If I’m ever uncertain what it means to “fear the Lord,” I don’t need to look any further than the book of Exodus. I’ve been reading it in the Contemporary English Version, and it quotes God this way: “The priests and people must not try to push their way through, or I will rush at them like a flood” (Exodus 19:24b).
So, OK, we want to get to you, God, we’re desperate for you, but we can’t just run up the mountain and meet you? Isn’t that what you want us to do? We have this nice picture in our heads of God as our big granddaddy in the sky, arms outstretched, huge grin, like a proud parent beckoning us joyfully to home plate, ready to scoop us up and lavish His goodness on us.
How we underestimate God’s power. He couldn’t allow the Israelites to rush up the mountain because He would literally plow them over with His greatness. God has to hold Himself back from us. I recently read a statement paraphrasing Dallas Willard. He says that God actually has to hide from us so that we may hide from Him. Otherwise, He would overwhelm us with His greatness, and there would be nowhere to get away from His presence.
Add to this Larry Crabb’s view that “our Christian culture has weakened our understanding of the holiness of God by introducing too soon the idea of grace.” We forget that He is the “Holy God of Passionate Wrath,” as Crabb says. He is a jealous God—one who requires that nothing be put ahead of Him—and a God who violently hates our sin. And uh-oh, here I am, a sinner, wanting to rush up and fall into his grandfatherly arms.
He does beckon me. His love for me is infinite, unchanging, and everlasting. But He is not my grandfather. He is a holy, all-powerful God, and the mere glimpse of Him could turn me to a heap of rubble.
This awareness changes everything about how I relate to Him. I go from expectations and complaints to silence and awe. From thinking I deserve something to clinging to His mercy. From strutting into His presence whenever it suits me to creeping in on my face. Without understanding what it means to fear the Lord—a concept not often taught to today's grace-hungry Christians—I'm not sure we can ever be in right relationship with Him.
