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God Is To Be Feared
(1Ch16:25; Php2:12)

God is to be feared.
For He is great and mighty and glorious, He is to be feared above all gods (1Ch16:25).
While those who fear Him He delivers from death,
Instructs the way to choose and rewards (Ps25:12, 33:19; Rev11:18),
Those who do not fear Him He afflicts (Ps55:19; Pr1:28-29).

Faith is to delight in revering the name of God (Neh1:11) and
The life of this faith is always obeying and working out salvation in fear and trembling (Php2:12).

The Bible makes God’s first impression as to be feared always (Jos4:24; Ecc8:12):
The general revelation — through all things His eternal power and divine nature (Rm1:18-20);
The general conscience — the conscience regarding sin that is exclusive to humans (Rm2:12-15).

Sin is being fearless before God: Adam fearlessly ate the forbidden fruit and was
Banished from the Garden as he was deceived by the serpent (Ge2:17, 3:4-6), that is,
Satan who fearlessly challenged the throne in heaven and was cast down (Is14:12-15; Rev12:7-9).

The faith of the Old Testament was to fear God.
Noah, in holy fear, built an ark to save his family from the flood that wiped out all mankind (He11:7).
Abraham became the ancestor of faith for
He feared God and gave his only son as a burnt offering (Ge22:12).
His descendants, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph etc were all who feared God (Ge31:42, 42:18).
When the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the LORD displayed against the Egyptians
They became a people who feared the LORD (Ex14:31; Ps22:23).

The Law given to Israel commanded them
To fear the LORD God as long as they live by observing all His decrees and commands,
Teaching their children, the foreigners residing in their towns (Dt6:1-2, 31:12), and
Even those who lived in the land of Canaan (Dt4:10) to also keep them.
Showing respect to their parents and the elders (Lev19:3, 32) and
Looking after the disabled, the poor and their brothers (Lev19:14, 25:36) was to fear the LORD.

For David feared God, he became a ruler over a nation (2Sa23:3) and
The wife of a man from the company of the prophets who had revered the LORD was
Delivered by miracle from her extreme poverty (2Ki4:1-7).

While the Temple where the name Jehovah was to be most revered (Lev19:30) reminded them this,
Israel eventually fell: for they worshipped the LORD but also served their own gods (2Ki17:33).

Yeshua said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days,” because
Through the death and the resurrection of the temple of His body (Jn2:19-21),
He would make known not the name Jehovah that Israel feared,
The one who could kill the body but not the soul,
But the name Yeshua, the name of the Father (Jn5:43),
The One who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Mt10:28),
To be feared by all nations forever (Mal1:14).
As such, all His works caused them to fear Him (Mk4:41, 5:15; Lk5:8-9).

As He died, He said, “It is finished” (Jn19:30), declaring that He:
1) Feared the One who is able to save Him from death, in reverent submission humbled Himself
to death (Jn10:18; He5:7; Php2:6-8);
2) Judged the devil who fearlessly challenged the throne (Is14:12-15; 1Jn3:8); and
3) Freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear (He2:15):
• In the beginning — the Word — the God to be feared — in the flesh — died — revered
God — freed all men;
• His blood — for the souls who receive its sprinkling — to fear Christ who saved them from death.

After He resurrected and ascended to heaven filled with the praises of those who fear Him (Rev19:5).
The Holy Spirit fills the Church that He supports with those who fear the Lord (Ac9:31).

For God seeks not the outer appearance of men but those who fear Him,
He sent evangelists to the Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius, Lydia etc to
Preach the gospel to them (Ac8:26-36, 10:2-36) and
Opened their ears to hear the word to finally arrive in salvation (Ac16:14-15).

The Christian is he who fears Christ and His word (Jn12:48; 2Ti4:1; 1Pe3:15).
With a new conscience by the Holy Spirit he purifies himself out of reverence (Ps51:10-12; 2Co7:1),
Always obeys to work out his salvation in fear and trembling (Php2:12).
He reveres the body of Christ the Church and the given duties (He12:28),
Reveres the appointed overseers, the pastor, and the leaders (Ac8:11; Eph5:21), and
Teaches his children to do the same.

O Lord,
As the years go by, this holy conscience in me causes me to fear all the more
The word of the Bible regarding Your return, the resurrection to condemnation,
The great while throne of judgement, the millstone, hell etc.
Let us all always obey Your word and work out our salvation in fear and trembling! Amen.