“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps. 111:10).  Fear, or the lack thereof, plays a vital role in determining why things are as they are in our individual lives, as well as in groups, nations and the world in general.  Over the past couple of days the Lord has been directing my attention to the subject of fear–the right kind of fear, the wrong kind of fear and their respective effects on man’s “walk”–overall conduct of life.  The Holy Scriptures have much to say about this subject.  The word “fear” in some form (for example: “feareth”) is used approximately 550 times in the Scriptures.   It is one of the best known but least understood emotions known to man.  Everyone experiences fear in various degrees at various times.  But like the proverbial coin, it has two sides.

I was a bit hesitant to begin my study of fear.  Where does one begin when dealing with such a broad, far-reaching concept? I had never spoken or written on the subject and knew very little about the Scriptural references to it.  While studying the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Hebrew Christians I was checking a reference in the Book of Exodus, chapter 20 where God was verbally speaking to the recently freed Israelites.  Though I had read the passage many times in the past, this time the word “fear” grabbed my attention and held it for some time.  The Lord was “speaking” to me.

This morning (2/6/’22) He woke me at around 2:00 a.m. and, after communing with Him, I sat down at my computer and turned to the Bible I keep beside the monitor.  I found that I had inadvertently left it opened to the Book of Jonah.  I can’t remember the last time I had read or thought about that book or its subject.  I do know that God leads and directs those who love Him and prove it by obeying His Law/words/commandments (Jn. 14:15,23; 15:15/ Mat. 19:17).  Knowing how God “speaks” to me at times, I knew He had arranged for His Word to be open to the Book of Jonah.  I began to read.  It did not take long to realize that the Almighty was answering my “where to begin” question.  As other Old Testament references floated though my mind soon realized that I would be spending considerable time in the Books of Jonah, Exodus and Daniel.

When I begin a project I never have a start-to-finish view of what the study will produce.  Initially I am given is a subject and a beginning point.  Therefore I will begin this series with Jonah’s harrowing, fear-induced, fear-controlled experience and the part that fear played in the outcome of that experience.

In that holy men of old spoke and wrote as they were moved by God’s Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21), and in that their writings are used as teaching instruments for the New Testament Church (1 Cor. 10:11), and in that the New Testament Church is founded on the teachings of both the prophets and the apostles (Eph. 2:22), and in that only they who are led by the Holy Spirit are true sons of God (Rom. 8:14), and in that all Scripture (including the Old Testament) is given to men by God through His Spirit (2 Tim. 3:14-16), and in that we are commanded to study all Scriptures in order to gain and maintain God’s approval (2 Tim. 2:15), and in that we must live by every word spoken by God (Mat. 4:4) Who spoke every word in the Holy Bible, we will apply the lessons taught in the Books of Jonah, Exodus and Daniel to the modern religious scene.  I will remind those who have “nailed the Old Testament to the cross” that the New Testament apostles taught the New Testament Church out of the Old Testament.  The New Testament would not exist until after all of the apostles had passed, leaving only John to gather and codify their writings, along with the Old Testament, into what is known as the Holy Bible.

Fear (whether good or bad) directly affects our lives in terms of what we do, say and think or what we refrain from doing, saying and thinking.  Wisdom is very important relative to fear, specifically in terms of who, what and why we fear or do not fear.  If our fear is of the right (positive) kind and is directed toward the right subject (God), we have an advantage over those who do not have that kind of fear, which leaves them without the spiritual wisdom we find missing in Jonah’s experience.  Fear, particularly as it related to the reluctant prophet’s fellow travelers, is quite interesting and contains some valuable information for those who STUDY it (2 Tim. 2:15).  Let us begin that study.

The Prophet Jonah has heard from God Who tells him to go to the great city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and give the people there a message from Him.  The Assyrians were, at that time, one of the most, if not the most dangerous nations on earth.  Jonah was to take God’s message of condemnation to that dreadful city.  He was commanded to “… speak out against it for the wickedness of the people has come up to Me.”  Jonah contemplated his situation–one man in a dangerous city proclaiming a message of condemnation from a god in which the people did not believe.  Not being up to the task, Jonah decided to ran away from God.  His fear was so great that he totally forgot David’s statement about God being everywhere (Ps.139:7-13).  Negative fear can cause the brain to virtually shut down.  Contrarywise, positive fear can keep the mind functioning properly in times of overwhelming stress.  Bad (negative) fear had caused Jonah to forget what David had said.  But as he was about to be reminded–God is everywhere.

