Isaiah, Moses, David, and the fear of God

Reflections on last Sunday's sermon:

Isaiah saw God's holiness and man's sinfulness. Hence, he feared God.

Moses saw God's eternity and man's brevity. Hence, he feared God.

David saw God's omnipotence and man's impotence. Hence, he feared God.

Indeed, a good way of experiencing the fear of God, is by seeing it through the eyes of those three men, combined.

By realizing our sinfulness in the light of God's holiness, we experience fear. A fear of God, who stands on a moral high ground that far exceeds ours.

I remember my Young People's advisor during my Sungai Nibong days. I remember seeing him as a standard of moral high ground. We will be scuttling around, doing our own thing... When suddenly, he appears and asks us one question:

"What is the purpose of doing this?'

Then we shiver. And think, "Did we do something wrong?"

By the way, we were just putting up decorations on the YP notice board. He wasn't reprimanding us for what we were doing. He was just asking us why we were decorating it a certain way. Our paranoia made us shiver in our pants.

Can you imagine how it will be like when God stops us dead in our tracks and asks us "Why are you doing what you are doing?" There you go. That's the fear of God. You'd better not be caught doing something bad.

By seeing the frailty of human life through the eyes of God's eternity, we experience fear. A fear of God, who has been around for much longer than we have been. Who will still be around after we become a have been. And will always be around, for us to give an accounting to.

If death is but the beginning of eternity, we have much to fear. We wouldn't want to be caught lying in bed, at the jaws of death, and holding the hand of a loved one saying, "I am scared. I wish I had your faith."

There are few things that can be scarier than that. In fact, I can't think of any.

By seeing how puny is the strength of man measured against the power of God, we experience fear. A fear of God, who is so much stronger than us, that there is nothing and no one who can stand up to Him, challenge Him, or oppose His will.

This will evoke one of two things: Either a sense of God's tyranny, or a sense of awe.

An almighty and all-powerful God will look like a tyrant if He does anything He wills.

But an almighty and all-powerful God who wills to save us... We, who are by nature, powerless, and are objects of His wrath... That invokes a sense of awe. An awe-inpsiring worship of Him.

"How come his English so keng wan?" Mei Yee asked about the speaker, Mr. Cheah Wing Choong.

"He studied in UK mah," I replied.

"Oh, for how long?"

"Dunno lah. Until he got his degree loh."