A good kind of fear

I read the first 7 chapters of Ezekiel. It got me thinking about the fear of the Lord and my own fears.

Imagine. 4 living creatures appear, flying with wings outstretched underneath an icy expanse over which a throne and figure like a man (half molten metal, half flames) float, casting rays of light and rainbows of radiant color. The whole assembly approaches and you hear a voice addressing you, telling you to warn a rebellious nation against imminent destruction.

The story goes that Ezekiel sat quietly for 7 days overwhelmed. (I’m pretty sure that’s the appropriate response.) Then He started doing some crazy stuff: lying on his side for over a year, cooking his food with cow pies, laying siege to homemade etchings of Jerusalem.

But I have to wonder how my life would change if I lived with the image of God in His holiness always before me. For one thing, all my earthly fears (rejection, loneliness, poverty, death) would be dramatically trumped by my fear of God. Also, the prosperity gospel would sound pretty silly. The idea that God’s greatest aim is my comfort, security, and happiness would seem quite hollow.

But frankly, I’d rather encounter this living, terrifying God and be led from the experience in “bitterness and anger” against a rebellious people than live in comfort and security oblivious to the terrifying awesomeness of His Presence.

I think each of us is made to live our lives drawn along by a vision of God’s holiness. People, I believe, are most alive and most authentic when their fear of God trumps all other fears. But we’ve been enticed to lust after the idols of security, happiness, and self-sufficiency. At some level we all want to do life all by ourselves. God is given authority in our lives only insomuch as he plays along with our personal ambitions. And the fluffy spirituality that we’re spoonfed every Sunday plays right into our secret hope that someday, God might leave us alone to live happy and contented lives without the ambiguity of the hard stuff He sometimes requires of us. But God’s enduring passion throughout Ezekiel is that “they will know that I am the LORD.” He says it over and over after every prophecy, every judgment.

So when my ambition for comfort works against God’s ambition for glory, who will win? God Himself will ensure that at the end of all things, whether through love or wrath, trial or blessing, salvation or damnation… that “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

So in every word and action, let me acknowledge that He is the LORD. Let me trust my fear to one who is trustworthy and good. Then I’ll be free from all other fears. That’s why God’s promise to give Ezekiel a stubborn spirit and firm resolve to accomplish his prophetic commission is believable: because the promise comes only after the vision…. AFTER Ezekiel sees something truly worth fearing, all his other fears can take a back seat.

God plant the fear of You in the central locus of my identity.