name of God are dreadful and fearful in the church, so are his worship and service. The worship of God, and the works of service that he commands us to perform while we are in this world, are dreadful and fearful things.
David understood this when he said, “But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple” (Ps 5:7). Again he said, “Serve the Lord with fear” (Ps 2:11).
Praising God is part of his worship. But Moses says, “Who is a God like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Exod 15:11). Rejoicing before him is part of his worship, but David commands us to “rejoice with trembling” (Ps 2:11).
Indeed, our whole service to God, and every part of it, ought to be performed with reverence and godly fear. Therefore, as Paul says, let us “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1; Heb 12).
1. It Is the Worship of God
What makes the worship of God so fearful is, first, that it is the worship of God. Every kind of service carries more or less dread and fear with it according to the rank or condition of the person being served. We see this in the service subjects render to their princes, servants to their lords, and children to their parents.
Divine worship is due to God, for divine worship is what we are now discussing. Since this God is so great and dreadful in himself and in his name, his worship must therefore be a fearful thing.
2. God Is Present Among His Worshipers
This glorious Majesty is himself present to behold his worshipers as they worship him. “When two or three of you are gathered together in my name, I am there.” That is, when they are gathered to worship him, “I am there,” he says.
Again, he is said to walk “in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks” (Rev 1:13). That is, he walks among the churches, and he does so with a countenance like the sun, with a head and hair as white as snow, and with eyes like a flame of fire. This puts dread and fear into his service. Therefore his servants should serve him with fear.
3. God Is Jealous for His Worship
Above all things, God is jealous for his worship and service. In all the Ten Commandments, he tells us that he is a jealous God only in the second, which concerns his worship (Exod 20).
Therefore take care concerning both the substance and the manner of your worship. “For I the Lord thy God,” he says, “am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children.” This also puts dread and fear into the worship and service of God.
4. His Judgments Make His Ordinances Dreadful
The judgments God has sometimes executed upon people for their lack of godly fear during his worship and service put fear and dread upon his holy ordinances.
1. Nadab and Abihu were burned to death by fire from heaven because they attempted to offer strange fire upon God’s altar. The reason given for this judgment was that God will be sanctified in those who come near him (Lev 10:1-3). To sanctify his name is to let him be your dread and your fear, and to do nothing in his worship except what is pleasing to him. Because these men did not have the grace to do this, they died before the Lord.
2. Eli’s sons, because they lacked this fear while ministering in the holy worship of God, were both slain in one day by the sword of the uncircumcised Philistines (1 Sam 2).
3. Uzzah was struck and died before the Lord merely for rashly touching the ark when the men abandoned it (1 Chr 13:9-10).
4. Ananias and his wife Sapphira told a lie in the church while they stood before God. They were both struck dead on the spot before everyone because they lacked fear and dread of God’s majesty, name and service when they came before him (Acts 5).
This should teach us to conclude that, next to God’s nature and name, his service, his instituted worship, is the most dreadful thing under heaven. His name is upon his ordinances, his eye is upon the worshipers, and his wrath and judgment are upon those who do not worship in his fear. For this reason, God himself cut off some of those at Corinth. To others he has turned his back and will be with them no more (1 Cor 11:27-32).
This also rebukes three kinds of people.
Three Kinds of People Rebuked
1. The first are those who do not care to worship God at all. Certainly they have no reverence for his service and no fear of his majesty before their eyes.
Sinner, you do not come before the Lord to worship him. You do not bow before the high God. You worship him neither in private nor in the congregation of the saints. Before long, the fury of the Lord and his indignation must be poured out upon you and upon the families that do not call upon his name (Ps 79:6; Jer 10:25).
2. This rebukes those who think it enough merely to present their bodies in the place where God is worshiped, without caring about the heart or spirit with which they come.
Some come into the worship of God to sleep. Some come to meet with their customers and enter into the wicked company of their empty-minded companions. Some come to feed their lustful and adulterous eyes upon the flattering beauty of their fellow sinners.
Oh, what a dreadful account these worshipers will give when they must answer for all this and be damned for it! They did not come to worship the Lord with the fear of his name that should have marked them when they presented themselves before him.
3. This also rebukes those who do not care how they worship, so long as they worship somehow. They do not care how, where or in what manner they worship God. I mean those whose fear toward God “is taught by the precept of men.” They are hypocrites. Their worship is also vain and a stench in the nostrils of God.
“Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid” (Isa 29:13-14; Matt 15:7-9; Mark 7:6-7).
Thus I conclude this first point: God is called our dread and fear.
