Fear without Reverence
Back in the old days...
When I read through the OLD Testament, sometimes it feels like a bunch of stories of "back in the old days." There are just some stories that seem too graphic, too violent, too...real. I think we often have a rather picturesque glimpse into "right now." Many of us romanticize the good of the past, but more than we romanticize the past, we tend to over estimate how "advanced" and "civilized" we now compared to "the old days."
One of the most alarming things I see when I read the Old Testament, is no matter how different things are today, no matter how "advanced" we are now, we are really not that much different. I believe this is why so many of the principles are so transferable. It doesn't matter that these stories are being shared about people who lived 3000 years ago, it's about people, and people really haven't changed that much.
Stick with me for a minute and let's read one of these passages. Here is a little background.
We're going to pick up in 1 Samuel 5 where we find the nation of Israel has gone through a really rough stretch of history, doing whatever seemed right in their own eyes and generally not anything that seemed right in God's eyes. Their outright betrayal and rejection of God had led to God giving them what they wanted.
Instead of God's people honoring Him, being blessed, and generally living out His plan according to His plan, they told God, "Hey we want the blessing, but not your leadership. Instead bless me, while I do what I want the way I want even though I know it's not what you want. Sound good?" News flash, it did not sound good to God.
So rather than winning battles, subduing the land, driving out enemies, and enjoying God's promised land, they found themselves under oppression and constantly fighting with nations they couldn't overthrow.
Chapter 5 picks up, right after they had lost one of those battles. Let's read it...
“Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again. And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only Dagon’s torso was left of it. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon’s house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. But the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and He ravaged them and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is harsh toward us and Dagon our god.” Therefore they sent and gathered to themselves all the Lords of the Philistines, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And they answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried away to Gath.” So they carried the ark of the God of Israel away. So it was, after they had carried it away, that the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction; and He struck the men of the city, both small and great, and tumors broke out on them. Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. So it was, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people!””
I Samuel 5:1-10 NKJV
First off, think about how crazy this chapter starts out. Israel had just lost a battle, but the ark of God was with them. This symbol of God's presence, full of tablets holding the 10 commandments, and various signs of God's miracles was with them. Yet, God himself wasn't with him.
Here's the first thing to be awe of with this passage: The Israelites went into the fight "with God" but God was not with them.
We can fighting battles with symbolism, memories of God's faithfulness, clinging to traditions, convinced we're doing things for God, yet be doing all of it without God.
Israel fights the battle, believing they were "taking God with them" yet God was not "with" them. They wanted God's blessing, but they didn't want to do what intimacy with God required.
Quick question for reflection: Am I asking God to bless me and then taking him with me, or am I more concerned with being with Him and experiencing the blessing of His leading?
Now let's look at the Philistines this passage is all about.
Here is what I see: Fear without reverence. Fear without surrender.
This passage reminds me of what James writes to the church, "19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder." Fear without reverence. Fear without surrender. The Philistines feared God but did not revere Him as God.
The Philistines received God's grace. These Philistines in ignorance carried the ark away from the battlefield, and God in His grace and mercy allowed them to do so without suffering the consequences for not doing it how He wanted. God didn't judge them according to the Law, He graced them according to their ignorance.
Then they received God's warning, and then another. Dagon their handmade god was knocked over. They had to pick him back up with the hands that made him. Then the next day, their god was humiliated & broken. But the Philistines did not even stop to think "Maybe this God is better than ours? Maybe their God is real." Instead, they grew more afraid of God than they already were.
Then they received judgement. They received temporary judgment and chose to continue to flee from God’s presence rather than repent in His presence. They kept putting faith in an idol they made by hand, rather than the God who was alive and moving in their midst. They chose what was powerless over what was powerful because they could control what was powerless.
They feared but did not revere. They feared, but did not surrender. Their fear of God was rooted in a hatred towards His people, and the selfishness of pride. Yet in the midst of their pride and hatred, God was still giving them a chance. They weren't being killed, fire wasn't falling from heaven, the judgement they were being handed was still temporary. They knew of God's power, they saw the warning, and yet knew what the cost of repentance would mean, so they didn't want to turn from their ways. They would rather claim God was evil and spiteful than repent of their sin and surrender to Him.
Israel and Philistine were fighting the same sickness: pride.
Sure, Israel was taking God with them, and the Philistines were acknowledging God's power and fearing Him. But both of them were stuck in pride.
Israel's pride was rooted in “doing what I want my way.”
The Philistine's pride was in an inability to surrender and have humility with others. If the Philistines would have repented, it would have meant acknowledging the God of Israel was the one true God. It would have meant a complete reversal of their way of life. But more than any of that, it would have meant they needed to make peace with Israel.
Ultimately this is where pride draws the line. Pride says "I will serve you, but only on my terms." And peace between these two nations, was not terms the Philistines could accept.
