In Awe of God

IN AWE OF GOD

In jail, I had finished conducting the Sunday evening service for the inmates there and opened up the time for questions. One hand from the back was raised and a voice said, "Don't you think it is arrogant of God to want us to worship him?"

You have to understand that a church service in a jail is somewhat different from that in a church in the "outside". Some of those in attendance at the service are not believers but just want to get out of their cells. (Or maybe that's not so different after all.) At any rate, I thought the questioner did not mean to mock the proceedings but was voicing genuine convictions.

The question was helpful to me in that it showed the background to which who-knows-how-many people come to the whole matter of religion and God. It is not in man's normal, sinful nature to want to worship anyone but himself. The pursuit of pleasure for one's self is why most of those men were in that prison in the first place, with drug abuse the most common cause, and I appreciated the honesty of this questioner. In answer to the question, I said, no, I did not think it was arrogant of God because he is worthy of such worship. I did not quote any Bible verse to him, but I could have, such as the following:

"Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created" (Rev. 4:11).

I wish I had had more time to go into more detail regarding that answer, but I did not and trusted the Holy Spirit to use that answer to work in that man's heart and in the hearts of the rest of the men, who heard our exchange.

I use this event to illustrate what this present writing is about: the importance of having a right and true awe of God. Without it, we will go far astray from him, and only with such awe are we open to God working within us to draw us closer to him. The matter of being humbly in awe of God is crucial to knowing the truth about reality and God as the supreme aspect of that reality.

"For this is what the high and lofty One says--he who lives forever, whose name is holy: 'I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite'" (Is. 57:15).

"I will bring him near and he will come close to me, for who of himself would dare to approach me?" (Jer 30:21),

Man is not qualified even to come before God to inquire of him.

"This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Have you come to inquire of me? As surely as I live, I will not let you inquire of me, declares the Sovereign Lord" (Ez. 20:3).

Therefore, to question whether God, who is infinite and infinitely above human beings, has the right to tell human beings to worship him shows just how far from awe of God such a questioner is. It shows not only ignorance but conceit or vanity, to think that man is above worshipping God.

"From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits" (Ps. 73:7).

Do not suppose wrongly, however, that this verse applies only to men in prison. Because all human beings are born prisoners of sin, we are all vulnerable to this uniquely human shortcoming of pride. The pride, arrogance, conceit and foolishness of man is beyond belief and indeed knows no limits.

Because God is so different from man, an alien entity far above him in essence and being--in a word, because God is "God and not man" (Hos. 11:9)--man makes the arrogant assumption that God either does not exist or else is inferior to man. In other words, man measures God by himself and judges God. It is no wonder that God mocks this attitude and judges it rightly for the stupidity it is:

"Does the ax raise itself above him who swings it, or the saw boast against him who uses it? As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up, or a club brandish him who is not wood!" (Is. 10:15).

An axe is a tool created by its designer to be used by him for his own purposes. The axe does not exist for itself or for its own purposes. It is a servant of its creator, just as all mankind is servant to its Creator.

"All things serve you" (Ps. 119:91).

"Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created" Rev. 4:11).

But because man cannot directly see the One for whom all things were created, he chooses to elevate that which he can see directly, with his physical eyes--the creation, the universe--above that which he cannot, to worship the creation rather than its Creator.

"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen" (Rom. 1:25).

This horrible affront against God has never been more widespread or more blatant than today, in our so-called scientific age. Science boldly declares in book after book and web site after web site that the only things that are to be trusted or at least deemed valid for consideration by man are those things that can be seen, measured, tested, or otherwise controlled or examined or judged by man. Man's own reasoning is looked to as the supreme way to discover the truth. But those who adhere to such a position are ignorant of the most basic truths of reality, that it is far too deep for such a limited tool as man's reasoning to figure out.

"That which is, is far off and deep, very deep; who can find it out?" (Eccl. 7:24).

"Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens--what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave--what can you know?" (Job 11:7,8).

