In the sermon text yesterday (Genesis 28:10-22), God appears to Jacob in a dream. When Jacob wakes up, he realizes that this was no ordinary dream, and responds with, “Surely, the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” And then we are told, “And he was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place.’” This word translated “awesome” could also be translated “frightening,” “terrible,” “dreadful.”
This response of fear is interesting because the whole of God’s message to Jacob in the dream was positive and good, assuring and confirming. If we understand fear to be totally incompatible with things like love and goodness, then this account makes little sense. But what if there is a kind of fear that is not only compatible with God’s love and goodness, but actually arises out of an encounter with God’s love and goodness? What if God’s love is meant to cause us to tremble?
This is what the Bible consistently suggests (see Jeremiah 33:8-9, Hosea 3:5, Matthew 10:28-33), and it is the point of Michael Reeve’s wonderful book Rejoice and Tremble: The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord. I mentioned this book briefly in the sermon, and wanted to share some of the more impactful quotes from it here, not least because this is such an important, but misunderstood, topic.
“…the fear of God commended in Scripture, ‘does not arise from a perception of God as hazardous, but glorious. In other words, it flows from an appreciation of God.’” (pg. 49, quoting J. Stephen Yuille)
“And so we do not love him aright if our love is not a trembling, overwhelmed, and fearful love. In a sense, then, the trembling ‘fear of God’ is a way of speaking about the intensity of the saints’ love for and enjoyment of all that God is.” (52)
“Right fear falls on its face before the Lord, but falls leaning ‘toward the Lord….’ It is not simply that we love God for his graciousness and fear him for his majesty. That would be a lopsided fear of God. We also love him in his holiness and tremble at the marvelousness of his mercy. True fear of God is true love for God defined: it is the right response to God’s full-orbed revelation of himself in all his grace and glory.” (53)
“…the common feature of (the biblical examples of people rightly fearing the Lord is): trembling. It shows us that the fear of God is no mild-mannered, reserved, or limp thing. It is a startlingly physical, overpowering reaction. And so, respect and reverence are simply too weak and grey to stand in as synonyms for fear of God. Awe seems a much better fit, though even it doesn’t quite capture the physical intensity, the happy thrill, or the exquisite delight that leans toward, instead of away from, the Lord.” (58)
“There is no tension between this fear and joy. Rather, this trembling ‘fear of God’ is a way of speaking about the sheer intensity of the saints’ happiness in God.” (61)
Quoting Puritan John Owen: “Do any of us find decays in grace prevailing in us; deadness, coldness, lukewarmness, a kind of spiritual stupidity and senselessness coming upon us?… Let us assure ourselves there is no better way for our healing and deliverance, yea, no other way but this alone,–namely, the obtaining a fresh view of the glory of Christ by faith, and a steady abiding therein. Constant contemplation of Christ and his glory, putting forth its transforming power unto revival of all grace, is the only relief in this case.” (81)