“But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not reach out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Let’s be honest, the idea of fearing the Lord, especially in our present culture, seems ridiculous. We place more focus on the love of God and His desire to have us live with Him in heaven, than we do on the discipline of God towards us when we sin. We mock the old ways of thinking we are sinners in the hands of an angry God. We ignore the stories in the Bible where God punishes sin, where He either strikes down or opens up the earth to swallow those who are rebellious. We stand on our little platform and say, “Look, I’ve been saved by Jesus. I’m forgiven. Plus, the bible tells me that God is my friend.”

I think we may have a problem with our thinking. This Problem allows us to justify our sin. Here is the problem: we have diminished the distinction between Creator and created. Because God has revealed Himself in human terms, through the stories of scripture and the man Jesus, we tend to compare God to us, rather than comparing us to God. God is no longer our reference point because we have made ourselves the reference point. In other words, we think way too much about ourselves, and not enough about God.

I think it is appropriate to take a long deep look at just Who this God is. My favorite description of God is found in Isaiah 6:1-3:

In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train oh His robe filling the temple. Seraphim were standing above Him, each having six wings: with two each covered his face, and with two each covered his feet, and with two each flew. And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of armies.
The whole earth is full of His glory.”

Here we get a glimpse of a few important things about God. To begin with, He sits on His throne, implying His work is finished. His throne is high and lofty, holding the position of authority, and this position is one that is set apart from all else. The train of His robe fills the temple, suggesting His presence goes out from the throne to encompass all-things. The Seraphim stand above Him covering themselves, indicating the highest of all created beings worship Him, and in their worship, they cover their own unworthiness before God. He commands armies, illustrating His power and might to rule over all things. In this one passage of scripture, we are treated to a powerful portrait of God. This portrait should simultaneously leave you awestruck and in terror. God’s holiness should frighten us. If the archangels cover themselves in the presence of the Almighty God, how much more should we, as sinful creatures, cower before the mighty God who holds the power of life and death? Yet, we forget our place.

In 2 Samuel 6:5-7, we read the story of Israel’s attempt to bring back the ark of the Lord from the house of Abinadab. The priests knew the proper rules for transporting the ark. However, because of their impatience, stubbornness, and pride, they decided to place the ark on a cart, to be pulled by animals. The story goes that while, David and the Israelites went ahead of the ark and were celebrating, the oxen pulling the cart stumbled and the cart began to overturn. Verse 6 and 7 read, “Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, because the oxen nearly overturned it. And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God.”

When we read this story, the question we must ask is: why did the priest believe he was cleaner than the dirt the ark was about to fall on? Let’s face it, this is a hard reminder of who we are. God crafted us from the dirt of the earth. The dirt did not sin against God, but we have. The irreverence shown was that of an unholy, unclean, altogether unworthy creation touching the physical representation of the holy God in their presence.  

To fear something, we must recognize its power over us and our place in contrast to it.  For instance, to fear fire is to recognize it can injure, consume, and even destroy you. To handle fire irreverently would end in a terrible burn. Yet fire, when properly respected, can become a powerful aid to you.

Fear can be a hard concept to understand. When we think of fear, we often think of it in terms of a danger or loss. This person or thing can bring me physical or emotional pain. This is a healthy type of fear to have because it keeps us alert and in check. However, this is not the way scripture teaches us to fear God, or I should say, this isn’t completely the way scripture teaches us to fear God. Yes, God has the power to give and to take life. God’s zero tolerance policy for sin, as well as His complete righteousness, gives Him the right to end any one of us at any time without any further reason. In fact, someone once said that for the unbeliever, the fear of God should be utter dread. It would be far better for him to fall into the sun than to be caught by God. The wrath of God upon sin is a terrible and horrifying thing. It will be painful. We should fear it with dread.  

Those with repentant hearts, who have confessed Jesus as Lord, do not have any need to dread God. But we must not become complacent either. We need to know our reference point. We need to remember who we are in view of Who God is and stand in reverent awe of Him. This is what our father Abraham did. In the larger story of Genesis 22, we find God approaching Abraham and instructing him to journey to an unknown mountain and sacrifice his only son, Isaac, as an offering to God. As a father, myself, I can only imagine the emotions Abraham must have been experiencing. In all honesty, I don’t think I could have gone through with it. I don’t know if I could have obediently taken any one of my sons to complete such a request from God. Recognizing this, I must ask myself two things: do I love God more than I love my sons? And do I trust God more than I trust my own understanding?

There is no question about Abraham’s love for his son, Isaac. What we see illustrated in Abraham is a deeper love for God. His understanding of Who God is, and who he is in view of God, gave him a kind of love for God that can only be described as reverence. He was willing to be completely obedient, even knowing what it would cost him. In verse 8 we see that Abraham showed a level of trust in God that went far beyond his own understanding, when he says, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering…” Hebrews 11:19 offers us some commentary sharing that Abraham believed God was able to raise his son from the dead. His belief in God’s provision superseded all his human reasoning, and all his physical and emotional fears of danger and loss. Abraham demonstrated his fear of God through his complete love and trust which enabled his obedience. Not once in this story do we see Abraham question God, ask God for some other way, or say no. He acted without faltering.

This is because Abraham understood both God’s benevolence and His preeminence. In Colossians 1:15-19, we read about Christ’s preeminence. Jesus is the firstborn over all creation. Jesus, alone, has been given authority and supremacy. He is first. All creation puts Him first, that is, all creation besides us and a ragtag group of demonic fallen angels (but even they know their place). We are the only creation of God who has the audacity to believe we can put ourselves first. As I said before, we have forgotten our place and, in so doing, we have lost our fear of God.

We will not be able to fully love Christ until we have lowered ourselves beneath Him and felt His great love for us. We will not be able to fully trust Him until we have humbled ourselves before Him and seen His great provision for us. We will never be able to fear God until we have learned to put Him first. Is God preeminent in your life today? Is He first over and in all things today? This was how Abraham was able to obey God. He put God first in his life, over all other things, and in this preeminence, he surrendered his own desires and will, bringing it under the Lordship of God. He was able to do this because he believed God was good.

When Abraham’s obedience was proven to be true, God stopped him, saying, “Do not reach out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Abraham’s love for God was so deep that he was willing to surrender to God the one thing that meant the most to him, his only son. Because of his obedience – his fear – God poured out a blessing upon him. Take a moment to read this blessing:

“By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand, which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Let’s reflect on this blessing for a moment. When Abraham chose to put God first by not withholding his best from Him, God returned His love through blessing. He promised blessings through generations – to our kids and their kids. He promised victory and possession over their enemies. He even promised that others would be blessed simply by knowing Abraham and his children. The crazy thing is there is blessing in fear. Because we are in Christ, we too share in the inheritance of these blessings.  When we choose to live in this kind of fear of God, we too are promised these blessings.

So, what are we doing – continuing to live in our sin, as if somehow, we know better than God? What are we doing – choosing to love our lives more than loving God? What are we doing – trying to do it all on our own, in our way? Where is our reference point? Where is our fear?