Did you say “the fear of the Lord"? 514 - 4 - 8

My original intention was to respond to DQ#6, “the fear of the Lord.” In my rather convoluted way of thinking this DQ brought to mind the famous sermon by the fire and brimstone preacher from the 1700s Jonathan Edwards; “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” In today’s Church of the Laodiceans, this sermon would likely be considered unacceptable and certainly not PC.

I've listened to this very visual sermon which is more than 40 minutes in length. It should “Put the fear of the Lord” into anyone hearing it. Rev. Edwards reminds us that we are held by a fine thread above Hell. Only the hand of God holds us securely if it is His desire. Just this one paragraph gives the favor of his sermon.

“The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The scripture represents them as his goods, Luke 11:12. The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.”

Also when considering the expression "the fear of the Lord" two other terms come to mind, “The Day is Near” and “The Day of the Lord.” Throughout the Old Testament warnings of this day is given by a number of the prophets including Mican, Amos, Jeremiah. Often the prophecies were for the latter days. It would seem that we are definitely in those latter days when there seems to be little to no fear of the Lord. While our awesome God is a loving God he is also a righteous God.

Chapter one of Zephaniah told of a Judgment on the whole earth in the Day of the Lord. Zephaniah 1:14, “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. Ezekiel 7:7, “The morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains.”

The book of Proverbs has numerous verses that refer to the fear of the Lord including Proverbs 2:5, 3:7, 9:10, 10:27, 14:26 and several more.

There are warnings of coming judgment in the Books of Isaiah, Joel, Ezekiel, Job and more. For those of us who have ears to hear, it is certainly time to be in fear of our righteous God and to share that fear with unbelievers. For some reason God has put it on my heart to be like the man standing on the corner carrying the sign that says “Repent the end is near.”