The psalmist says, “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him.” (Psalm 33:8) The “fear of the Lord” seems to have fallen on hard times in the modern world. It sounds a bit harsh as we prefer to view God in loving, compassionate ways. But the two views are not necessarily incongruent. Fear, in the biblical sense, involves “reverential awe” that gives God His rightful place in our lives. It is a proper understanding of who the Lord is and what He can do. So the psalmist also says, “The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.” (Psalm 103:13) Most of us can relate to that tension which is felt by a child who views his parents with both love and fear. Put another way, I prefer to call it a “healthy respect,” as opposed to “sheer terror.” On one occasion, my dad, whom I feared and respected in the very best sense, taught me a valuable lesson on the subject.
Growing up in the 1960’s, we had a hair dryer in our home. Rather than a handheld blow dryer that is common today, it was of the beauty shop variety. My parents had purchased it from a salon when the owners upgraded their equipment. It consisted of a large chair covered in turquoise vinyl with a large metal, not plastic, cone attached. Only truly brave souls were courageous enough to stick their wet heads under the hood that blew with an intensity normally reserved for jet engines.
One day it ceased working and my dad decided to fix it. Please keep in mind, my father was a master carpenter and “jack of all trades,” but he was not a trained electrician, as you’re about to find out. He disassembled the dryer that consisted of miles of copper wiring which served as the heating element. After replacing several broken parts, rather than putting it all back together, he wanted to test it first. So he put the spring-loaded mechanism that housed the coil of wiring in place and asked me, about ten years old at the time, to hold it down while he plugged it in. When I protested, he told me to do it and mumbled something like, “I know what I’m doing and I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
Dad proceeded to plug in the device and flipped the switch. When he did, the electrical current flowed in one of my arms, crossed my chest, and then shot out the other arm, catapulting me several feet backward onto a nearby bed. With my arms tingling, my chest pounding, and my heart beating like a rabbit, my dad rushed over to check on me. But rather than ask if I was okay, I’ll never forget the question he posed to his beloved son: “You’re not going to tell your mom about this, are you?” My dad obviously had a “fear” of his wife, while I learned that day to have a “healthy respect” for electricity and have used it carefully ever since.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)