When I was a young child growing up in Scotland, more often than naught, the discipline of the children fell to the mothers. Fathers would typically be working long hours in the shipyards and often went to the bar aftwerwards, so they were never around much. This was the way it was in my house. My mother was the one who administered discipline, and it usually consisted of a slap on the back-side, or on the bare legs or sometimes just a flurry of slaps to the head when I had pushed her over the edge. I always deserved it and it was never much on my mind. Yet, every now and then I would mess up bad and I would hear these dreaded words “ You just wait until your Father gets home boy.”
Now, that last sentence would strike fear into my heart. I heard it several times growing up. There was the agony of knowing that it would be my Father who was dealing with me and was not as “ soft,” as my mother. Also, there was the agony of the wait. In my own little mind it would be like being on death row . The minutes would drag by. There was no commuting this sentence. It was not used much, but when it was used, there would be no appeal.
Now, the reason that this threat carried so much weight was , and this seems obvious, I knew my Father. I had a relationship with him, I had many encounters with him. I knew for a fact that he was coming through the door at some point. My Father was real, I had a real relationship with him and I respected him. On a night following the words “ You just wait until your Father gets home boy,” there would be no wrestling with my Father when he came home from work or the pub. There would be no change given to me from his pockets to go and buy some candy. No, there would be a reckoning. I knew it, just a sure as night follows day.
Now I say all that just too simply illustrate the relationship. If, for instance, my mother was a single parent, then the phrase “ Wait until your Father gets home,” would be meaningless. Someone without a Father could mess up bad and never have to worry about that phrase or having to deal with a Father. The words would carry no weight and there would be no fear involved. We hear a lot about the fear of God nowadays and how it is lacking in the “ church.” Now there is no doubt what-so-ever that there is little if any fear in the “ church,” today. One could say the church has lost its fear of God. Yet if one were to say that, then that would imply that there was a fear of God before, now it is lost, and it has to be regained. And perhaps that is the case for a portion.
Now, I do now want anyone to be confused by my anology, it was simply stated to re inforce the notion of relationship. I have never feared my heavenly Father in the way that I feared my earthly Father. Many times I came before the Lord and wanted and expected to suffer at His hands for the way I had acted. Yet, I can honestly say that my Father is a gentle and patient God. I have undoubtedly been scourged by the lack of His presence in my life at times. In fact my fear of my Father is based on my love and respect for Him. I have also been scourged by the consequences of actions taken without His advice, He has allowed it, and that scourging , when understood and yielded too, has shaped me.
The fear of God is something that flows out of “ knowing ,” God. If a man or a woman who carries the name of God, yet does not fear Him, there should be no surprise that they do not fear that which they do not know or have never encountered. It would not make any sense to expect a person to fear the Father that they have never encountered. So, if we want to see the fear of God in Christendom, then Christendom must encounter the Living God. Remember the children of Israel at the mountain after they had been delivered from Egypt. For three day they prepared to meet the living God. It was not the preparation that that made them tremble, it was the encounter itself. In fact they cried out, they thought they were going to die as the mountain trembled, as the thunder cracked, as the lightening fractured the sky above. The heavenly trumpets blew and every sense of the Israelites were “ assaulted,” by the presence of the living God. This was something to fear. Much as the prophet feared and considered himself undone in the presence of God, yet was able to lift up his eyes and say “ My eyes have seen the King.” This was truly an encounter.Now neither Isaiah nor the Israelites cried out because someone gave a sermon, or they were afraid of some philosophy or theology, no , they cried out at the presence of the Living God.
It’s interesting that in revivals of the past, especially the great awakening , we look back and see that Jonathon Edwards read out a sermon called “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” He simply read it out verbatim , no theatrics, no special skills, he simply read it out. And we see that great fear fell upon the people as they considered what it meant to fall into the hands of the Almighty. And so we look back and think “ oh what a mighty sermon,” “this is what we need today,” “this is what is lacking.” And yet, can I tell you, that this sermon had been read out at least six times previously.