Now, please do not misunderstand. This is not meant to be a rejection of using reason to discover some aspects of life and reality and even God, but a rejection of relying upon it solely or above all else. For science and reasoning are truly wonderful gifts God has given to men to make us able to appreciate him and his creation all the better. When used properly, for that purpose, they are indeed wonderful gifts. And the way to use the gift of reasoning properly is to use it not on one's own, apart from God and even in defiance of God, but with God, so that he can direct that reasoning.

"'Come now, let us reason together,' says the Lord" (Is. 1:18).

But even then, what science and reasoning discover is but the smallest part of reality and the creation or natural world. What has been discovered is truly amazing and we should be in awe of it, as well as its Creator. But that awe is meant to prime us to want to know the Creator of this awesome creation.

"And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?" (Job 26:14).

The overdependence upon science and reasoning to discover the deeper aspects of God and reality comes from the underlying focus on man and self that pervades the modern scientific viewpoint. Man is the measure of all things in this worldview, not God. They have pushed aside all consideration of God to focus on man, and they measure and judge reality based on man's faulty and fragile senses of perception and limited reasoning capabilities. But since such avenues of perceiving and understanding reality cannot directly sense God, they automatically reject all possibility of his existence and interaction with the world he created. In doing this, they have rightly angered the unseen but knowable God who created them and their world.

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Rom. 1:18-20).

There is no excuse for the brazen, arrogant attitude so often upheld by those who look solely to science to explain all things and reject out of hand any thought of there being anything else other than such things as science can deal with. No excuse, because, as Scripture sternly warns, "what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them."

God has made it plain to them simply by the very nature of the world they inhabit and study so fervently. The irony of much of modern science is that the one thing that enables it to exist and function at all, the orderliness of the nature it investigates, is the very thing it rejects when it points to a Being capable of imposing such an orderliness upon that nature. It stands in awe of the creation but not the Creator of that creation.

Instead of the natural assumption that an intelligent design of the universe points to an Intelligent Designer, these adherents of this type of science say that the universe itself is its own creator, or any of other variations of this theme, as long as no weight is given to the more logical inference that the existence of such a finely tuned universe clearly shows the existence of an intelligent Designer.

My purpose in writing here is not to debate this issue of ID or Intelligent Design. Many other far more qualified Christian writers than I have taken up this and are doing a fine job of defending the truths put forth in Scripture on this matter. Rather, my aim here is to look more at the underlying causes that make a person reject what Scripture itself calls the plain witness of creation to all mankind that there is a God and Creator of that creation. Those causes stem from man's natural alienation from God because of his sinful nature and until that sinful nature is dealt with, no man will ever be able to understand rightly the true nature of reality. God has so decreed it:

"The world through its wisdom did not know him" (1 Cor. 1:21).

The world cannot know God through its wisdom or limited reasoning abilities because it is crippled by the sinful nature of human beings and only through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is this barrier or veil removed:

"But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (2 Cor. 3:14-16).

This passage refers to the fact that the ancient Israelites did not understand the true nature of the covenant that God had made with them, that it was meant to be a matter of spirit (one's heart and attitude) and not strictly a matter of external things such as the letter of the law. But the principle of this message equally applies to those who today elevate the scientific principle above all else. They look to another set of laws, those governing the natural world, as their supreme guide and god. They too have settled for less than the fullness of the truth of reality. They worship the creation rather than the Creator of that creation.

"Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles" (Rom. 1:21-23).

Notice the mention of things of nature like birds and animals. Nature has become the god of the scientific world; its laws are to them like the laws that God gave to his people long ago to guide them; they are in awe of the creation rather than of the Creator. A loss of awe of God is at the heart of much of this world's problems. It is time we recovered this awe of God. The rest of this piece of writing therefore is aimed at this very thing.

It is always good to begin with a definition. What is awe? One dictionary defines it as "An overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration." It is important, I think, to emphasize that one word overwhelming. Awe is not just an admiration of something or someone, it is an encounter with something so far above us that we are completely overwhelmed by the force of impact of that which we have encountered.

When the disciple Peter first encountered Jesus in his ministry here on earth, Jesus performed a miracle of making an abundance of fishes come into the fisherman's net. When Peter saw this, he was immediately aware that this was no ordinary man before him and the realization that he now stood in the presence of the great Creator of all fishes and of the world in which they and he inhabited, he was so overwhelmed, so in awe of this God so far beyond him, that he could no longer stand but he fell to his knees and cried out in awe and fear:

"'Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!' For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken" (Lk. 5:8-9).

