Fear of God

A question that seems to be consistently brought up at bible study is the meaning of the word "fear" when talking about the Lord, since it's used to describe a position towards Him with a very different connotation than we're used to hearing it in our everyday lives. Yeah, I'd be filled with fear if a bear were charging me, but why does the Bible continually talk about the fear of the Lord being the beginning of knowledge, wisdom, understanding, et cetera, especially in light of Christ's exhortations to fear not? Well, I've done a little bit of digging around in some languages I don't really understand to try and figure it out.

First of all, I wanna bring up a few verses as an example of what it is that I'm talking about.

Proverbs 1:7(ESV) - "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Proverbs 9:10(ESV) - "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."

Psalm 111:10(ESV) - "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!"

All of these verses talk about fearing God as the fountainhead from which all Truth flows. The building up of our souls, since it usually comes by way of the Word, seems to be dependent on wisdom, knowledge and insight, be it in relation to what we read or what's being presented by a pastor. However, in the Gospels, Christ is portrayed as saying over and over again "fear not." (Luke 8:50, 12:7 & 32, Matthew 8:26, Mark 4:40)

First of all, as Nathan Rages and others have pointed out a few times, God is described in Hebrews chapter 12 as "a consuming fire." regardless of everything else, God is clearly to be feared since He is capable of much more power than a charging bear, and God is "angry with the wicked every day. (Psalm 7:11 KJV)" There is righteous judgment to be feared by the wicked man, and the way of salvation from that wrath is only found in Christ. You - His creature - must follow the way He has set up in His Scriptures; YOU have sinned and in His goodness He has made a narrow path for your redemption. But it seems like Christ's exhortation in Matthew chapter 10 and Luke chapter 12 to "fear Him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell, (Luke 12:5)" is directed at Christians - the Lord first spoke these words to his disciples (Luke 12:1).

The verses in Proverbs and Psalms that we looked at all use the Hebrew word "yir'a," which can be translated a few different ways. The word does mean "fear," but with a connotation of reverence and piety inherent therein. Taken from Strong's description of the related word "yare", "to be afraid, be frightened; to revere, respect… in some contexts fear relates to terror and fright, in other contexts fear relates to honor, respect and awe, as in 'the fear of the Lord.'" It's a similar situation with the Greek of the gospel narratives. In the previously quoted text from Luke, the word is "phobeo," which, again referring to Strong's, means "to fear, be afraid, alarmed, in some contexts improper and an impediment to faith and love; to reverence respect, worship, in other contexts a proper fear for God, a deep reverence and awe." There is a subtlety in the Hebrew and Greek that doesn't seem to be conveyed in our English translations. It seems like both words, "yir'a" and "phobeo," have both meanings built into them that their contexts would bring out, either the fear with reverence or the reverence with fear. Our wording is almost more specific, so the reverence seems to get dropped from the word and we just get fear, or we only have the reverence and we lose the sense of fear that goes along with it. There doesn't seem to be that kind of a distinction in either the Hebrew or the Greek.

It seems to me that, with the verses from Psalms and Proverbs combined with the information about the Greek and Hebrew words, proper reverence for God has a healthy fear of His might behind it, and fear of His infinite might will lead to reverence and worship. Paul Washer has a wonderful way of putting this that I can't quite quote, but he basically says that yes, there is judgment for a believer and it will be absolutely terrifying - but when we go to the judgment seat of the Lord of lords and the King of kings, we won't see a face of wrath and malice but the tender, loving smile of our Father and our Brother.

For as long as this is, it really only scrapes the tip of the iceberg of this issue, but I really hope this can be of some use to you. There are over 400 uses of the word "fear" throughout the bible, so there is a lot there to study if you need further examples. I'll leave off with this one - one that I have found to be fairly helpful: "Moses said to the people, 'Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin.' (Exodus 20:20)"