Exodus: Unity of Law and Grace

The Fear of God

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Fear of God

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 070

Dictation Name: RR171AL70

Location/Venue:

Year: Early 70’s

Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. The hour cometh and now is when the true worshiper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Let us pray.

All glory be unto thee, oh God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. We praise thee for thy marvelous ways, for thy government, of all things. We thank thee, our Father, that our times are in thy hands, and it is thy will, not the will of men, that shall be done. Make us strong in thy service, faithful to thy word, and joyful in thy spirit. In Christ’s name, amen.

Our scripture is from Exodus 20:18-21. Our subject: The Fear of God. Exodus 20:18-21. “And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his face may be before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.”

In these verses, we return to the narrative and an account of Israel’s fear at the supernatural occurrence that were taking place on Mt. Sinai. In verse 18, we have the word “lightenings,” which can also be rendered “fire balls,” so it was a dramatic storm. Robert Kate is right in stating that God came near to Israel in order to prove, or test, them. And that is a basic theme in all of Exodus. Israel was afraid. Fear can be good and healthy, but it can also be evil. The true fear of God is to avoid sin, rather than to avoid the consequences of sin. The people asked God that Moses be their mediator with Him. They wanted no direct confrontation with God. In itself, there was nothing wrong with this request, but it was apparently motivated by a desire not to be too close to God “lest we die,” they said. Now again, this could have a favorable meaning. However, later events make clear that they preferred a remoteness to God because God’s covenant and God’s law were not in their hearts. Because their hearts were far from God, they wanted God to be far from them.”

We are told by Moses, in Deuteronomy 5:21-31 that God approved of Israel’s words, but that He recognized what was in their hearts. The people asked Moses to be their mediator with God and God approved their request, with knowledge. Thereafter, Israel complained readily and freely about God’s mediator in a way they would not have dared address God Himself.

Pastors in all ages have been used as scapegoats by people who are really lashing out against God when they indict His service. They kick the one who is available for kicking and is religiously restrained from lashing back. Their fear of God, like Israel’s, is very superficial.

During World War 2, a popular saying was “There are no atheists in foxholes,” that is, during bombardment. Shortly after that saying became popular, a soldier on furlough who was an atheist, laughed as he was telling us about his fervent foxhole prayers during battle. His fear-filled prayers did not alter his life or his conduct. Fear is a necessary part of man’s life. Fear can be real or it can be imagined, but a healthy fear is an awareness of the reality around us. It is an awareness of actual dangers. A man, who on a treacherous mountainside acts recklessly and without fear of consequence, is a fool.

Shortly before World War 2, when I was finishing my schooling, a classmate of mine was given an honorable discharge from the U.S. Air force, and they said plainly that it was because he lacked any sense of fear, that as one of those who were in the force with him told me. He was dangerous in a plane because of the risks he took for the sake of risks. His fearlessness made him dangerous. He didn’t live too long after that, on the ground. He was a menace to himself wherever he was.

The central object of fear tells us much about a man. If he is most afraid of man, then there’s something wrong with him, although at times it can be necessary, but is he most afraid of man or of God. Fear which is healthy is not a product of thinking, but it is a reaction to serious danger and leads to caution, not cowardice. It is a mistake to equate cowardice and fear. Cowardice comes from a type of thinking. One of the good things that H.G. Wells said was that brave men are men who do the things they are afraid to do. There was a great deal of truth in that.

The Bible tells us that fear has a moral content, both good and bad. The fear of God, we are told repeatedly, is good and holy, in such verses as these: Psalm 19:19, “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” Then, in Psalm 34:11, “Come ye children hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” Psalm 36:1, “The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes.” In Psalm 111:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, a good understanding of all they that do His commandments, His praise endureth forever.” Now, before I go on to cite a few more verses, these are important because they are from the book of Psalms, or songs, so they sang about the fear of God, it was a blessed thing.

In Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Folly contrasted with a healthy fear. In Proverbs 14:26, “And the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and His children shall have a place of refuge.” Again, in Proverbs 14:27, “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death.” “Better is a little,” says Proverbs 15:16, “with a fear of the Lord then great treasure and trouble therewith.” And one last one, Proverbs 19:23, “The fear of the Lord attendeth to life and he that hath it shall abide satisfied. He shall not be visited with evil.”

So, Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord tendeth to life, that it is a fountain of life, and that it is the basis of confidence. So, we are told that the fear of the Lord is healthy. It is a restraint against doing evil. It is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge that is healthy. It is the fear of the Lord that gives us confidence to face men and their evil, and to be confident in ultimate victory. Such a fear tends to and fosters life. It is, as we saw, called a fountain of life.

But a false fear is a very unpleasant thing. It stresses our helplessness, whereas the fear of God makes us aware of His absolute power and assured victory. This is why the fear of the Lord is described as “clean,” unlike the fear of nightmares, where paralysis and helplessness prevail. The fear of man places us in the realm of nightmares, because when the fear of man is uppermost in our minds, we see our radical helplessness in the face of an ocean of evil.

Modern man feels strongly a sense of dread because he is without the fear of God. In fact, existentialism led to a tremendous body of literature stressing dread as basic in the life of man. Well, if the only reality is yourself, everything else is a nightmare, and you’re haunted by it. Of the fear of man, we are told, to give two citations, “There were they in great fear where no fear was, for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee. Thou hast put them to shame because God hath despised him.” So, says David in Psalm 53:5, and then Solomon, in Proverbs 29:25, “The fear of man bringeth a snare but whoso putteth his truth in the Lord shall be safe.”

