Fear of God

In his recent book, Paul Tripp describes a trip to the see world’s tallest skyscraper:

Wherever you go in Dubai, you are confronted with the Burj Khalifa the world's tallest building. Impressive skyscrapers are all around Dubai, but the Burj Khalifa looms over them all with majestic glory. At 2,716 feet (just over half a mile) it dwarfs buildings that would otherwise leave you in mouth-gaping awe. As you move around Dubai, you see all of these buildings and you say to yourself again and again, "How in the world did they build that?" But the Burj Khalifa is on an entirely other scale.

Even from far away, it was hard to crank my head back far enough to see all the way to the top. The closer I got, the more imposing and amazing this structure became. As I walked, there was no thought of the other buildings in Dubai that had previously impressed me. As amazing as those build­ings were, they were simply not comparable in stunning architectural grandeur and perfection to this one.

When I finally got to the base of the Burj Khalifa, I felt incredibly small, like an ant at the base of a light pole. I entered a futuristic looking elevator and, in what seemed like seconds, was on the 125th floor. This was not the top of the building, because that was closed to visitors. As I stepped to the windows to get a feel for how high I was and to scan the city of Dubai, I immediately commented on how small the rest of the buildings looked. Those "small" buildings were skyscrapers that, in any other city, would have been the buildings that you wanted to visit. They looked small, unimpressive, and not worthy of attention, let alone awe. I had experienced the greatest, which put what had impressed me before into proper perspective.

By means of God's revelation of himself in Scripture, we see that there is no perfection like God's perfection. There is no holiness as holy as God's holiness. If you allow yourself to gaze upon his holiness, you will feel incredibly small and sinful. It is a good thing spiritually to have the assessments of your own grandeur decimated by divine glory.

In his book With, author Skye Jethani describes the mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Italy:

Fifteen hundred years ago, the emperor of Rome built a tomb for his beloved sister. The small building was designed in the shape of a cross with a vaulted ceiling covered with mosaics of swirling stars in an indigo sky. The focal point of the mosaic ceiling was a depiction of Jesus the Good Shepherd surrounded by sheep in an emerald paradise.

The mausoleum of Galla Placidia still stands in Ravenna, Italy, and has been called “the earliest and best preserved of all mosaic monuments” and one of the “most artistically perfect.” But visitors who have admired its mosaics in travel books will be disappointed when they enter the mausoleum. The structure has only tiny windows, and what light does enter is usually blocked by a mass of tourists. The “most artistically perfect” mosaic monument, the inspiring vision of the Good Shepherd in a starry paradise, is hidden behind a veil of darkness.

But the impatient who leave the chapel will miss a stunning unveiling. With no advance notice, spotlights near the ceiling are turned on when a tourist finally manages to drop a coin into the small metal box along the wall. The lights illuminate the iridescent tiles of the mosaic but only for a few seconds. One visitor described the experience: “The lights come on. For a brief moment, the briefest of moments—the eye doesn’t have time to take it all in, the eye casts about—the dull, hot darkness overhead becomes a starry sky, a dark-blue cupola with huge, shimmering stars that seem startlingly close. ‘Ahhhhh!’ comes the sound from below, and then the light goes out, and again there’s darkness, darker even than before.”

The bright burst of illumination is repeated over and over again, divided by darkness of unpredictable length. Each time the lights come on, the visitors are given another glimpse of the world behind the shadows, and their eyes capture another element previously unseen—deer drinking from springs, Jesus gently reaching out to his sheep that look lovingly at their Shepherd. After seeing the mosaic, one visitor wrote: “I have never seen anything so sublime in my life! Makes you want to cry!”

Possible Preaching Angle:

It is difficult to experience the glory of God in our daily lives and when we do, it is only for brief moments. Yet, there are time when God breaks through the darkness of this world and reveals himself for a brief moment. Like Isaiah’s experience (Isa. 6:1-5), these moments should be life changing.

In an interview with Fresh Air’s Terri Gross, Elton John explains why he prefers a “higher power” over God:

GROSS: You almost left rehab because - well, one of the reasons … was when it got to talk of a higher power, when it got to, as you describe it, the God talk, you felt like that is just, like, ‘not for me.’

JOHN: Yes.

GROSS: And you really thought seriously about leaving. So, I'd like to know what upset you so much about the God talk and if you were able to find a way into that talk?

JOHN: Well, the God thing, I was angry [because] God, for me, represented a punishment. You know, God will punish you for doing this; God will punish you for doing that. I hated the word God. And I really resented the word God.

And then someone said to me, ‘Listen - do you believe in something greater than yourself?’ And I said, ‘Of course I do. There's been so many things in my life that have happened by chance or just, you know, decisions I've made that have been prompted by something inside of my soul.’

