Recognize God’s Wonder with Fear
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When the sailors in Jonah’s story finally discover that Jonah is the cause of a great storm, they ask him, “Who are you?” Jonah responds with a great line:
I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land. (Jonah 1:9)
The irony of this passage is that Jonah doesn’t seem to “fear” God at all. God has instructed him to do something that he is refusing to do. The sailors, on the other hand, truly do fear. The next verse tells us the sailors were terrified. They could see the great power of this mighty God who made the sea and the land. This God was able to conjure up storms powerful enough to kill them all. This God truly does have power over all of creation–land and sea.
We don’t talk much about “fearing God” today. We want our God to be a gentle God who would never force us to endure raging storms. The issue for me is not whether or not God would do such a thing to me or you like was done to Jonah. The issue is whether or not we perceive God as One with such authority and possibility. Do we believe in a God that truly has the power to destroy us? If God really is omnipotent, then God has the power to do all things.
I don’t think God wants to scare us or threaten us into obedience. I don’t think God tries to manipulate us into obedience. I do think, however, that God wants us to recognize the power God holds. If we truly believe God made the sea and the land like Jonah professed, then we must also recognize God’s power and authority over us.
Other translations of this passage use the words “worship” and “reverence” for “fear.” Although I think these translations lead us toward the meaning of “fear,” I think they lose the since of awe and humility that we must have when we come before God. Fear prostrates us before the Creator of our universe with the knowledge that we exist only because of his goodness and not because of any power we might possess.
At the end of the book of Jonah, God, with his power, provided a leafy plant to give Jonah shade. Then the next day, God used his power to cause a worm to eat the plant and take away Jonah’s shade. This is the lesson of omnipotence we must all learn. God has the power to care for our needs and God has the power to make life miserable. To assume God will only grant us good things, is to take a limited view of God.
I believe God wants to grant us good things. Jonah exclaims to God, “I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.” (Jonah 4:2). This is a true statement about God, but if it’s our only perspective of God, what is to keep us from doing as we please? We start believing the “God won’t send anyone to hell” argument. When we lose our fear, we lose our awe and our perspective on God’s magnitude.
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