dar334

Fear.  My current Biblical confusion.

I feel like I need to rent a room in the Tower of Babel.  As if “Israel” being a man and not a country wasn’t confusing enough, throw in that sometimes “Israel” referes to twelve men and a country at the same time.  Then there’s Saul who is transformed into Paul, and there isn’t enough time to list all the names God has.   No wonder it doesn’t take Satan long to get people to close the Book.  Well Satan, I’m not closing the Book.  So move on.

This morning’s verse from 101.9 is found in Proverbs, 29:25 – Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the LORD means safety.

I have my fair share of fears.  Water.  Heights.  Darkness.  Snakes.  Even some people have scared the daylights out of me.  So why is fearing people “a dangerous trap”?  Because the definition of “fear” in this context is the opposite of the “fear” I’m familiar with.

Courtesy of AV1611.com I found this helpful:  In scripture, fear is used to express a filial (of or due from a son or daughter) or a slavish passion. In good men, the fear of God is a holy awe or reverence of God and his laws, which springs from a just view and real love of the divine character, leading the subjects of it to hate and shun every thing that can offend such a holy being, and inclining them to aim at perfect obedience. This is filial fear.  I will put my fear in their hearts. Jer. 32.

Slavish fear is the effect or consequence of guilt; it is the painful apprehension of merited punishment. The love of God casteth out fear. 1John 4.

The problem lies in interpretting Hebrew to English.  Us English people tend to lump everything in one word.  Another prime example is love.  The Hebrews use three different words to express love, we just lump them all in one.  My favorite example is how we proclaim to love chocolate and when we looked for the first time at our newborn child we proclaimed to love them too.  Though both are true, they are not even close to our true feeling.

Pondering can cause headaches,

-dar