Of course, I only have to look up in the sky to believe in something greater than myself, or I'll go walk in the field or look at a mountain. And they said, well, then that's it. Use it. That's how - say higher power instead of God. And I went, I can do that. I can do that.

It doesn't have to be the punishing God that I … learned in Sunday school. It can be a higher power that … sends me messages. And I accepted that, and I came to terms with that, and that was really very important to me.

In 1996 two military strategists, Harlan Uliman and James Wade, started advocating a more focused approach to war. Uliman and Wade argued for engaging the enemy with an overwhelming show of force that will destroy "the adversary's will to resist before, during, and after battle." They titled their book Shock and Awe.

Shock and Awe, also known as Rapid Dominance, is defined as "a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight." The goal is to render your opponent impotent by using "superior technology, precision engagement, and information dominance."

Shortly before the first Iraq War, Uliman described what would happen with this Shock and Awe approach: "You're sitting in Baghdad and all of a sudden you're the general and 30 of your division headquarters have been wiped out. You also take the city down. By that I mean you get rid of their power, water. In 2,3,4,5 days they are physically, emotionally and psychologically exhausted."

In response to human sin and evil, God could have used Shock and Awe. He could have employed Rapid Dominance to crush us with his "overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force." Instead, the God of all authority and power, chose a radically different strategy: redemptive love, being delivered into the hands of sinners and then laying down his life at the cross. No wonder Paul had to acknowledge "the foolishness of the cross."

Some contemporary atheists are arguing that even belief in God is not so much like the child's comfort blanket; it is like the child's nightmare. Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great, put it like this:

I think it would be rather awful if it was true [that God exists]. If there was a permanent, total, round-the-clock divine supervision and invigilation of everything you did, you would never have a waking or sleeping moment when you weren't being watched and controlled and supervised by some celestial entity from the moment of your conception to the moment of your death … . It would be like living in North Korea.

For Hitchens, God is The Ruler, and so must by definition be a Stalin-in-the-sky, a Big Brother. And who in their right mind would ever want such a being to exist? But the triune God is not that God. Hitchens, clearly, had it in his head that God is fundamentally The Ruler, The One in Charge, characterized by "supervision and invigilation." The picture changes entirely, though, if God is fundamentally the most kind and loving Father, and only ever exercises his rule as who he is—as a Father. In that case, living under his roof is not like living in North Korea at all, but like living in the household of the sort of caring father Hitchens himself wished for.

In the novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Garcia Marquez, the author describes in his magical but realistic way a village suffering from an insomnia plague. As this plague continues, it gradually causes the loss of memory. To try and salvage memory, Marquez describes how a man named Jose developed an elaborate plan that involved labeling everything: "With an inked brush he marked everything with its name: table, chair, clock, door, wall, bed, pan. He went on to the corral and marked the animals and plants: cow, goat, pig, hen ... banana."

As their memory continued to fade Jose decided that he needed to be even more explicit. He posted a sign on a cow that read: "This is the cow. She must be milked every morning so that she will produce milk, and the milk must be boiled in order to be mixed with coffee to make coffee and milk. Thus they were living in a reality that was slipping away, momentarily captured by words but which would escape ... when they forgot the values of the written letters." Eventually the village put a placard at the entrance to town that said, "God exists," as that knowledge too was slipping.

On September 28, 1882 the Worcester Ruby Legs from Massachusetts played the Troy Trojans from New York in a pro baseball game. It was a famous game in pro baseball history because it set a record for the lowest number of fans in the stands. Six people watched the Trojans trounce the Ruby Legs 4-1.

That record stood for almost 125 years. On Aril 29, 2015 the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox played their game in front of empty seats. Zero fans. This bizarre development was mandated by Major League Baseball in wake of protests and outbursts of violence in the city of Baltimore. Here's how an Associated Press article reported one incident from the fan-less game:

Chris Davis might have hit the quietest home run for the home team in Orioles history. As the slugger pounded the ball deep onto Eutaw Street, just a few feet from where fans normally would have sprinted after a chance to catch a souvenir, there was almost nothing to hear. The only muffled cheers came from a pocket of die-hards locked out of Camden Yards yelling "Let's Go O's!"

On this day, 30,000 Orioles fans had been muted. The wild applause had been silenced. There were no fans to stand for a standing ovation. Just Davis' teammates in the dugout coming over for high-fives. "When you're rounding the bases, and the only cheers you hear were from outside the stadium," he said, "it's a weird feeling."

Editor’s Update: To this could be added the dozens of sporting events that were played before empty stadiums during the COVID-19 Pandemic. You can read a psychological take on this here

Possible Preaching Angles: No live audience, no cheering fans, no applause. As a Christian, how much does the audience affect your performance? How much does the cheering crowd motivate you to do a good job? Or are you content to live before the Lord, the "Audience of One"?

