Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 2:5 Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.

Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 10:27 The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened.

Proverbs 14:26 In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge.

Proverbs 14:27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.

Proverbs 16:6 In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity; and by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil.

Proverbs 19:23 The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction; he will not be visited with evil.

Proverbs 22:4 By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.

I don’t know about you but I want all the things that come from fearing The Lord.

So what is it to fear The Lord?

I looked up all those scriptures in the Amplified Version and found that in almost every instance, it was restated as “the reverent and worshipful” fear of The Lord. Then I went to my Hebrew and English lexicon to look up the Strong’s concordance number (3374) associated with these instances of “fear” and found 4 definitions for the Hebrew word yirah. 1)Fear, terror, great fear. 2)A terror=object of terror. 3)Fear of God, reverence, piety. 4)The fear of Yahweh=the law as revered. The word that I keep seeing over and over is some form of revere so I looked it up in Webster’s dictionary. (Revere, reverence, venerate, worship, adore-To honor and admire profoundly and respectfully. Revere stresses deference and tenderness of feeling. Reverence presupposes an intrinsic merit and inviolability in the one honored and a similar depth of feeling in the one honoring)

Is it possible to love and fear someone/something at the same time?

Frankly, I was having a hard time with this question so I spent some time in prayer about it. The Lord reminded me how important fire and electricity are to our civilization. He asked me if I feared them. I answered I do and I don’t. I am also not exposed to them directly. There are always safety measures in place whenever I come in close contact with them. However, if I was exposed to the raw and potentially all consuming power of these two forces with no buffer I imagine that I would be very afraid. Right then it all clicked for me, my loving Father was showing me that He unselfishly sent my buffer, my safety measure, my intercessor, my savior, Jesus to me. Hebrews 7:25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Was this only relevant in the Old Testament or does it still apply?

Everything that is in the bible is truth. When Jesus was praying for us He said John 17:17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. The Lord didn’t make a mistake when He had the authors of the bible, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, write down every word that is in there. 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, Our God didn’t change during the 400 years between the old and new testaments. Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
As you probably know, the Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew, while the New Testament was written in Greek and Aramaic. Therefore, I couldn’t search the Hebrew word yirah (Strong’s concordance reference #3374) in the New Testament. However, I found a very similar Greek word eulabeia (Strong’s concordance reference #2124) which means reverence, piety, fear of God. It is only used once in the New Testament. Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.

I know I have given a lot of information in this blog but I feel like I have only scratched the surface of the topic. I think the bottom line is our God is mighty and powerful beyond our ability to comprehend. He is also loving, caring and concerned with every aspect of our lives. He created us for intimate relationship with Him. He gave us His Word so we could learn about His nature and character and grow in love with Him. We could spend every moment of the rest of our lives delving into His Word and still there would be Truths revealed.