The LORD is exalted, he dwells on high; he filled Zion with justice and righteousness; he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure. Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be pulled up, and none of whose ropes will be broken. But there the LORD in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor stately ship can pass. For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our ruler, the LORD is our king; he will save us. Your rigging hangs loose; it cannot hold the mast firm in its place, or keep the sail spread out. Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided; even the lame will fall to plundering. And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”; the people who live there will be forgiven their iniquity. (Isaiah 33:5-6, 20-24, NRSV)
Fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure…
Fear is treasure…
Really?
I know a lot of people who dread fear and try at all cost to get away from it.
As a child I went to haunted forests with my family. I really didn’t like them… I remember one time at one of them we wen into the forest, and I was the carried out by one of my brothers and my brother-in-law, one on each of my arms with my feet up off the ground. Our arms were interlocked and I could not feel my hands, because of the grip I had on them.
I was scared. But is scared and fear the same?
We try to be in control and fear seems to get us out of control. And that leads to darkside as Yoda says…
When we lose control we are not going to get where we need to go…
Or will we?
Fear of the Lord is not a fear where we are scared…
As one of the confirmation students, at the congregation I serve, wrote in a statement of faith, “the fear of God wasn’t fear like dread or being scared. It was the fear that motivated people to follow his will, and the fear of displeasing God. I do not dread God, or am apprehensive about him, I am afraid to let him and all his wondrous love down, afraid to disappoint him and not live the life he has chosen for me.”
Fear of the Lord is living into the life He has called us to even when it gets us out of control. Because then and only then can He truly be in control!
So go where He is leading you, knowing that the fear of Him is your treasure!
aSacredRebel 