I (Giles) recently spent some time in Ezekiel. What a difficult book to read! God’s bride, Israel, had become a prostitute to other nations, and His people started worshipping other gods and generally being disobedient in every area of their lives. God tells Ezekiel to go to His people and warn them about how He is going to destroy them. He adds, though, that this will be done as a message to the other nations of His greatness and glory.
Reading these seemingly harsh passages in Ezekiel made me ask whether we Christ-followers (myself included) fear our God with this measure of reverence.
When Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He sweated drops of blood, pleading with God to “take this cup” from Him. What “cup” was He referring to? Was it the premonition of being captured and hung on the cross by the Romans? Beyond the physical pain and torture, I believe Christ was speaking about God’s wrath and anger toward our sin being poured out upon him in that moment. He was pleading with His Father to take the cup of His holy wrath from him, although in the same breath, he resigned his will to His Father’s will.
What a perfect example of reverential fear toward God! God acts to glorify himself, and He also shines His light on us so that we may love and worship Him more. Doesn’t God’s love warrant reverential fear, that He is working in our lives and those around us for a higher purpose and for our greater good, even when it just seems like punishment or useless suffering to us?
I would like to share a story about a fear that I faced out of my own disobedience. When I was in high school, one of the popular activities in the town where I grew up was “cruising the strip.” These were the days before inordinate amounts of social media, so on a Friday night, if you wanted to converse with people your own age from around town, cruising was where you would receive your “status updates.” One Friday evening, I was out cruising with a few friends, and we lost track of time. My curfew at that time was midnight, and we soon realized that it was well past that time, 2 a.m.to be exact. Of course none of us was keeping track of the time, and when we realized what time it actually was, there was no real way that I could contact my parents. This was before cell phones or texting.
I realized by this point that I was going to be in terrible trouble when I got home, and I feared the consequences of that. I knew that punishment was right around the corner. It was punishment I certainly would deserve for my disobedience. My parents’ reasoning for punishing me would be to make me a more respectful, loving son who honored them more.
Wasn’t this the same method that God was using with the Israelites? I don’t think that God was just about striking fear into the hearts of the Israelites. Perhaps he also feared for them, just like my parents feared for me when I was not home at midnight as expected.
In taking another look at my story, I realized it was incomplete. I had not considered the fear that my parents must have felt knowing that I was missing. They did not know if I was okay or if I was injured, lost, or dead. What kind of fear did that create for them? How close were they to calling the police to look for me? The punishment I received from my parents for breaking curfew paled in comparison to the fear I engendered in them by my disobedient actions.
Why would our Father not fear for us in the same way? Christ expresses this fear in John 17:6-12: “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”
This prayer demonstrates Christ’s great love and fear for us. Even though He knows that we will face trouble in this world, He invokes protection over us from His Father and our Father. The very same God whose wondrous love for us and desire to glorify Himself through us should inspire in us reverential fear.
A Life Called to Love 