Power Cuts and the Fear of God
The other week we had a series of power cuts in our town. It doesn’t happen very often here where I am, but there was particularly bad weather recently which damaged some cables; but sitting in the dark winter evening, my phone low on battery power, it made me realise just how much we rely on electricity for nearly everything these days. We don’t even have a gas supply so we were completely cut off from doing anything!
Now it might sound obvious, but it’s easy to forget how dependent we are on modern conveniences until it’s suddenly taken away and you’re sat in the cold surrounded by tiny little tea-light candles. The following Sunday, the sermon at church touched on the fear of God, which got me thinking about how that concept is still kind of strange to me — God is love, He’s our Father, we’re His children… but then we are to also fear Him?
What does this have to do with electricity and power cuts, I hear you say — I’ll come to that in a moment. I’ve often been taught that the word “fear” used in this context actually means “respect”, so I decided to look up the Greek and Hebrew words that are used when we see the words “fear God” in the Bible.
It wasn’t exactly what I expected to find.
2 Corinthians 5:11 is where I began, as that was the verse quoted in the sermon.
Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God, and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences.
I thought I may see a Greek word with a semantic range which includes “respect” or “honour” maybe, but what I found was the word φόβος (phobos) which literally means “alarm or fright; be afraid, fear, terror”. It’s also where we get our English word “phobia” from!
So I went forward a couple of chapters to this verse:
2 Corinthians 7:1
Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
But again, the word “phobos” was used, so now I decided to search across the New Testament for this phrase, and the next passage that came up was in Romans.
Romans 3:18
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
This is part of a larger passage which ends on this verse about the fear of God (still using the same Greek word), where I saw a footnote to say it had been a quote from Psalm 36:1. Ah, I thought, maybe the Hebrew word used for “fear” will show something different!
I thought wrong.
This particular verse in Psalm 36 used the word פַּחַד (p̱aḥaḏ), which has a wide meaning such as: a (sudden) alarm (properly, the object feared, by implication, the feeling): — dread(-ful), fear, (thing) great (fear, greatly feared), terror.
So again, the type of fear is an actual fear!
A little searching through the Old Testament revealed that the word “fear” has a couple of other Hebrew words which lie underneath the English translations, one of which does also mean “reverence” as well (יָרֵא [yârê], found in Gen 22:12 and 1 Sam 12:14). So maybe there is an element of that understanding in the Greek by the time the New Testament writers came along who meant that ‘fear’ as awe and reverence as well.
So this all leads me back to where I was a week or so ago, sat in church listening to a sermon, wondering when my power would be back on. As I thought about all of this, the combination of electricity and the fear of God combined into something that helped me put some perspective on it: the fear of God is like a live, sparking electric cable.
I’ll clarify my thinking — if we saw an electric cable on the ground, flailing around and sparking everywhere, we should be fearful of that because touching it could kill us! But when electricity is used right, it is good for and to us; it provides power and comfort etc. Without it we lose access to pretty much everything these days and go into darkness — Much like if we lose sight of, or don’t have, God in our lives.
We should have a healthy “fear” for God in the same way we fear and respect something dangerous to not misuse it. God is awesomely powerful, and I think we sometimes forget that, and while “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8), and “perfect love casts out fear” (1 Jn 4:18), there is still the sombre warning Jesus gives us about the Father in Matthew 10:28 —
Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
God is that electricity that can light up our world, protect us and keep up safe when we plug into Him as intended (via following His commands and Laws), but if we go astray or don’t follow the “instructions”, then that power outlet can be something to be feared!
I know this isn’t like my usual articles, but I hope that this is helpful to some in garnering a better understanding of the fear of the Lord, framed in a modern context. Let me know what you think in the comments below!