Do you worry a lot? If so, we have some good news for you. According to recent research, worriers have a higher IQ than non-worriers. From Slate: "The adage that ignorance is bliss suggests the reverse, that knowledge involves anguish. Now it's starting to get some scientific validation." Studies are showing that people who show a high degree of worry not only score higher on tests but they are also able to sense threats faster. "So, the next time someone tells you to relax, explain that nervousness has its virtues." This is not saying that one needs to be extremely paranoid, but as the article concludes, in a "pinch, above-average unease just might be something to brag about."

Possible Preaching Angle:

Of course, all of this depends on what you fear. According to the Bible the smartest people in the world begin with "the fear of the Lord."

Researcher Christian Smith's book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, concludes that many young American adults have a faith characterized by "moralistic, therapeutic deism." According to this view of God, if we live good lives and if we're kind to others, then God will provide "therapeutic benefits" to us like self-esteem and happiness. Other than that, God is not involved much in our world.

This view of God has a profound effect on prayer. Smith found that American teens personally prayed frequently; 40 percent prayed daily or more, and only 15 percent said they never prayed. However, their motivation for prayer largely focused on meeting their own needs. Some of the teens interviewed said: "If I ever have a problem, I go pray." "It helps me deal with problems. … it calms me down for the most part." "Praying just makes me feel more secure, like there's something there helping me out." "I would say prayer is an essential part of my success."

But Smith also found that many young Americans' prayers lacked any sense of repentance or adoration. Smith writes, "This is not a religion of repentance from sin." Again, Smith concludes that this "distant God" is "not demanding … because his job is to solve problems and make people feel good. There is nothing here to evoke wonder and admiration."

Bill Klem was the father of baseball umpires: colorful, judicious, and dignified. He was beyond passionate about America's favorite pastime, declaring, "To me, baseball is not a game, but a religion." The first umpire to use arm signals while working behind home plate, Bill umped for 37 years, including 18 World Series. He became known as "the Old Arbitrator," a deferential nod to his keen eye for calling balls and strikes.

On one such occasion, as he crouched and readied behind the plate, the pitcher threw the ball, the batter didn't swing, and, for just an instant, Bill said nothing. The batter turned and snorted, "Okay, so what was it, a ball or a strike?" To which Bill responded, "Sonny, it ain't nothing 'till I call it."

Think about this the next time you feel pressure to please someone or to please a group of people rather than trying to fear and please God. Picture yourself at your life review with God having the following conversation:

God: "So, why didn't you take the opportunity I offered you?"

You: "I really wanted to and I knew it was your will for my life, but you know how upset _____ would have gotten if I did. It would have been awful."

God: "You are right, ______ would have gone through the roof and would have been upset with you. And, I have a meeting with _____ later … in exactly three years, two months, six days, seven hours, and thirty-three minutes. At that time, I'll be talking to ______ about his [or her] tendency to get mad at people when they did not please him [or her]. I will take care of that issue. But that is ______'s life, not yours. You are responsible for your own choices. You are responsible for your own decisions and ________ is responsible for how he [she] responded to you … That will be his [or her] problem. But, the fact that you chose to give in to him [or her] is your problem, and now I want to show you the life that you gave up by living the life that other people wanted. Watch that screen over there … ."

Then you see what could have been if only you had not tried to live your life to please others instead of first pleasing God.

The phrase "Be afraid, be very afraid" was a tagline from the 1986 horror flick The Fly. Google the phrase and you'll get about 183 million results for that phrase. But the trick is to be appropriately afraid of the right thing. What people commonly fear is not always what should be causing that spike of adrenaline. Here are some examples:

Are you afraid to fly? You have a 0.00001 percent chance of dying in an airplane crash. On the other hand, the car insurance industry estimates that the average driver will be involved in three or four car crashes in their lifetime and the odds of dying in a car crash are one to two percent.

Are you afraid of heights? It's the second most reported fear. Your chance of being injured by falling, jumping, or being pushed from a high place is 1 in 65,092. The chance of having your identity stolen is 1 in 200. Do you fear being killed by a bolt of lightning? The odds of that happening are 1 in 2.3 million. You're much more likely to be struck by a meteorite—those lifetime odds are about 1 in 700,000.

How about dogs? They're bark really is worse than their bite: Your chance of suffering a dog bite is 1 in 137,694. On the other hand, your chance of being injured while mowing the lawn is 1 in 3,623. How about sharks? You're much more likely to be killed by your spouse (1 in 135,000) than a shark (1 in 300 million). Won't ride a roller coaster? If you have the patience to stand in the line, the chance of a roller coaster injury is 1 in 300 million. But if you play with fireworks on the Fourth of July, you're really playing with fire: the chance of injury is 1 in 20,000.