Now I am sure that people were affected each time it was read out but not like the time that is recorded. Where we see men panicked and fearful and crying out to God and falling down as dead and trembling in their fear. What was the difference? Can I suggest to you that the difference was that the presence of God fell upon that assembly.Now why that time and not the others? That would be akin to knowing which way the wind will blow next. God knows. Yet the undeniable fact is that the very foundations of a healthy fear of God lies in relationship. One must “ know ,” the Father in order to fear the Father.
Now there are many men who can produce fear in a gathering of peoples. A witch-doctor can create fear in whole villages and regions. Priests can create fear in towns and cities around the world. Pharisees have been promoting fear for endless centuries. Yet what fear is this? The kind of fear that modifies outward behavior but does nothing to change the heart? Now let me give you a small example of fear that comes from the outside , modifies behavior to a certain degree but does nothing to change the heart. If a person speeds, drives faster that the posted speed limit, breaks the law, he undoubtedly fears he will get a ticket. Many times the threat of getting a ticket will make people slow down, not always. The man that slows down because he fears getting a ticket, has a relationship with the law. He is afraid of the consequences therefore he modifies his behavior.
If a man has a relationship with the law, if his behavior is modified by the law, then that man cannot have a relationship with Jesus. Why not? Because that man would be an adulterer. You see, after the New Covenant was put into place, we now have a relationship with the law-giver. The giver of the Law gives us a new heart and resides in it. The new man is dead to the Law and alive to the law-giver. His behavior is now modified by Jesus Himself from within and it changes his character and nature. The law that he once tried to follow out of an abstract fear of an abstract God, has been replaced with a living relationship with the God that he encountered. The man’s behavior is now modified out of love for his Lord and a desire to see his Lord gloried in all the earth. He fears not being able to draw close to the Lord; he knows that sin “separates,” him from the presence of God. No –where is this more plainly seen than in Psalm 51. “Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquities.” “Create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right Spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of my salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit.”
And so when Mr. Edwards recited his words, the words penetrated hard hearts by the power of the presence of God, a God that they were now “aware,” of. This awareness of God is the same awareness that Duncan Campbell speaks of in the Hebridean revival where people were so aware of His presence that they cried out “Is there mercy for me, is there mercy for me?. And at Pentecost we see the same reaction to Peters words spoken in conjunction with the presence of God, for men were “stabbed in the heart,’ thoroughly penetrated and they cried out “ What must we do to be saved.” If we want to see men fear God, if we want to see revival, we must cry out to God that His Spirit would come down. We must repent of all of our works that are done without His presence, without His Spirit. We must repent of the fact that we have went on in Christendom with business as usual despite the fact that we have not seen His presence in our midst.
It’s very telling that the Pharisees and the Israelites carried on their rituals for hundreds of years without the Ark of the Covenant. When Jesus died on the cross and the veil was ripped in tow, it exposed the fact that the Holy of Holy’s was nothing more than an empty room. And yet for hundreds of years the priests had went about their business with no ark of the covenant. We look for God in certain places that we expect to find him, and yet here He was, outside the city, tortured by the world and rejected by His own.
Psalm 114:2 “Judah was His sanctuary and Israel His dominion. “ God lives within the heart of His people. His people are the temple of God. Psalm 114:7 “Tremble thou earth at the presence of the God of Jacob.” You see brothers and sisters; it’s at the presence of God that men tremble. Whether men of God or men of the world, they tremble at the presence of God.
The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. (2Sa 23:3)
And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. (2Sa 23:4)
Are you like the light of the morning? Do you fear God in such a fashion that makes you like the sun rising in the morning to the world? Does God inhabit you like He wanted to inhabit Judah? Do you walk in the presence of God, the awareness of God? The men and the women of God who walk in this awareness are the light of the world.
David gave us these instructions lying on his deathbed. Yet he also says this, a sentence that must have broken his heart “Although my house be not so with God.” (2 Sam 23:5) How tragic. His house did not walk in the fear of God. They walked outside of relationship with God. And so it is with Christendom. And yet we have a wonderful covenant with our God….
Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. (2Sa 23:5)