We live in a world where words are weapons. Someone
said, "Words are weapons and we must wield them well if
we would win." Much of the success of cons and cults is the
direct result of their clever use of words. So many
arguments are often based on a perverted manipulation of
words, but we dare not, on that account, neglect our
obligation to take words seriously and be precise and as
accurate as possible. Words are important and their misuse
can be dangerous. Like the man who thought words always
mean the same thing. If he said he had good vision or that he
had good sight, it would make no difference, for they mean
the same thing. But then he realized it would be verbal
suicide to say to his friend, "Your wife is a vision, and mine
is a sight."
We want to look at the subject of fear. It is only a
simple 4 letter word, but it can lead to confusion if we
assume it always means the same thing. There are 14
Hebrew nouns and 2 different Greek nouns that are all
translated into English by the word fear in the KJV. That
means all of the distinction in the original must be gathered
from the context, and this can sometimes be difficult to see.
In II Tim. 1:7 Paul said to Timothy, "For God has not given
us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a
sound mind." I wondered about that many times because I
know Christians do have fear. Peter even tells Christians to
pass the time of their sojourning here in fear. In Acts 5:11
he says that great fear came upon all the church. Paul, the
very man advising Timothy confessed to the Corinthians in I
Cor. 2:3 that he was with them in weakness and in fear.
How do we reconcile these verses on the basis of the
word fear? The only way is to go to the original Greek. We
see then that the word fear in II Timothy is not phobos as it
is in the rest of the verses. It is the word deidia, which
means timidity. This resolves the contradiction. Does this
mean that the average person will never be able to find the
distinctions in words because they do not know Greek? Not
at all. If you take the Berkeley Version you will find the
word cowardice and not fear. The RSV and NIV have
timidity. A person who will take advantage of other
translations can find the different meanings of words. We
cannot depend upon one translation alone. An accurate
understanding of what God has revealed calls for the
reading of a number of translations. Unless we convey the
right meaning we do not convey the Word of God, but the
misunderstanding of man.
A study of the fear of God is one that calls for care and
accuracy. The word fear in relation to God can mean very
opposite things. There is a fear of God which is terror at his
might and wrath, and there is a fear of God which is
reverence, or worship. There is still another which is
knowledge and wisdom of God. The setting in these few
verses of Jonah give us an opportunity to see two different
kinds of fear in relation to God. First we see-
I. THE FEAR OF THE PAGANS.
Their first fears were the natural fears of men in a crisis.
They feared less they should perish, as the captain says in
verse 6. This fear was directly connection with their fear of
God, or rather the gods, for they were ignorant of the true
and only God. They knew that some god was angry and was
punishing someone. They feared being caught in the middle
where they would have to suffer for someone else's sin.
Many commentators point out here the social nature of
sin. You cannot keep the consequences of evil limited to the
offender. The drunken driver endangers all the innocent on
the road. The peddlers of dope may sleep like Jonah while
masses of their victims cry out in agony and fear. No
husband, wife, or child can act disgraceful without the rest
of the family suffering. These pagan sailors were far from
innocent, I am sure, but the recognized that their guilt is not
the cause of their danger. They were willing to cast lots to
find the guilty one, and when it fell to Jonah they asked him
in verse 8 to tell them on whose account this evil has come
upon them.
The whole account reveals the nature of their fear of
God. It was a fear of terror. God was not one you had
fellowship with, but one you tried to please just because of
his power to destroy you if you didn't. This is characteristic
of paganism, but of perverted Christianity as well. Martin
Luther suffered under a false concept of God for years. God
was capricious and easily offended. He feared lest as a priest
he violate some sacred place, or mispronounce some
magic formula. He lived with terror and fear for years until
he discovered the biblical doctrine of justification by faith.
He was trying to please God by merit, and he knew he was
weak and unworthy. The result was that he lived in fear of
God. He came to understand the grace of God in Christ and
gained the peace of God. His pagan fears departed when he
discovered the true nature of God.
The fear of the pagan sailors grew even worse when they
heard what Jonah had done. They were exceedingly afraid,
and their fear actually made more sense than Jonah's false
sense of peace. They said in shocked amazement, "What is
this you have done?" They had enough sense to recognize
the folly of trying to flee from a God who made land and sea.
Even a pagan can see that obedience is the only sensible
thing when you serve a God like that. The folly and
inconsistently of believers is a marvel to unbelievers. They
look at our profession, and then our conduct, and they say,
"What have you done?" Non-believers feel it is inexcusable
for Christians to live as they do, and they are shocked when
Christians do foolish things so contrary to their own beliefs.
One scoffer said that avowed skepticism cannot do a
tenth of the damage to faith as the constant spectacle of
Christians living a worldly life. It is a legitimate fear to
associate with a believer who is fleeing away from God's
will. In the light of Jonah's folly, these sailors had good
reason to be afraid. It is a legitimate form of fear to
associate with one in rebellion against God. Next let's look at-
II. THE FEAR OF THE PROPHET.
You would think that Jonah would have been fearful
facing all their questions that they so rapidly fired at him,
but he seems very calm after his nap. He explains that he is
a Hebrew. This name is always used to distinguish Jews
from Gentiles. It is used 33 times in the Old Testament, and
always as opposed to Gentiles. Jonah felt superior to them,
and he adds, "And I fear the Lord, the God of heaven."
