The Fear Of The Lord

“The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure”

Here are two beautiful verses to consider. Isaiah points us to the Lord’s position: he is exalted because he dwells on high. He is above us. But it is not merely God’s dwelling above us that causes him to be exalted. He is exalted in himself because of who he is. We are always directed in Scripture to consider God. Solomon refers to heaven as God’s dwelling place (1 Kings 8:30, 39, 43, 49; also 2 Chron. 6:21, 30, 33, 39). The Psalmist says in Psalm 76:3 that “His abode has been established in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion.” Here God’s dwelling is in Jerusalem or Zion (also Ps. 84:1; 132:13). It is among his people in the Old Testament. Moses says in Psalm 90:1 that the Lord has been our dwelling place in all generations. His people dwell in him, and he in them.

Jesus articulates the same truth in John 17. He is in us and we are in him. This is the heart of the New Covenant. Ezekiel 37:27 says: “My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Paul tells the Colossians that our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). The Church is said to be the dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:22). God is unique in his essence and solitariness. Yet he dwells with us, and we with him, as Revelation 21:3 says: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’” He has lifted us up by coming down to us in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The remaining part of our verses focuses on what God does. It is always God first and then us. When God acts, two things occur virtually every time: his enemies tremble and are astonished, and his people are filled with excitement. Many times, we as God’s people might find ourselves in distress. We are worried about the times in which we live. We fear what we do not know. Salvation is such a beautiful work by God. He corrects our ethics: “justice and righteousness.” He is the bedrock and refuge for his people: “the stability of your times.” We are not secure in ourselves. He is our stability. He is our Rock. He is our immunity from danger and death. The salvation in him is so great that it can never be diminished: “abundance of salvation.” Like Joseph’s storehouses in Egypt, God’s salvation is overflowing. The word for “salvation” here is plural. It is “salvations” and it means that it continues on and on or over and over again.

God provides us with the wisdom to live and the knowledge to apply it. Without God’s wisdom, we are foolish. Without God’s knowledge, we are ignorant. In Scripture, there is a connection between wisdom and knowledge (or understanding) and the fear of the Lord. In our verse, the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure. The Hebrew does not contain the word “Zion” but simply says “his treasure.” The question, then, is whose treasure is Isaiah referring to? Zion, in verse 5, is feminine, and Judah is not included in the context, so the reference must be to the Lord (“his treasure” is masculine). The text literally reads: “the fear of the Lord, that is his treasure.” The fear of the Lord here is mentioned as a desirable thing—a treasure. And it is not one piece of treasure, but rather a storehouse of treasure.

In the Scriptures, the fear of the Lord has two possible meanings. It is either the sheer wrath-filled terror of the Lord, or it is awe-inspired reverence for the Lord. There are two responses. We are either terribly afraid of judgment or reverent in worship. In 2 Chronicles 14, King Asa of Judah went to war against the Ethiopians. The Ethiopians outnumbered Asa by two to one, but God defeated them because “the fear of the Lord was upon them” (2 Chron. 14:14). This means that God terrified them. Jehoshaphat was able to live in peace because “the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, and they made no war against Jehoshaphat” (2 Chron. 17:10). Jehoshaphat appointed judges throughout Judah and gave them commands that they were to “consider what you do, for you judge not for man but for the LORD. He is with you in giving judgment. Now then, let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the LORD our God or partiality or taking bribes” (2 Chron. 19:6, 7; see also vs. 9).

The fear of the Lord was meant to be a restraint against evil. There is a beautiful verse in Job 28:28 which says, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.” Here the fear of the Lord is coupled with turning away from sin. If we truly revere God we won’t sin against him. To fear the Lord is wisdom and it responds with knowledge toward evil and sin by turning away from it. This turning away from evil is called understanding. This is what the Psalmist urges in Psalm 34: “Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Psa. 34:11–14). Psalm 111:10 says “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.” Practicing the fear of the Lord is something that can be done. It involves deliberate recognition of who God is and what he expects of us. We often live as if we don’t know what God expects of us. But we cannot be Christians without knowing the commandments of the Lord. Living under grace is not living with your head in the sand, but is a lively response to the Word of God. It requires understanding. It is “the Lord who gives wisdom and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding” (Prov. 2:6). The fear of the Lord is said to be the “beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). The fear of the Lord is “hatred of evil” (Prov. 8:13; also Prov. 14:27). Therefore, in these two Proverbs, we should understand that wisdom is hating sin (same idea in Job 28:28). In Proverbs 15:33 we find that “The fear of the LORD is an instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” The fear of the Lord brings humility.

We should understand from all these verses that there is a relationship between the two aspects of fearing the Lord in terror and reverence. When we revere God we are afraid of his terror because we know God punishes sin. But we also find that we revere God because we love him. The unbeliever cannot do this. He is in terror of God when confronted by God. If the believer can know this aspect of the Lord’s terror, then the wicked does so in a greater degree. It is because we know the fear of the Lord (terror) that we seek to persuade others (2 Cor. 5:11). This is why we find a connection between wisdom and turning away from sin. Notice Proverbs 16:6: “…by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.” According to Proverbs 19:23, the“fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.” Acts 9:31 reminds us that the church was “walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”

If we think rightly about the Lord and live in the light of that knowledge, we shall walk in the fear of the Lord. We must work hard at thinking biblically about God. There is a storehouse of wisdom and knowledge to be enjoyed. We should store “up treasure for (ourselves)…so that (we) may take hold of that which is truly life” (1 Tim. 6:19). Remember that in our Lord Jesus all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (Col. 2:3).