Continuing our study of the Fear of God in Proverbs: Wisdom appears as a personified woman, saying: “when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord” (1:27-29). Here the knowledge of Wisdom is portrayed as the antidote to distress; and those who lack that knowledge do so because they did not choose the fear of the Lord. How can we speak of choosing fear? I will suggest two answers, that we can choose to fear the Lord rather than men and the powers of chaos; and second, that “choose” can mean “choose to acknowledge,” not to close our eyes to it.
The basis of our fear is our vulnerability: that we Cannot guarantee our own joy, health, or future. We are also vulnerable in our consciences. A person who has sinned or done anything they are ashamed of has cause to fear someone who knows the truth about us. And God, of course, is all-knowing.
Further, because we are vulnerable we fear what time may bring to us, age, illness, and death; pestilence, fire, or storm; and what other people might do to us: violence, war, taxation, hatred, and rejection. Those can all be terrible things to suffer. But if I choose instead only to fear God, then I see the other evils as secondary, as matters which have to be borne, and affecting only my life in this world, for as Christ said: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) This is echoed in the tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, culminating in the verse: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). After all, the power of God is endless, for as St John said in the Apocalypse: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
Next to the power of God, there is no other power anywhere. The terrors of the world will pass, death being the final release, and can be endured for the sake of heaven, for as St Peter said: “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled …” (1 Peter 3:14)
There is another way to approach the fear of God. Consider first, the power of the sun, not only because it has long been the subject of devotion of pagans and, even today, neo-pagans; but more because we all both cherish the sun and at the same time have a certain fear of the power of its rays. It is a feature of probably every culture on the earth that it praises the sun, its warmth, and the welcome of its rays. Yet, it is also universal, except perhaps in Eskimo cultures, to warn that one can suffer from too much exposure to a hot sun.
The fear we have of God, the good fear of God, is based upon an awareness of how small we are, and how great He is, together with the knowledge that He will judge us. The idea of judgment is not much in vogue today, but that is simply all the worse for the fashion. We are here on earth for a purpose, to learn to know, love and serve God, and the testing which we know will come is not only necessary but even desirable. It is the judgment which shows us what we have been and done. It is the moment when universal justice is vindicated; for all are given the reward or punishment they deserve. When students at a university are not graded, how much do you think they learn? And can it be compared with those courses where they are examined and marked? Could you live in a society where criminals were never brought to justice, never judged?
Judgment means responsibility, and a lack of it means irresponsibility. So there will indeed be a judgment, as Our Lord Himself said so often, and we should, I believe, be glad that there will be. And the judgment will indeed be a fearful thing. Recollecting what has been said about that judgment will bring us to the fear of God, and through that fear we shall find a heightened awareness of our own responsibility for our actions and omissions, and a vivid consciousness of our existence as the creations of God. To put it another way, it is a function of the goodness of God that He will judge us, with perfectly fair rewards and punishments.
It is not only that we know that because God is omnipotent we must fear Him more than anyone else, like knowing that one army outclasses another in every way. It is more that the difference between His power and all else is a result of the fact that He is God, that He made us
Hence, the very last two verses of the Book of Proverbs read: “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.” (31:30-31) This is not only a reverent fear, but also a productive and fruitful one. Dignity Relate this to the judgment in the Gospel of Matthew where on the day of judgment, the Lord says: “Amen, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40)
If all we took from the Book of Proverbs was to understand aright the fear of God, and His judgment, that would be magnificent. But as we shall see, there is yet more … in abundance.