I see why approximately two-thirds of the world doesn’t fear You, it’s because they don’t know You. I didn’t know You either until my friend Curt called You. You are scary and without a doubt the only one to fear.
I think there are only two people in the world that everyone can always trust and count on, that’s You and mom.
When Curt was six years old and his dad died, he didn’t believe You even existed, but just in case You did he called You out. He remembers that he wanted You to come down from heaven so he could beat You up for killing his dad. But You didn’t come so he figured You weren’t real or You were scared of him.
It’s a shame that the whole world doesn’t know You, if they did there would be no fear because – as the saying goes, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself” – and that’s You.
I can understand why some people don’t believe in You because I didn’t always believe, but how can people believe in these cults and not You? Like the Israelites back in the 6th century B.C., one of them they believed in…
Lamentations 4
The Punishment of Zion
Sin caused unspeakable suffering.
A Rare Greek Gold Daric of Babylon (Persia, Under Alexandrine Rule or Slightly Thereafter), Rarer than the Larger Double Darics.
1 How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street
2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
3 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
A “kudurru,” the Akkadian term for boundary stone, combines images of the king, gods, and divine symbols with a text recording royal grants of land and tax exemption to an individual. While the original was housed in the temple, a copy of the document was kept at the site of the land in question.
This example was found at the temple of Esagila, the primary sanctuary of the god Marduk. The king Marduk-nadin-ahe is depicted with his left hand raised in front of his face; he wears the tall Babylonian feathered crown and an elaborately decorated garment with a honeycomb pattern.
On the top are a sun disk, star, crescent moon, and scorpion, representing deities who witnessed the land grant and tax exemption. A snake-dragon deity emerges from a row of altars shaped like temple façades along the back.
7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.
12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
13 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
The photo above shows a section of the Solomon’s pillars – a set of tall red sandstone hills in the south side of Mt. Timna. These cliffs, although called King Solomon’s mines, were carved naturally due to the soft sand stone.
15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.
16 The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders.
17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.
18 They hunt our steps that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.
22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sin.
This is the view of the temple. It serviced the Egyptian miners who worked in the area. The altar is on the right side, just below the cliff.
Fear God
To Fear God is to Trust Him, But…
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov 1:7).
“For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD” (Prov 1:29).
“The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous and altogether” (Ps 19:9).
. . .
Some people think to fear God is just that, to be afraid of Him, but they don’t know why. Others think that fearing God is giving Him reverence for who He is. Others think it means just to respect Him as we do our elders.
All of those are wrong, they actually downgrade Jesus’ holiness, love and power because He is so much more than most people know.
As Prov 1:7 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge…”.
This means that when you trust Jesus you on the right path.
God had told Abraham to pack up his stuff and go. He didn’t tell Abraham where he was going or why, just to do it (Gen 12:1) and he didn’t question it.
Later, God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and he was going to do it. He wasn’t going to do it to obtain a prize or out of fear, but he knew that whatever God said was best.
“And he said, Lay not thine had upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (Gen 22:12)
That does not mean you will know Him explicitly because that’s impossible, God is a mystery to us:
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
Which none of the princes of the world knew: for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:7-8).
Jesus even told us we are not to know everything about God:
“And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power.
But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8).
As your faith in Jesus grows you will get to know Him better because the Holy Ghost will teach you things and you will understand that when you have absolute fear of God there is nothing to fear.
The fear of God is to trust Him, but that type of fear cannot be explained, you have to experience it and it’s fabulous.
I see why approximately two-thirds of the world doesn’t fear You, it’s because they don’t know You. I didn’t know You either until my friend Curt called You. You are scary and without a doubt the only one to fear.
