"Fearing" a loving God

Fear of the Lord  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
0 ratings
· 5 views
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
View more →

Fear of the Lord?

Is that a good or bad?
Turn with me to
Proverbs 9:10 ESV
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
What do we mean by “fear”?… or more correctly…what does the Bible mean by “fear”?
The Hebrew word translated “fear” is “yirah”
The sense in which this word is used is to “reverence”
Vines Dictionary says of
TO FEAR
A. Verb.
A. Verb.
yare˒ (יָרֵא, 3372), “to be afraid, stand in awe, fear.” This verb occurs in Ugaritic and Hebrew (both biblical and post-biblical). The Bible attests it approximately 330 times and in all periods.
Basically, this verb connotes the psychological reaction of “fear.” Yare˒ may indicate being afraid of something or someone. Jacob prayed: “Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children” ().
Used of a person in an exalted position, yare˒ connotes “standing in awe.” This is not simple fear, but reverence, whereby an individual recognizes the power and position of the individual revered and renders him proper respect. In this sense, the word may imply submission to a proper ethical relationship to God; the angel of the Lord told Abraham: “… I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (). ...

Two ends of a spectrum… Fire

Fire is a wonderful discovery…
Fire has many benefits; it ...
it has many benefits
keeps us warm
helps us cook food
provides light to see our way
it soothes us (candlelight/fireside)
But fire also has some hazards…; it can...
Burn us
Kill us
Release toxic fumes
Destroy things
The Fear of the Lord is like fire…
there is a spectrum of rich understanding that needs balance!