Isaiah 8:11-15 – Fear the LORD, Not Man
If we fear the Lord, if we have proper godly fear toward Jehovah, there is blessing. The ungodly cannot understand this. They have a fear of God. But it is an entirely different thing than the fear of God that the godly have. The ungodly frequently try to deny the existence or the attributes of Jehovah. They will seek to make in their own minds a different God who is easier to deal with. Deep down, of course, the ungodly know Jehovah. This is clearly taught in Psalm 19 and Romans 1. But it is a knowledge that they do their very best to suppress. They hate this holy God who is different from them, and at the same time they are terrified of Him. For they know that His judgment hangs over them and they cannot escape Him.
That is not the kind of fear that God is saying to us, His people, that we must have. If you are in Jesus Christ, you’ve been given a new heart. How does this godly heart respond to the God who has given it? It responds in a sort of fear also. What we mean here is godly reverence, awe, and respect that leads to adoration, worship, trust, and love. This fear has an admiration of God’s holiness. It has a desire after it, a longing for it. One of the biggest things restraining me from sin is not the fear of some sort of punishment. It is the fear of losing this joy in the Lord, even temporarily, of having my relationship with my Father and my Creator somehow with a big dark cloud in between. That is the kind of fear that is being spoken of here by God through Isaiah. This fear does not push away the believer. It draws the believer in so that the fear of God, the name of God, is to him a sanctuary. That is a place of God’s presence, of His holiness, of His protection.
When we fear man, we get trouble, we end up crushed and destroyed. Fear of man drives out fear of God. But when the new heart is given, when revival comes to the Church, when reformation comes to a society, it is then that by the power of God alone, good fear drives out bad. For where the fear of the Lord is, fear of man is gone.
Question
- What fear of God does the unbeliever have?
- What fear of God does the believer have?
Prayer Points
- Pray for the preaching and hearing of God’s Word tomorrow.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.