Fearing God

Sometimes it’s hard to reconcile the fear of God and loving God.

I recently reread the account of Moses’ birth for a Sunday School lesson I was putting together. I love it when I read stories that I’ve read many times before, that something different always pops out at me. This time it was the short account of the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah. These women were called in before the king of Egypt and ordered to kill all male newborn Hebrew babies at birth. They could let the females live.

We don’t get any conversation about the order on the front end. We are just told, “The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do, they let the boys live.” Exodus 1:17  The king does call them in and question them and they tell him that the Hebrew women are vigorous and the babies are born before they can get there.

The text goes on to say that, “So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.” Exodus 1:19-20

I would love to know what the conversation was like between these two women. Did they even consider Pharaoh’s order? Were they nervous about disobeying it? They definitely knew how brutal the Egyptians could be. We can only wonder about their thoughts, but we know what their actions were, disobedience to Pharaoh and obedience to God.

My entire life I’ve heard the term, “God-fearing,” used to describe strong Christian people or even nations. I’ve often had a hard time reconciling the fear part with our loving God. But, recently I read a blog with the quote, “Fear of the Lord means we don’t have to fear anything else.” Jim Thomas

When I think of that concept and look at those midwives, it becomes a lot clearer. Once we try to grasp the wonder and majesty of God who created the entire world, and sent His son to save us and the fact that He loves us, there’s a reverential awe and respect. It’s different from a terror fear. It’s kind of like when you observe a particularly violent lightning storm; it’s beautiful and frightening at the same time. The sheer power and possibility strikes us with awe and it’s kind of scary.

There is also a fear of what happens when we disobey. God has rules for us because He loves us and wants to keep us safe, much like we have rules for our own children. I don’t believe for a minute, that He sits up in Heaven with a smite button, but when we are disobedient there are almost always consequences of some kind.

Then finally, there’s a fear of separation from God. When we go our own way and don’t repent and pray and try to live in His will, we become separated. It’s a dark place to be, without hope. We can become fearful of everything from circumstances to people. Fear can overtake us.

When I think about it, the world quite a scary place at the moment. We have crazed terrorists who want to kill Christians. We have an Ebola outbreak in Africa that has made its way to the United States. Our politicians are corrupt. Our economy is a mess. The world tells us we have much to fear.

But, God offers a different view altogether. Proverbs 1:7 says that, “The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge.” In Acts 5:29, “Peter and the other apostles replied, ‘We must obey God rather than men.” The apostles in the Book of Acts were fearless and the Holy Spirit was all over the place. There were miracles everywhere.

Fearing God sets us free from all other fear because what we fear is of this world. He is not of this world. I think living fearlessly of worldly threats and strife sounds pretty good. What about you?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