NOTES for Isa 29:13-23

The fear of the Lord is not horror at sensing danger. It is a feeling of one's own unworthiness. A feeling that it is impossible to stand in Christ's love. A feeling of shame and smallness, of one's own pettiness. A feeling of guilt and a desire for the self to be destroyed. Precisely destroyed as the kind of people we see ourselves to be at the moment of meeting Christ.

It is a silent prayer for us to be changed. It is an almost physical pain, like the loss of someone beloved. We understand that only our shell, our mind, our character, separates us from Christ. That we cannot change right now. We are held by the feeling that it is impossible to set anything right.

And in this fear, silence visits us. Peace visits us, and an even greater fear. A fear as though we have grown weak, cannot walk or speak, and are not responsible for ourselves. But this fear is fleeting. Because we understand that we are being held, that He is near. That we are being lifted from our knees.

And firmness and joy are born in the soul. Christ is our hope. He will destroy the offender in us, He will wipe away our pettiness, He will forgive our chatter and self-love, He will untangle the knots of our fear. He will raise us on the day of His coming in Power and Glory.