Bad/negative fear having overwhelmed him, Jonah boarded a boat headed to Tarshish, a city on the coast of Spain.  During the trip God sent a mighty storm on the sea that threatened to sink the ship.  The crew became terrified and cried out to their various gods to help them.  But Jonah was asleep in the belly of the ship.  The shipmaster found him and told him to pray to his God like all the others were praying to their gods.  Their gods had failed to help them; perhaps his God would.  They gathered together and prayed, hoping that one of their gods would save them.  Instead, the storm grew worse.  In desperation they cast lots to determine who among them had sinned against his god, causing that god to send the storm to punish him.  The problem was that the rest of them would go down in the process.  They cast lots to determine who among them was guilty.  The lot pointed to Jonah.  Why, they asked him, did he bring such terror upon them?  Jonah’s reply was somewhat off center: “I FEAR the God of heaven.”  He then told them that he was fleeing from his God because he disobeyed Him.  So why had he disobeyed Him?  The answer can be summed up in two words: NEGATIVE FEAR.

Even after having been “found” by His angry God, Jonah’s fear of MAN (the Assyrians) was greater than his fear of God.  Rather than deciding to obey Him, Jonah told them to throw him overboard.  JONAH WOULD RATHER DIE AT THE HANDS OF GOD THAN TO FACE THE PEOPLE OF NINEVEH.  His death, he assured the crew, would cause God to still the storm.  They did as he told them to do and the storm dissipated.

Notice that the sailors feared Jonah’s God just as the feared their own gods.  They had cried out to Jonah’s God, begging Him to save their lives and not to punish them for whatever Jonah had done.  But remember that Jonah had also confessed his fear of God.  So why did he try to run away from Him?  Jonah ran because he had two types of fear.  1) He feared that the PEOPLE of Nineveh would kill him if he delivered God’s message.  This was bad/negative fear which had gotten him into trouble.  2) He also feared what GOD would do to him for not obeying His command.  This was good/positive fear which should have prompted him to go to Nineveh.  As his actions reveal, his fear of man was greater than his fear of God.  This always produces a negative response from God.

This is similar to the position of the modern religionist who, when confronted with God’s Truth and His command to obey it, ignores God’s Truth.  Churchman’s greatest fear is that OTHER CHURCH PEOPLE WILL REJECT HIM if he obeys the Biblical God.  And he is right.  Like Jonah, his fear of rejection and loss of standing is greater than his fear of God.  The truth of the matter is that MODERN CHURCHMAN HAS NO FEAR OF BEING PUNISHED BY GOD FOR DISOBEYING HIM.  I will remind you of the woman whom God sent me to with His Word about His Sabbath which states that observing the Sunday Sabbath was a sin against Him.  This bastion of “the church” assured me that she was not concerned about sin, that, though God doesn’t like sin, “… He won’t do anything about it.”

JONAH KNEW BETTER.  He knew God would punish him, which is why he tried to hide from Him.  The modern chuchite shows his lack of godly fear by declaring that he can sin and get away with it, thereby eliminating any need for good/positive fear of God.  Jonah’s bad/negative fear of man overshadowed his good/positive fear of God.  The source of all bad fear is Satan who has convinced modern churchman that he is already “saved” and therefore has no need to actually fear God.  Jesus, he has been told by Satan’s false prophets, has arranged for God to forgive their sins as soon as they repent of them.  One preacher told me that he would confess and repent of the sin he was planning to commit.  Another man told me that he did not bother with repenting of individual sins, rather, he accumulated them and repented of them en masse on a periodic basis.  I asked one man if he could go five minutes without sinning.  He thought for a moment, then replied: “I don’t know.”  Modern day sinners have no fear of God and therefore no wisdom.  Like Eve, they eat of the forbidden tree which “is able to make one wise” (Gen. 3:6) with man’s Satan-injected wisdom.  Most assuredly, Revelation 12:9 is true: “Satan has deceived the whole world.”  L.J.