How would your behavior change if you thought someone was watching you? Two recent studies suggest that you might start acting more honestly. A 2006 study at a university faculty lounge offered coffee and tea to professors that for years had used an unsupervised honor system. The rules were clear: serve yourself and then put the money you owed into a box. For ten weeks, though, the experimenters put a hard-to-miss poster near the box. One version of the poster featured pretty flowers; the other version had a pair of eyes glaring out at the viewer. The image alternated between flowers and eyes each week. People paid almost three times more on "eyes" weeks than on "flowers" weeks.

A 2012 study found the same results—only this time watching eyes changed the behavior of potential bicycle thieves. Researchers put signs with a large pair of menacing eyes and the message "Cycle thieves: we are watching you" by the bike racks at Newcastle University in England. They then monitored bike thefts for two years and found a 62 percent drop in thefts at locations with the signs.

But there was an interesting twist to this experiment. While theft rates went down 62 percent in the "we are watching you" racks, in other places in the university it shot up by 65 percent—an almost perfect offset. In other words, the thieves kept stealing bikes; they just went down the street to get away from those eyeballs of judgment and accountability.

One of the greatest fears for kings in the ancient world was death by poison. Most kings made slaves pre-taste the wine to test it for deadly toxins. But in the first century B.C., a king named Mithradates went even further. Mithradates was a ruthless king and visionary rebel who challenged the power of Rome, but he was also known for his obsession to find an antidote to any poison. He invented many and various anti-poison potions, and tested them on pre-poisoned prisoners. The cocktail he finally came up with involved forty-one often unusual ingredients (for example, diced viper's flesh). It tasted awful, but Mithradates drank some of the stuff every day, to insure he was un-poisonable. For years his mastery of poisons allowed him to foil assassination attempts and eliminate rivals.

Unfortunately for Mithradates, no-one can cover everything. He was eventually overthrown by his son. The story goes that, holed up in a tower, the king tried to kill himself but, ironically, found that no poison had any effect. Finally, he had to ask one of his guards to stab him to death.

Possible Preaching Angles: Self-sufficiency; Control; Providence of God; Trust—When we don't fear God and trust in his care and providence, we have to take charge of our circumstances. Our quest for control will always end badly.

Os Guinness traces our contemporary idea of human freedom that "began in the Renaissance … blossomed in the Enlightenment and rose to its climax in the 1960s." The classic statement of the Renaissance view is that of Pico della Mirandola, as he imagines God addressing Adam: "You, who are confined by no limits, shall determine for yourself your own nature …. You shall fashion yourself in whatever form you prefer."

Throughout the centuries this same view of human freedom—limitless potential apart from God—has been expressed by other key thinkers.

• Leon Batista Alberti: "A man can do all things if he will." (15th century, Italy)
• Karl Marx: "Man is free only if he owes his existence to himself." (19th century, Germany)
• Friedrich Nietzsche: "If there were gods, who could bear not to be gods? Therefore there are no gods." (19th century, Germany)
• Herbert Spencer: "Progress is not an accident, but a necessity. Surely must evil and immorality disappear; surely must men become perfect." (19th century, England)
• Walt Whitman: "One's-self I sing, a simple separate person." (19th century, America)
• John F. Kennedy: "Man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings." (20th century, America)
• Ayn Rand: "Man's destiny is to be a self-made soul." (20th century, Russian-American)
• E.O. Wilson: "Humanity will be positioned godlike to take control of its own ultimate fate." (21st century, America)

The word geek is a slang term for (a) A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy; (b) A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially incompetent.

The word usually isn't intended as a compliment. But if you have a problem with your computer, cell phone, gaming device, or television, that's when you really want a geek around. There's even a company called "The Geek Squad" which proudly advertizes, "We're geeky, yes, but we also know what you're going through, because nobody is more into technology than we are." When you need The Geek Squad, you give them a call, they fix your problem, and then they leave you alone.

Is it possible to treat God in the same way that people treat the Geek Squad? In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis described approaching God in a similar way. At a young age, when C. S. Lewis learned that his mother was dying, he remembered that he had been taught that prayers offered in faith would be granted. When his mother eventually died, Lewis prayed for a miracle. Later, he wrote:

I had approached God, or my idea of God, without love, without awe, even without fear. He was, in my mental picture of this miracle, to appear neither as Savior nor as Judge, but merely as a magician; and when he had done what was required of him I supposed he would simply—well, go away. It never crossed my mind that the tremendous contract which I solicited should have any consequence beyond restoring the status quo.

Anytime we expect God to fix our problems, restore the status quo, and then go away so we can live without him, we've treated God like the Geek Squad.