Oh No … Oh Yes

Many years ago, but still etched vividly in my memory, we had some visitors staying with us. These visitors were uninvited and unwanted, but they stayed anyway. Let me explain. At the time, our house was surrounded by corn fields. When the corn was harvested, and as the weather turned cooler, the field mice scattered, looking for new sources of food and shelter. They often found their way into nearby homes, including ours. Each fall, we could hear these unwanted visitors scampering across the drop ceiling in our basement.  

Unbeknownst to us, up in that ceiling, along with the mice, there also lived some other even more unwanted and unwelcomed visitors. Snakes. As we spent countless hours in our family room, snakes slithered only feet above our heads, enjoying an all-you-can-eat buffet of mice. One fall season we became aware of the snakes. Oh no. After deciding not to quickly sell the house “as is,” we hired a pest control company to trap and extract the snakes. When it was all said and done, six weeks later ten black racer snakes were had either been extracted or killed. Oh no.

Even though the snakes had likely lived in our ceiling for years, as soon as we became aware of them, fear was ever-present. Oh no. We were almost afraid to go downstairs. Thankfully, we located the spot through which our many unwanted visitors were gaining access to our house. We never had snakes or mice after that. Oh yes!

The dictionary defines fear as “an unpleasant emotion caused by the awareness or anticipation of danger.” Even many months after the snakes were finally gone, we had a hard time relaxing in the family room. We still had real fear, constantly looking around, expecting to come face to face with a snake, even though during the extracting period only one had actually found its way into our living space. When faced with real or perceived fear, a physiological reaction occurs in the human body, causing us to either forcibly push back against the danger or run away. We call this the fight-or-flight response.

Fear causes us to be afraid. The Bible also talks of fear; “the fear of the Lord.” Say what? Is the Bible telling me to be terrified of God the same way that I am terrified of snakes? The answer is no. We often see the word fear and frame it through our 21st-century eyes; danger equals fear. But fear of the Lord is not a “scared” fear but a “positive” fear; one of reverence and respect, not wanting to disappoint God. A unique mix of awe and trembling that we feel when in His presence, whether standing at the burning bush, listening to that still, small voice within, or just sitting quietly, away from life’s noise and distractions.

Psalm 33:8 tells us this, “Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!”

And in Proverbs 9:10, we read, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

In both verses, the root Hebrew word for fear is referencing reverence, respect, honor, awe. In the psalm it is used as a verb (yârê’), while the Proverbs usage, as a noun (yir’âh).

So, you see, fear of the Lord comes out of our reverence toward God. And reverence helps us live the way God desires us to live, and it is really the only appropriate response to our Creator and Redeemer. Fear of the Lord is not Oh no. It is Oh yes!

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