Immediately, we see the unbreakable connection between fear or awe of God and our sinful nature, as was mentioned here previously. Our sinfulness before a holy God always engenders fear in us, and rightly so. We should be afraid of God's righteous judgment upon us for our sins. But this fear can be handled in two ways and lead to two different results. One way is to cover up or pass over this realization and pretend that it is not so: We can suppress the truth. We can be:

"men who suppress the truth by their wickedness" (Rom. 1:18).

Or we can be honest and acknowledge the truth about ourselves, that we are sinners before a holy God, and accept the truth and light of God as shown in his Son Jesus Christ:

"This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God" (Jn. 3:19-21).

These are the only two choices open to us. One is to suppress the initial awe everyone feels when encountering the truth about God and reality, and the other is to humble ourselves, acknowledge the truth about ourselves and our sinfulness, and to embrace this awe as the fitting and right response to living in the presence of the infinite God. The wise person will choose to let the awe of God overwhelm him. This is the gateway to ever-increasing awe of God and eternal life in him. This awe basically encompasses three parts:

We should be in awe of God for:

1. His being: who he is--his very nature and essence.
2. His works: what he does--the past, present, and future deeds of God.
3. His worthiness: Who he is and what he does that makes him worthy of awe.

We begin with an examination of God's being and essence, because existence must come first before works or a judgment of those works. For it is obvious that no works can be done by a person until that person first exists. This being the case, we immediately see our first reason for awe of God: that he has always existed.

"You are from all eternity" (Ps. 93:2).

This simple statement of Scripture is far from simple in its impact. Whenever I meditate upon God, this first truth about him always overwhelms me, the key aspect of awe. I stand in awe and cannot fully comprehend what it means to be eternally existent. My mind just goes around and around in circles trying to fathom this deep truth about God. It is truly a very deep truth about God, yet it is expressed in those simple, brief words of the psalm: "You are from all eternity."

Think of the power that is required for anything to exist, much less exist forever. In fact, it requires infinite power, power with no limits, for otherwise, how could one continuously overcome all the potential threats of non-existence? That is why, thinking philosophically, if there is a god, he must, of necessity, be infinite. For he is the rock-bottom, most fundamental and basic foundation of existence itself, and if there is any limit whatsoever to his power, that existence is threatened by that limitation. God must, of necessity, by definition, be infinite. And he is.

"He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else" (Acts 17:25),

God needs nothing. If he did, he could not be God, the infinite one, for that would mean that he is dependent upon something outside of himself. But God is, by definition and essence, the supreme foundation not only of all that exists but of all that can exist. All that exists depends upon his existence first.

"For in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

We need him for our existence; it depends upon him. But God has no needs for his own existence; he is his own reference point.

"When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself" (Heb. 6:13).

God may have no needs, but he does, however, have desires. He is love (1 Jn. 4:16) and love desires to share itself with others. That is why the passage from Revelation, quoted earlier, says that "by your will" all things were created. God did not have to create; he wanted to create, to share the great joy of existence.

The mystery of existence itself is thus the first of all mysteries, the first cause for awe to arise in us when encountering God. Surely it is something of which we should rightly be in awe. In fact, more than one philosopher has said that the first question that rightly should be asked is, "Why is there something rather than nothing?"

The whole matter of "simply" existing is not so simple at all and is truly a cause for standing in awe of God. God is the first to exist and he has never not existed; he is eternal in existence. It is from this firm foundation that the existence of all else rests. So, from a desire but under no compulsion, God created all else that exists.

But for what purpose does it exist? Some of those whom he has created claim that they can see no reason for existence. For them, the universe is an eternal, mindless mechanism, driven by forces with no feeling and no love for man; indeed, the universe is seen by them to be downright hostile to man and our existence rests upon a razor-thin blade of happenstance and chance.

How different from the Biblical revelation of an eternal God who creates out of love! He made the entire universe specifically so that the human beings he would later create would have a friendly place to dwell and inhabit.

