Awe and Respect for God
Heather Tietz
And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.
– Job 28:28
God wants our respect. He wants our love and our knowledge of His great power. God’s great love for people is real. His power to create life and end it is real. His anger at injustice is real. His disgust with sin is real. The relationship He offers through Jesus is real. We behave, we obey, we love, we strive to live like Jesus because we respect God. We can’t help but love Him, thank Him, and praise Him. We can’t help but fear for our lives, our eternities, without the smile of God on us, without His ear to our prayers and His hand in our messes. Our respect for God makes our steps more careful, our words more measured, and our hearts wiser. In today’s verse, Job – recognized for thousands of years as a man who remained righteous even as he suffered – reminds us, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The focus here is on a sense of awe and respect for the majesty of God. Thus, Oswald Chambers, the early twentieth century evangelist, said, “The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.”
