What the fear of the Lord IS.

“The fear of the Lord” does NOT mean what many people think it does: walking around
all the time, looking over your shoulder, waiting for God to send a “lightning bolt” your
way; just being afraid of what God might do to you next! (NOW, let me say: if you are
doing something you KNOW God doesn’t want you to be doing, you might ought to feel
that way! But if so, then just STOP DOING THAT THING, right?!)

But in reality, walking in “the fear of the Lord” does not mean cringing in fear, waiting
for God to “get” you for something.

— First of all, in Proverbs 2:5, we saw that it says “Then you will discern the fear of the
LORD, and discover the knowledge of God.” In Hebrew poetry, parallelism, they will use
two terms which mean virtually the same thing. What are the two things here: the “fear
of the Lord” and “the knowledge of God.” So to have the Fear of the Lord means to know
God, to acknowledge Him in every situation in your life. (we’ll see more about this)

— Then if you look at Chapter 3:7, which we read Tuesday, it says: “Fear the LORD AND
TURN AWAY FROM EVIL” So this shows us that there is a purifying element in the fear
of the Lord. If you fear God, it will cause you to turn away from sin.

— Then Proverbs 8:13 that we read yesterday pretty much just gives us a flat-out
definition: “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil …”. What is the FOTL? It tells us here: It
is to hate evil!

— And Proverbs 16:6 adds to that: “And by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from
evil.” So here again we see that if you have the fear of the Lord, it keeps you from doing
sinful things.

FEAR OF GOD : So it can be a synonym for “worshiping” God, serving God, respecting
God.

But like here in Proverbs, we also see in other scriptures this aspect of “the fear of the
Lord” as an awareness of God’s presence, that keeps you from sin:

— For example, in II Chronicles 19:7 when King Jehoshaphat brought a revival in the
land, he told the people: “Let the fear of the Lord be upon you; be very careful what you
do …”. So again we see the fear of the Lord as an awareness of God’s presence, and our
accountability to Him.
So from all these scriptures, we get the idea that to “fear the Lord” means to have a
knowledge of God, of His presence, which keeps you from sin, and causes you to obey
God. We might give it a definition like this:

The fear of the Lord means: “a continual awareness of the presence of God, and your
accountability to Him, which affects every attitude and action in your life.” It doesn’t
mean you have a “cringing fear” of God, but it does mean that you are continually aware
of His presence, and that awareness of His presence naturally affects everything that you
do.

the meaning of “the fear of the Lord” is. It does NOT mean we walk around with a
“shaking fear” of God. If that is how you are with God, it’s an indication of an unhealthy
relationship with Him. Maybe it means you don’t understand His love for you
rightly. Maybe it mean you don’t realize that “He has plans for you, plans for welfare and
not for evil.” Or maybe it means you have one or more areas of your life that you need to
get right with Him! Whatever it may be …

But “the fear of the Lord” does NOT mean that we are supposed to walk around terrified
of God all the time. It does mean that we should walk with a continual, conscious
awareness of His presence, which causes us to live and act rightly, because we know He
is always with us, and that we are accountable to Him for everything we think, and say,
and do.

That’s what we saw in Joseph, in Genesis 39:9, when Potiphar’s wife tried to get him to
sin with her. His response to her was: “How then could I do this great evil and sin
against God?” Now, Potiphar wasn’t there. The other servants weren’t there. Why didn’t
Joseph just go ahead and commit that sin? Because he knew that GOD was there.
Joseph walked in “the fear of the Lord.” He knew that whoever else was or wasn’t there,
GOD was always with him, and that he was accountable to HIM for his actions, and so
he acted accordingly.

II. The Fear of the Lord Should Affect EVERY area of your life!

When Chapter 1:7 says “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,” it means
that the fear of the Lord is the foundational belief that affects EVERY other area of our
lives. The fear of YHWH is the FOUNDATION of knowledge, one might translate. It is
what all the other knowledge we have, is built upon.

In Edward Dolnick’s book The Clockwork Universe, he describes how Sir Isaac Newton
and the other scientists of his era discovered all they did, about gravity, and calculus,
and the universe, because central to their belief was that there was a GOD who had
designed this universe, and that He had established an order in it that could be
discovered. It is just what Proverbs 1:7 says: “the fear of the Lord was the beginning of
(their) knowledge.” Acknowledging HIM was the central belief that allowed them to
discover everything else that they did.
It is just like we read this week in Proverbs 3:5-6, those great verses that challenge us
to “trust in the LORD with all your heart; lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways
acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight.” Notice that it says there: “in ALL
YOUR WAYS acknowledge Him.” In WHAT ways in your life are you to acknowledge
God? “In ALL your ways.” In other words, EVERYTHING YOU DO should be affected
by the fact that you acknowledge God. Every area of your life should be impacted by the fact
that there is a God. This is basically another way of saying you are walking in “the fear of
the Lord.” Everywhere you go; in everything you do, you are aware of God. You “fear Him.”
You “acknowledge Him;” in EVERY AREA OF YOUR LIFE.

This runs counter to what a lot of people seem to think of as “Christianity.” They think
being a Christian means you “make a decision” for Jesus to be your Savior, then you get
baptized, and now you “go to church” a few times a month, and wait till you go to
heaven, but it doesn’t really affect the rest of your life that much.

That is NOT Christianity. Jesus said we must “deny ourselves, take up our cross daily
and follow Me.” That means we are to commit our whole lives to Jesus. It means as we
see here in Proverbs, that in everything we do, we are to walk in the fear of the Lord. It
means we acknowledge Him in ALL of OUR WAYS. Christianity should affect every area
of our life. Not just an hour or two a week at church. ALL of our ways.