Our pride can take many forms. It could be like Israel, and when God tells us to do something we say "Yeah, yeah, but I like my way better. I will serve you but only on my terms." Our pride can also take the form of the Philistines, seeing the need for repentance (rejecting and fleeing from your old way of life) as cruel and oppressive. And the need to make peace with people, that is just as adding insult to injury.
If we want to kill the pride in our lives, we have to be honest about where we're at.
Are you Israel? Do you want all of God's blessing and goodness without the responsibility of obedience? Do you want to claim God is with you, while never doing what He tells you?
Are you the Philistines? Do you love what's comfortable and controllable more than what is real? Does forgiveness feel like nails on a chalkboard?
The finished work of Jesus made peace with God and man possible. His sacrifice for our sin, our pride, makes us right with God. Our job is surrender. We cannot live like Israel saying, "Oh thank you for the blessing, now I can do what I want." (See Romans 6:1-2). Nor can we live like the Philistines, so stubborn that we won't repent, or forgive. (See Matthew 3:8 & 6:15).
So how do we embrace peace with God through Christ? We serve Him and surrender our right to be right. How do we make peace with others through Christ? We serve them and surrender our right to be right.
Pride holds onto our right to be right. My thoughts are right. My opinion is right. My way is right. I am right. Ungodly fear, sees all that God does as wrong, so that I can be right.
Fear of God without a reverence for God will always push me away from His presence. Fear of God without a surrender to God will always push me away from His grace.
Godly fear, a fear that places me back into reverence of God's power and authority, is one that turns me to Him because nothing else is as worthy of my attention.
Godly fear, a fear that causes me to surrender to Him, is one of shock. It's shock that despite all the ways I've rejected God, he kept gracing me. Despite of all the evil I've done, He still accepts me. Despite the ways I've ran from Him, he still wants to embrace me. Despite my sin, He has still desires to save me. It's the kindness of God, that He has not given me what I deserve, that puts me in awe of His grace.
Holy Fear. Godly Fear. The type of fear scripture tells us to have, is one that is born out of the love of God being felt in the heart of man.
This is part of what it means to serve God the way God wants to be served. God loves us. He desires us to love Him back. He won't force you to love Him. He won't force you to lay down your pride, but He invites you into it.
Fear without reverence will find all the reasons why God is vindictive, and we shouldn't surrender. Fear without surrender will find all the reasons God is too harsh and He should try things our way. Fear with reverence, and surrender, sees how beautiful and wonderful God is, repents of how wrong we are, and then lives with a love that overflows to God and others.
May we repent of our selfish desires. May we repent of the lies we claim about God. May we repent of our lack of humility. May we repent of our lack of forgiveness. May we love God truly.
Don’t distance yourself from God’s mercy. Cling to his mercy, repent, reconcile, and give the same grace to others.
One of the most alarming things I see when I read the Old Testament, is no matter how different things are today, no matter how "advanced" we are now, we are really not that much different. I believe this is why so many of the principles are so transferable. It doesn't matter that these stories are being shared about people who lived 3000 years ago, it's about people, and people really haven't changed that much.
Stick with me for a minute and let's read one of these passages. Here is a little background.
We're going to pick up in 1 Samuel 5 where we find the nation of Israel has gone through a really rough stretch of history, doing whatever seemed right in their own eyes and generally not anything that seemed right in God's eyes. Their outright betrayal and rejection of God had led to God giving them what they wanted.
Instead of God's people honoring Him, being blessed, and generally living out His plan according to His plan, they told God, "Hey we want the blessing, but not your leadership. Instead bless me, while I do what I want the way I want even though I know it's not what you want. Sound good?" News flash, it did not sound good to God.
So rather than winning battles, subduing the land, driving out enemies, and enjoying God's promised land, they found themselves under oppression and constantly fighting with nations they couldn't overthrow.
Chapter 5 picks up, right after they had lost one of those battles. Let's read it...
“Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again. And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only Dagon’s torso was left of it. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon’s house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. But the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and He ravaged them and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is harsh toward us and Dagon our god.” Therefore they sent and gathered to themselves all the Lords of the Philistines, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And they answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried away to Gath.” So they carried the ark of the God of Israel away. So it was, after they had carried it away, that the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction; and He struck the men of the city, both small and great, and tumors broke out on them. Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. So it was, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people!””
I Samuel 5:1-10 NKJV
First off, think about how crazy this chapter starts out. Israel had just lost a battle, but the ark of God was with them. This symbol of God's presence, full of tablets holding the 10 commandments, and various signs of God's miracles was with them. Yet, God himself wasn't with him.
Here's the first thing to be awe of with this passage: The Israelites went into the fight "with God" but God was not with them.
We can fighting battles with symbolism, memories of God's faithfulness, clinging to traditions, convinced we're doing things for God, yet be doing all of it without God.
Israel fights the battle, believing they were "taking God with them" yet God was not "with" them. They wanted God's blessing, but they didn't want to do what intimacy with God required.
Quick question for reflection: Am I asking God to bless me and then taking him with me, or am I more concerned with being with Him and experiencing the blessing of His leading?
