JFear God

Ex 3:4 & 6 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” …6 At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
 
CAUSING one to fear you isn’t a good way to build a relationship, is it? God has come to Moses to call him to be the Law Giver and Deliverer of Israel in Egypt. Wouldn’t it have been good for God to speak to Moses with softer, kinder words? Our LORD, though, gives two commands: “Come.” and “Take off your sandals.” Moses responds in fear. Why? It is because Moses recognizes God’s holiness – His perfection – and he knows he is unworthy to be in God’s perfect presence.
      One of the great challenges we have in understanding God is to know that Jesus is our friend (John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.) alongside such verses as Psalms 115:13 he will bless those who fear the Lord. How do “friend” and “fear” co-exist in our relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit?
      First, we must humbly know that we can only approach God on his terms. It is not possible for us to go to God in “our way”, casually concluding God will take us into his presence in any way we want him to take us. That self-righteous thinking is Satan’s first temptation in the Garden. This sin would condemn Pharaoh and has condemned people through the ages. We must fear God. We must obey his commands because he is the One who has our lives in His hand. He requires us to be holy to be with him. And in joy, we can know he has made this possible in Jesus Christ. Through our Savior’s sacrifice to redeem our self-righteousness, we will become righteous – true to God – when we confess the Savior as Thomas did in John 20:28 “My Lord and my God!” In the sacrifice and in the confession, we can now call Jesus, “Friend.”
      Fear God. There is only one right way to enter into his holiness. The Way is Jesus, the Son of God, who calls you to follow him in truth. Our Savior has made the way possible for us stand with him on God’s holy ground forever. Indeed, what a friend is Jesus.
 
LIFE Link: Deuteronomy 6:24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.