This certainly does not seem to fit the circumstances. Jonah
is fleeing from God in open rebellion, and yet he says that he
fears the Lord.
The word here is not the fear of terror. Jonah is not
saying that he was afraid of God. That was one of his
problems, for he would not be fleeing from God's will if he
had a proper fear. He was like a spoiled child who had no
fear of punishment. The word for fear here actually means
reverence and worship. Jonah was simply telling them that
he worshiped the God of heaven. Here we see the opposite
danger of a false fear of God like that which Luther
suffered. This other extreme is familiarity with God. Our
culture is in this area of danger. Few people in America
have an abnormal fear of God, but masses have a familiarity
with Him.
God is sung about freely by popular singers, and God is
made to be the buddy for everyone who puts their hand in
His. There is a Gospel without Christ; without atonement
for sin, and a call to holiness. Like the true Gospel, it is all
free, and it has lead masses of people to belief in God
without any biblical connection. If it was only outside of the
church it would be tragic enough, but this false sense of the
fear of God is in the church as well. It was in ancient Israel
also. In Isa. 29:13 we read, "And the Lord said, because this
people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their
lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me
is a commandment of men learned by rote..." We note that
the fear of God was only by memory work. Jesus quotes this
passage in Matt. 15:9, "In vain do they worship me, teaching
as doctrines the precepts of men." It is possible for the very
servants of God to fall into the snare of a superficial fear of
God.
Jonah worshipped God, but did not have fear enough to
flee from evil, and to crush disobedience in his heart. He did
not fear God enough to give his all to reach a lost world.
The tragedy is that Jonah is not an isolated case. Dr. Dale of
England said, "Nobody is afraid of God anymore." We can
expound our theology of God as creator of land and sea, and
we can continue to worship Him, and still be careless about
doing His will. Jonah never forsook his creed. He could
quote it anywhere, and even on a storm tossed ship where
death was facing everyone. But he did forsake an obedient
relationship to the God of his creed. This is as evil and
dangerous as the pagan fear of terror.
We need to combine these two concepts of fear in order
to have a truly biblical fear of God. We must have an awe
and reverence at the majesty of God, and worship Him in
the fear that allows for confidence and boldness in His
presence. Yet we should beware of letting this lead to
presumption, and check that danger by a real fear of the
terror variety because of disobedience. We should be afraid
to be careless about God's will. We should be afraid to
neglect our opportunities to serve and witness. We should
fear the judgment of God on those who seek first the
pleasures of life and ignore the plan of God. It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Jonah's
experience of learning the hard way is recorded so that we
may avoid his folly.
Moody was a great evangelist who did not try to produce
fear in men in order to get them to repent. He seldom
preached on repentance. He found that men responded
more to a positive message of love. He wrote, "Now, my
friends, repentance is not fear. A great many people say I
don't preach up the terror of religion. I don't want to-don't
want to scare men into the kingdom of God. I don't believe
in preaching that way........If I wanted to scare men into
heaven I would just hold the terror of hell over their
heads...But that's not the way to win men. They don't have
any slaves in heaven. They are all sons, and they must
accept salvation voluntarily. Terror never brought a man in
yet."
There are many who use this method, however, and I
have seen it. It does work as far as moving people, but it
does not necessarily get people into a right relationship to
God. A. W. Tozer put it this way: "The current trick of
frightening people into accepting Christ by threatening them
with atom bombs and guided missiles is not scriptural,
neither is it effective. By shooting off firecrackers in the face
of a flock of goats you could conceivably succeed in herding
them into a sheepfold, but all the natural fear in the world
cannot make a sheep out of a goat."
Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon,
Sinners In The Hands Of Angry God, and it won many.
John Bunyan said, "No fear, no grace. Though there is not
always grace where there is the fear of hell, yet to be sure
there is no grace where there is no fear of God." We need to
understand that there can be a healthy fear that does cause
us to repent and turn to God. When we have a sense of awe
at the holiness of God we will dread to displease Him. This
healthy fear will cause us to avoid disobedience. Jonah
could have used more of this spirit of fear. We all need to
fear lest, like Jonah, we lose a proper fear. Some poet wrote,
"Fear not waves nor winds that bring
The unbridled hurricanes;
Fear not cold nor the sleet's sting.
Flaming heat nor leveling rain;
Fear not even fear itself,
Fear not pain.
Only fear the eye grown dull;
Only fear the heart grown bland
That applauds the beautiful
With condescending hand.
Only fear the green fields covered
By the sand."
Jesus said we are not to fear those who kill the body,
but we are to fear Him who can destroy both body and soul.
The wise believer is one who will combine both a fear of the
pagans, and the fear that God expected Jonah to have, but
which he neglected, and that is a reverence for God that
keeps you always on a path of obedience.
