Above all, fear the Lord and worship him faithfully with all your heart; consider the great things he has done for you. However, if you continue to do what is evil, both you and your king will be swept away. [1 Samuel 12:24-25 (CSB)]
When the nation of Israel was established, God said He’d be their king. But the people wanted an earthy king like the nations surrounding them so Saul became king. Samuel told Israel that, as long as they and their king walked with God, all would go well for the nation. Reminding the people to remember all the wonderful things God did for them, Samuel cautioned Israel. If they persisted in rebellion and disobedience, there would be serious trouble: they and their king would be banished (a prophecy of their eventual exile).
When Samuel told the Israelites to “Fear the Lord,” he was giving them a warning about fearing the consequences of sin and God’s wrath. To make his message crystal clear, Samuel prayed for thunder and rain as a way of demonstrating God’s wrath. A rain storm would seem a blessing to people in an arid land but it was harvesting time. Rain during harvest damages the crops and causes them to rot. Not a boon but a disaster, this unseasonal storm was a clear sign of God’s displeasure at Israel’s desire for an earthly king. It demonstrated that the same God who brought blessings to them when He parted the Red Sea, made the walls of Jericho fall, rained hailstones on the Amorites, and scattered the Philistines with a thunderstorm, could rain trouble upon them as well. It showed that God’s people could be punished for disobedience as easily as they’d been blessed for obedience. The Israelites were given good reason to fear the Lord.
Unfortunately, Samuel’s warnings (and those of the many prophets who followed) were not heeded and, as prophesied, the kingdom was swept away less than 500 years later. One of God’s Biblical names is Elohay Mishpat, the God of Justice; the fall of Israel and Judah was His judgment against injustice, evil, disobedience, and sacrilege.
What does “fear the Lord” mean to us today? The Hebrew word for fear is yârêʼ and, when used in Scripture, it refers to an appropriate attitude of reverence and awe before the Holy One. Fully understanding that sin has consequences, rather than regarding God with terror and anxiety, fear of the Lord means our recognition that we are mere mortals before our Creator and Sustainer—we are nothing more than small children before their father or common criminals before their judge. Recognizing that we are recipients of His mercy, grace, and love, “fear of God” means regard for His might, trust in His limitless love, awe of His majesty and power, loving reverence for His being, submission to His commands, repentance for our sins, and an overwhelming mindfulness of His existence in our lives. Fear of the Lord involves our trust and love toward the powerful One who both protects and punishes us.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and, as followers of Christ, we have no need to fear sharing the gospel, natural disaster, the strange or unfamiliar, tomorrow, enemies, persecution, judgment, or even death. Like the Israelites of old, however, we are to fear the Lord!
We were discussing when and how we came to believe in the existence of God. Those who’d been brought up in families of faith said there never was a time they weren’t aware of God’s presence. Others spoke of believing in God because He is visible in His creation—in flowers, majestic mountains, birds, sunrises and sunsets, the vastness of space, or the miracle of birth. One came to believe in God while attending Vacation Bible School with a neighbor and another met God through a campus ministry. After apologizing in advance for “grossing” us out, one woman shared her experience while in medical school.
It’s often said, “Like father, like son,” and that was true of my father-in-law and his sons. Although they weren’t carbon copies of their dad, the boys shared several characteristics with the man who fathered them. In the same way, because God created us in His image, we share some of His characteristics. Of course, there are many important ways we are not like our Creator—He is all-knowing, eternal, all-powerful, and ever-present. Without a physical body, we don’t have things like God’s nose, hair color, or smile. Nevertheless, we do resemble Him in the spiritual, moral, and intellectual attributes of our nature that distinguish us from the rest of the animal world.
In 1962, my 2-month-old nephew Johnny and his parents traveled 1,500 miles for his Baptism. Because my mother was hospitalized (and soon would be dead), the sacrament took place at her bedside. This was the only time Johnny and his grandmother met and the last time my sister saw our mother alive.
Devotions of the Heart 