Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
Who delights greatly in His commandments (Ps 112:1 NKJV).
So apparently, if I’m to be blessed, I must fear the Lord, and delight greatly in His commandments.
Hold on! What about all that Fear Not stuff? And what about those commandments? Aren’t we under grace, and not under the Law of Moses (Rom 6:14)? Does ‘perfect love cast out fear’ (1 John 4:18) or doesn’t it?
And yet, what about Proverbs?
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” (Prov 9:10)
We’ve heard all the sermons about fearing God, and every preacher/teacher/televangelist has his/her own take on the subject. Fortunately, you now have Me to straighten it all out for you.
Here it is, in a nutshell:
The fear of the Lord is about one thing, and one thing only: obedience.
That’s it. Feel better?
C’mon back, I’m not done. I have a little story to tell.
(I’m doing this from memory, but if you want to read the original story, it comes from Little Men, by Louisa Mae Alcott.)
Once there was a lonely little orphaned boy named Nat, who came to live with some kind people in a big house, who’s ministry it was to care for little boys in need of parents and love and friendship.
Little Nat flourished in such a happy atmosphere and soon looked upon the kind folks as his own Mama and Papa.
And then one day, disaster! Something happened, I forget what; one of the other boys did something they shouldn’t have done, and Nat, while not guilty himself, knew about it. When he was confronted by Papa, fear overcame him, and he lied, and said he didn’t know anything.
Of course, eventually it came out that Nat knew, and had lied about it. This grieved Papa’s heart very much, because he loved little Nat so much. He sent the other boys out of the room, and stood before the wretched little boy. He took a ruler from his desk, and handed it to Nat.
“I’m not going to punish you for this,” he said. “You are going to punish me. I want you to see how much your lie has wounded me. Take this ruler and strike my hand.”
The poor child, already in tears, made a half-hearted swat at Papa’s hand, and then cast the ruler away. He and the kindly Papa embraced, and wept, and nothing more was ever said about it.
The fear of the Lord is not about being afraid of His wrath, or His punishments. It is about His love for you, and your being so in love with Him that you fear to wound him with your disobedience.
And that, dear children, is the beginning of wisdom
Sleep Tight!
Sept 16, 2021
David L Henderson
ADDITIONAL NOTE: This article was used as part of a presentation I gave at Alexandria, IN, at the Tuesday Morning Men’s Group. You can find the recording of that presentation on the AV Files page. — dlh
Recent Comments