Now let's look at the Philistines this passage is all about.
Here is what I see: Fear without reverence. Fear without surrender.
This passage reminds me of what James writes to the church, "19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder." Fear without reverence. Fear without surrender. The Philistines feared God but did not revere Him as God.
The Philistines received God's grace. These Philistines in ignorance carried the ark away from the battlefield, and God in His grace and mercy allowed them to do so without suffering the consequences for not doing it how He wanted. God didn't judge them according to the Law, He graced them according to their ignorance.
Then they received God's warning, and then another. Dagon their handmade god was knocked over. They had to pick him back up with the hands that made him. Then the next day, their god was humiliated & broken. But the Philistines did not even stop to think "Maybe this God is better than ours? Maybe their God is real." Instead, they grew more afraid of God than they already were.
Then they received judgement. They received temporary judgment and chose to continue to flee from God’s presence rather than repent in His presence. They kept putting faith in an idol they made by hand, rather than the God who was alive and moving in their midst. They chose what was powerless over what was powerful because they could control what was powerless.
They feared but did not revere. They feared, but did not surrender. Their fear of God was rooted in a hatred towards His people, and the selfishness of pride. Yet in the midst of their pride and hatred, God was still giving them a chance. They weren't being killed, fire wasn't falling from heaven, the judgement they were being handed was still temporary. They knew of God's power, they saw the warning, and yet knew what the cost of repentance would mean, so they didn't want to turn from their ways. They would rather claim God was evil and spiteful than repent of their sin and surrender to Him.
Israel and Philistine were fighting the same sickness: pride.
Sure, Israel was taking God with them, and the Philistines were acknowledging God's power and fearing Him. But both of them were stuck in pride.
Israel's pride was rooted in “doing what I want my way.”
The Philistine's pride was in an inability to surrender and have humility with others. If the Philistines would have repented, it would have meant acknowledging the God of Israel was the one true God. It would have meant a complete reversal of their way of life. But more than any of that, it would have meant they needed to make peace with Israel.
Ultimately this is where pride draws the line. Pride says "I will serve you, but only on my terms." And peace between these two nations, was not terms the Philistines could accept.
Our pride can take many forms. It could be like Israel, and when God tells us to do something we say "Yeah, yeah, but I like my way better. I will serve you but only on my terms." Our pride can also take the form of the Philistines, seeing the need for repentance (rejecting and fleeing from your old way of life) as cruel and oppressive. And the need to make peace with people, that is just as adding insult to injury.
If we want to kill the pride in our lives, we have to be honest about where we're at.
Are you Israel? Do you want all of God's blessing and goodness without the responsibility of obedience? Do you want to claim God is with you, while never doing what He tells you?
Are you the Philistines? Do you love what's comfortable and controllable more than what is real? Does forgiveness feel like nails on a chalkboard?
The finished work of Jesus made peace with God and man possible. His sacrifice for our sin, our pride, makes us right with God. Our job is surrender. We cannot live like Israel saying, "Oh thank you for the blessing, now I can do what I want." (See Romans 6:1-2). Nor can we live like the Philistines, so stubborn that we won't repent, or forgive. (See Matthew 3:8 & 6:15).
So how do we embrace peace with God through Christ? We serve Him and surrender our right to be right. How do we make peace with others through Christ? We serve them and surrender our right to be right.
Pride holds onto our right to be right. My thoughts are right. My opinion is right. My way is right. I am right. Ungodly fear, sees all that God does as wrong, so that I can be right.
Fear of God without a reverence for God will always push me away from His presence. Fear of God without a surrender to God will always push me away from His grace.
Godly fear, a fear that places me back into reverence of God's power and authority, is one that turns me to Him because nothing else is as worthy of my attention.
Godly fear, a fear that causes me to surrender to Him, is one of shock. It's shock that despite all the ways I've rejected God, he kept gracing me. Despite of all the evil I've done, He still accepts me. Despite the ways I've ran from Him, he still wants to embrace me. Despite my sin, He has still desires to save me. It's the kindness of God, that He has not given me what I deserve, that puts me in awe of His grace.
Holy Fear. Godly Fear. The type of fear scripture tells us to have, is one that is born out of the love of God being felt in the heart of man.
This is part of what it means to serve God the way God wants to be served. God loves us. He desires us to love Him back. He won't force you to love Him. He won't force you to lay down your pride, but He invites you into it.
Fear without reverence will find all the reasons why God is vindictive, and we shouldn't surrender. Fear without surrender will find all the reasons God is too harsh and He should try things our way. Fear with reverence, and surrender, sees how beautiful and wonderful God is, repents of how wrong we are, and then lives with a love that overflows to God and others.
May we repent of our selfish desires. May we repent of the lies we claim about God. May we repent of our lack of humility. May we repent of our lack of forgiveness. May we love God truly.
Don’t distance yourself from God’s mercy. Cling to his mercy, repent, reconcile, and give the same grace to others.
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