"For this is what the Lord says--he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited--he says: 'I am the Lord, and there is no other'" (Is. 45:18).

God formed the cosmos and world so that human beings could have a place custom-made for their human needs. This is what is known as the fine-tuning of the universe; that is, that conditions of many variables in the natural world are so critically fine-tuned as to be within that very narrow range that will support human life. The slightest variance in either direction for these variables would make it impossible for human life to exist.

Not only that, but God made this universe a place of great beauty that inspires awe in human beings who have been given a consciousness and senses that can appreciate the beauty of a sunset or a multitude of other beautiful aspects of creation. He did not have to do this. God could have created any kind of world he desired. He could have made the earth a dull, boring, drab kind of world. But he didn't. He didn't, because an artist's creation reflects the artist himself. And God is not ugly or drab or boring. He is the fullness of all that is exciting and fulfilling and beautiful in existence and life. This world is incredibly beautiful because it reflects the beauty of its Creator. Another reason for awe of God: his incomparable beauty and glory.

In a vision, Ezekiel saw the Lord and described his beauty and glory thus:

"(I saw) a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown" (Ez. 1:26-28).

Notice Ezekiel's reaction to his encounter with God in his glory: "When I saw it, I fell facedown." That is awe, to be so overwhelmed at God that one cannot even stand before him. Peter fell to his knees in his fishing boat when he stood before the God of all creation; Ezekiel did the same. All human beings are awestruck when standing before the God of all creation, whether because of his deeds of creation or simply his very essence as God. Thus God's works and his existence work together to create awe in man. God thus designed it so that this great, supreme, absolute, infinite essence whom he is, beyond which one cannot go, could be made known to others that did not yet exist and so be known and appreciated in awe--and he knew that he would do this from all eternity.

"All his works are known to God from eternity" (Acts 15:18 KJII).

Another reason to stand in awe of God. I cannot actually fathom this part of his essence any more than I can any other part. I often do not know what my actions will be in the next moment, much less years from now. But God knows what he will do centuries from the current moment, even into all eternity. It is all known ahead of time to him because he is not restricted to time. He has no limits of any kind except those which he has voluntarily placed upon himself.

Sometimes God tells his prophets what is to take place in the future and the prophet tells the ones concerned. That is what Samuel did when Saul came to him. Samuel told him all that would occur in the near future, both Saul's actions and the Lords:

"Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on Saul's head and kissed him, saying, 'Has not the Lord anointed you leader over his inheritance? When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel's tomb, at Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, "The donkeys you set out to look for have been found. And now your father has stopped thinking about them and is worried about you. He is asking, 'What shall I do about my son?' Then you will go on from there until you reach the great tree of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there. One will be carrying three young goats, another three loaves of bread, and another a skin of wine. They will greet you and offer you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from them. After that you will go to Gibeah of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying. The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you'" (1Sam. 10:1-7).

In another place, Scripture describes God knowing what both he and his servant Job would do:

"After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, 'I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has'" (Job 42:7-8).

Yet another example is found in God's revelation of his people Israel's future:

"Then the Lord said to him, 'Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions'" (Gen. 15:13,14).

One of the great possessions given by God to his people, to those who believe in his Son, Jesus Christ, is an intimate relationship with him. Ask any human being what is one of the things he treasures most in life and he or she will tell you that it is his or her family and loved ones and the relationship and fellowship enjoyed in that relationship. This is no surprise, for God created us in his image and that image is one of love and fellowship and relationship. But there are levels and degrees of such relating to others. If we accept that human relationships between one another is one of the greatest joys in life, then surely we should not be surprised that the greatest joy of all comes when we relate in love with the greatest Being of all, the One who created us for this very purpose, a relationship of love with him.

God makes himself known in his relationship with us through his Son Jesus Christ and through his Holy Spirit. It is in the Spirit that the deepest and highest joys of life are found. This secret is revealed by God to us in one of the most profound chapters in the Bible, First Corinthians, chapter two. There we find some of the deepest truths about reality ever to be revealed to us by God.

"Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us" (1 Cor. 2:11,12).

