NOTES for Pro 14:27

We are used to connecting fear only with negative sensations. Fear makes our life unbearable, binds us hand and foot, paralyzes every initiative; because of fear people end their lives by suicide, and driven by fear, they kill others. Fear is one of the most terrible consequences of the fall, almost death. And suddenly it is said that fear is a source of life, turning one away from the snares of death. Could this be speaking of another kind of fear?

Yes, there is a clarification here: the fear of the Lord. How is it different, and why does it help one live? All our fears are the dread that something bad will happen to us (or be done to us). From this comes paralysis or something still worse, for "fear has big eyes." But the main biblical Revelation consists in the fact that God is good, He is love. Therefore only good can be expected from Him. The fear of the Lord is not that if we do or fail to do something, things will go badly for us, but that if we act wrongly, something good will not happen. And that is an entirely different matter. It frees rather than enslaves; it leads to fullness of life. More than that, since God is almighty, there is no need to fear anything else. And in this again are life and freedom.

But does it not happen to us that we fear even God as if He were a thunderstorm or a fire? Do we really believe in the goodness of God?