Fear of God
Illustration★★★★Their communion with God, however bold their prayers, at the base of their religious life was the conception of God as awesome and dreadful. This idea of God transcendent runs through the whole Bible and gives color and tone to the character of saints. This fear of God was more than a natural apprehension of danger; it was a nonrational dread, an acute feeling of personal insufficiency in the presence of God the Almighty. Wherever God appeared to men in Bible times the results were the same—an overwhelming sense of terror and dismay, a wrenching sensation of sinfulness and guilt.
When God spoke, Abraham stretched himself upon the ground to listen. When Moses saw the Lord in the burning bush, he hid his face in fear to look upon God.
Isaiah’s vision of God wrung from him the cry, “Woe is me!” Daniel’s encounter with God was probably the most dreadful and wonderful of them all. Conversely, the self-assurance of modern Christians, the basic levity present in so many of our religious gatherings, the shocking disrespect shown for the Person of God, are evidence enough of deep blindness of heart. Many call themselves by the name of Christ, talk much about God, and pray to Him sometimes, but evidently do not know who He is.
“The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,” but this healing fear is today hardly found among Christian men.
The point
The fear of God is a reverent awe and sense of personal insufficiency before the Almighty—demonstrated throughout scripture by saints who trembled at God's presence.