Imagine, being able to understand the thoughts of God! Such a thing is incomprehensible to us--yet God tells us it is so in his Word. In fact, he concludes his message to us in this deep chapter of the Bible with these words:

"We have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16).

Elsewhere in Scripture, God in his wisdom calls out to us to accept this new mind in place of our old, faulty mind that has been wounded by sinful human nature:

"Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares: . . . If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you" (Prov. 1:20, 23).

Amazing! God is ready to pour out his own heart to us and enable us to know his very thoughts. This is as deep a level as any being can go, to know the very heart and thoughts of God himself. Yet that is the promise and great possession made possible through Christ and the Holy Spirit by God. Truly this is something of which to be in awe. Yet how few actually accept the offer. Rather than accept the offer to know the infinite mind of God, they prefer to trust their own puny, limited mind. Surely Scripture rightly describes such people:

"He who trusts in his own mind is a fool" (Prov. 28:26).

Only a fool purposely and willfully suppresses the clear evidence God has given in nature, his Word, his Son, and through his Holy Spirit to accept the imaginings of his own heart and mind instead. That is to make one's self an idol in place of the true God. And all idols and false gods will be destroyed when the end comes.

"The Lord will be awesome to them when he destroys all the gods of the land" (Zeph. 2:11).

The time is quickly coming when such awe will sweep across this world, as God makes known his final judgment upon it for its refusal to be in awe of him. He is the great Creator who nevertheless invites man to come close to him, even so close as to know the thoughts of his mind, yet who will smash down every high thing, such as the vain mind of man, that exalts itself up against him. This is he who:

"forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth--the Lord God Almighty is his name" (Amos 4:13).

Judgment is one of the inevitable results of God having created all that exists. For once something begins to exist, that very existence takes up space and exists in time and therefore is open to judgment for how it exists and how it uses the time given to it to exist. On the human level, this judgment makes itself known in faulty acts of judgment such as criticizing of one another and even perversion of justice, corruption and all kinds of other faulty evaluations and judgments. Human beings, because of their sinful nature, do not always make right judgments. Often they do not even want to, for they pervert right and true judgment in order to obtain their own ends. They value self above truth.

It is not so with God. Because he is perfect in all his nature and all his ways, he alone is worthy to make judgment on all of creation. He did this at the beginning, after he had created all that exists. Then, Scripture says, he looked out at all that he had created out of nothing and passed judgment upon it:

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Gen.1:31).

What God did in the beginning, he will do in the end. Just as he judged the creation when it began, so will he do when it ends. For we are warned constantly through Scripture that there is a coming great and final judgment of all creation. Because of this great emphasis in Holy Scriptures on this coming Great and Last or Final Judgment, we would do well to pay serious attention to it. We should be in awe of God because of his coming judgment of the whole world and of each of us as an individual in that world.

"A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened" (Dan. 7:10).

"I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books" (Rev 20:12).

Surely this is an awesome scene, worthy of our utmost attention: to know that we will be judged by almighty God. It is this very knowledge that drives us to the one way God has provided to be delivered from his righteous judgment for all our shortcomings in life: his Son, Jesus Christ. For Jesus is the one who saves us from the coming wrath (1 Ths. 1:10). All those who accept what Jesus did on the cross for them--putting himself in our place under the wrath of God over our sins--will be delivered from God's wrath over their sin. For this we truly should be in awe of God and his great love for us.

"I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. . . . In wrath, you remember mercy" (Hab 3:2).

But for those who do not stand in awe of God and his offer of mercy and forgiveness, it is another story.

"It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31).

What should be our right response to all this, then? When we see the world begin to fall apart, as the very heavens begin to rip apart at the end and all the earth is shaken, we who trust in Jesus to save us need not be shaken, but should follow the words of Hebrews:

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe" (Heb. 12:28).

For we trust and stand in awe of him who gave this earth its beginning and who will bring it to its end.

"I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Rev. 22:13).

This being so, "how pleasant and fitting to praise him!" (Ps. 147:1).

And that is what I do. That is why this was written, as praise to him of whom I am in awe.

"For the Lord your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome" (Dt. 10:17).