Fearing God: Why Does It Matter?

Day 6: Genesis 20-24

Abraham’s wife Sarah sure is an interesting character. She couldn’t have children, so she gave Hagar, her maidservant, to her husband Abraham so that Hagar could bear Abraham a son. Sarah then mistreated Hagar and was very jealous of her when Hagar had Ishmael. Then later when Sarah was pregnant, she saw that Ishmael was mocking her and so she sent Hagar and Ishmael away into the desert. But God provided for them. The text even says that God was with Ishmael when he grew up. I like how God takes care of the outcasts in this passage. While Abraham and Sarah were going to be the father and mother of many nations, he still provided for and loved the people that they shun.

The sacrifice of Isaac is a very strange story. It’s hard to visualize a young boy agreeing to lay on an altar that was about to be set on fire, and it’s even harder to think of Abraham as following through with this. Whenever I think of this story, I always focus on the fact that Abraham had faith in God and God ended up protecting Isaac from death. However, in reading it today, I notice that there is no mention of Abraham’s faith. Rather, the angel of the Lord stops Abraham and says, “Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

The emphasis here is on fear. Fearing the Lord. When I think about fearing the Lord, I probably wouldn’t have posted that post from yesterday. Growing up, I was taught to fear the Lord (and my daddy, too!). I was worried about doing the wrong thing. The story of Ananias and Sapphira was stuck in my head (they lied and were struck dead). I feared what God would do to me. Over time, however, and perhaps after becoming a Christian and knowing I’m forgiven for my sins, I like to focus on God’s love and his grace. But so much of the Old Testament so far has been about fearing the Lord. I’m going to keep this theme in the back of my mind as I continue reading. I hope I can learn more about the fear of the Lord and why it matters that we fear God. For now, I think it matters because it shows us that God is more important than us, that God is God and we are not. When we fear God, we realize that we are not in charge of our lives, but that He is. Fearing God forms us; not fearing God forms us, too. I think the outcomes of that fear are evident in the way we live our lives as people who put God's will above our own.