Fear in Scripture

A Look at "fear" in Scripture:

  a.. I have read Proverbs 9:10 to many of my friends with little understanding on their part.  Usually they would respond, "We should not fear God.  We should fear the Devil."  However, the verse says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."  As you read the Bible you are urged by it to fear God.  This "fear" means a healthy mix of love and dread is "awe" toward God.  The Bible does not teach us to "awe" as a form of intellectual resignation.  And it also does not say that "awe" is the end of wisdom.  Its intention is that "awe" is a way to wisdom.

  b.. "God said to Moses: 'Do not fear' (Numbers 21:34), and yet it says in Proverbs 28:14, 'Happy is the man who fears always.'  It is a quality of the righteous that although they have received God's assurance, they never cast off the fear of Him." -- [C.G. Montefiore and H. Loewe A Rabbinic Anthology].

  c.. "He who has knowledge of the Law, but no fear of God, is like a keeper of a treasure, who has the inner keys, but not the outer keys.  He cannot enter." -- [Talmud]

  d.. "Do not withdraw your hand from your son or your daughter, but from their youth teach them the fear of God.  Do not, when embittered, give orders to your slave, male or female, for they hope in the same God; otherwise, they might lose the fear of God, who is the Master of both of you.  He surely is not coming to call with an eye to rank and station in life; no, He comes to those whom the Spirit has prepared." -- [The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (1st Century AD)].

  e.. "The holy fear of the Lord expels all evil fear and protects those good things which cannot be expressed in words or even thought of.  It is not given to all to have this fear, for it is a very great gift.  The fear of God rules and governs a man and makes him come into the grace of the Lord.  If a man has that grace, the fear of the Lord preserves it, and if he does not have it, it leads him to it... For it is impossible for someone to ascend to the grace of God or to persevere in it without a holy fear and a holy dread... Again, the more fear we have, the more we pray.  And it is no small thing to be given the grace of holy prayer.  No matter how great they seem, the words of men are not to be judged according to the opinion of men but according to the judgment and pleasure of God.  And so it is good for us to have holy fear at all times."  -- [Ugolino di Monte Santa Maria The sayings of Brother Giles].

  f.. "What can better take away the love of sinning from one's life than a real fear of death?  And what moves one to live more fervently and to do good more than confident hope in the mercy and goodness of God? ... When these two are combined they provide a sure staff of hope to hold on to in all your good works... For reverence is nothing but dread and love blended together by the staff of a sure hope." -- [Anonymous 14th-century English mystic The Epistle of Prayer]

  g.. "Perhaps if we feared God more we would fear everything else less.  We can rightly fear the consequences of violating the physical and moral laws through which the creative power of God works.  There is something to fear in our flouting of the basic structure of the universe.  The foundation of wisdom lies in knowing what we ought to fear." -- [Rolland W. Schloerb The Interpreter's Bible]