As I said earlier, the rise of existentialism made the concept of dread important in modern thought, especially in philosophy and literature. The dread of life and the dread of men has replaced the fear of God among such people. For, as the fear of God empowers us with confidence and courage, the fear of man in a dangerous thing and turns our own mind into a snare or trap to destroy us. Slaves are governed by the fear of man, and whenever the fear of man replaces the fear of God in a society, slavery reappears and increases. We are helpless before what is ultimate and final in our world. If we know God to be ultimate, if God for us is God, then we know that we are totally in His power, and He empowers His chosen ones to be more than conquerors and to overcome.

About two centuries ago, Charles Buck defined the fear of God in these words. “The fear of God is that holy disposition or gracious habit formed in the soul by the Holy Spirit, whereby we are inclined to obey all God’s commands and evidences itself, first, by a dread of His displeasure; two, desire of His favor; three, regard for His excellencies; four, submission to His will; five, gratitude for His benefits; six, sincerity in His worship; seven, conscientious obedience to His commands.” In other words, the fear of God empowers man to an active obedience.

In ancient rabbinic thought, this aspect was very definitely seen, and the doctrine of the fear of God was based on several verses, especially Leviticus 19:14. “Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.” This meant that the fear of God is a recognition that God is all powerful and all seeing. That we are always in His sight. As Hebrews 4:13 says, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” This is basic to the fear of God. The fact that there are no unseen nor anonymous thoughts nor acts in all creation.

This is why, of course, that men prefer the government of men to the government of God. Men are commonly tyrannical and their rule, evil, but in a world of people only, anonymous thoughts and anonymous acts are possible. The division that we have been talking about in the Ten Commandments, between public and private, is very important to the ungodly for religious reasons. They want the freedom to be public when they choose, but also private at will. This is impossible if God is indeed God. In His government, all things are public, all things are open to His eyes.

More than fifty years ago when I was a student, I heard a professor declare that one of the most distasteful aspects of Christianity was the idea of the record books being opened on the total life of man on Judgment Day, as Revelation 20:12 says. For Christians, there is this promise, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” Amazing, and God says, “I will not remember them.” This is not anonymity, but grace and forgiveness, regeneration, and a blotting out of all transgressions.

During most of the history of Western Civilization, it has been recognized that, without the fear of God, no society can long endure. Where men believe that they can be anonymous, they are more free to express their evil. Even Voltaire knew the truth of that, and that is why he felt unbelief was something that should be trusted only to the elite few, like himself, and he forbad his friends to discuss their cynicism about Christianity in the presence of any of his servants, lest they murder him in his sleep. At least he manifested an awareness of reality that in now gone. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank thee that thy word is truth and that thy word speaks to our needs, and our burdens, our problems. We live, oh Lord, that is filled with dread, when it should be filled with a love of thee and a fear of thee, a spirit of faith and obedience. Use us, oh Lord, to extend the boundaries of thy kingdom and the power of thy word. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] {?} has a very interesting article in the recent issue of The Atlantic on the effect of combat, prolonged combat, in which he takes fear for granted, but he also points out that the {?} of fear, there’s a limit to how long men can endure fear.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] And the American military has put it at a year, which may or may not be accurate because in World War 2, the Australian forces were not rotated and lasted throughout the entire war in the South Pacific. But in any event, the underlying point is that fear cannot be endured forever.

[Rushdoony] I would say that’s very, very true of humanistic fear, not the fear of God.

[Audience] Well, a fear of God would have to be translated, I would imagine, into a love of God.

[Rushdoony] Yes, it goes hand in hand with it. That’s important because we need more studies of the nature of fear, and we haven’t had enough. We’ve had two good things on envy, and I hope scholars will turn their attention to some of the virtues and vices, because they’re badly in need of attention in our time.

[Audience] Well, let me say that fear of our father is usually translated into respect.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Yes. That’s a very good point, and it says a great deal about the modern family. There is no fear of parents, and the thing that has been horrifying to me over the years is the casual and cynical ways so many young people, since World War 2 I would have to say, have talked about their parents. Before that, they would have been knocked into a corner if they expressed that. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience] The verse, the word “fear” appears twice in verse 20 in the passage today, once in a negative light and once in a positive light. Do you know if, in the Hebrew text, if that’s the same word in both cases. I notice in the NIV, the first instance is translated, “Do not be afraid.” It seems to be the humanistic kind of fear you were talking about, and second is the fear of God.

[Rushdoony] Yes, there are several words for “fear,” and I don’t know why in that clear context which is used, but what he is telling them is that, if they stayed where they were supposed to stay they had no cause to fear. They backed out all the more, and he says God is here to test you, and that His fear may be before your faces that ye sin not. In other words, the fear was not to be of the phenomenon, but of God Himself, and they were manifesting fear of what was taking place. The balls of lightening that were rolling on the ground of the mountainside, that sort of thing. So, their fear was of phenomenon, not of God. In a sense you might say it was secondhand of God, but God was saying they were to fear Him always, that they sin not. That was the kind of fear He wanted. The fear of doing evil. Yes?

[Audience] I think {?} teaching is really lacking today with people are trying to witness to others. They say, you know, “The love of God is all-encompassing and it will, all your sins will be forgiven,” and they forget to say, “You should be afraid of what will happen if you sin because {?} God.”

[Rushdoony] So much of the cheap evangelism of our time goes to the sinner and says, “God loves you,” and that’s wrong because God does not love the unregenerate, so they are propagating something that leads to a very casual attitude towards God, and the type of character produced by that type of evangelism is very bad, very bad. Any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us bow our heads in prayer.

Our Father, we thank thee for all our blessings. We thank thee that we are in thy hands, in thy care, and all thy days are numbered by thy mercies. Make us ever grateful and joyful, and faithful in thy service. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape.