“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Proverbs 10:27
Fear of God is mentioned 86 times in the Bible. We should respect God and be in awe of his holy name. If God appeared to you in a burning bush or appeared to you in a theophany, you would likely be very afraid. His awesomeness would be overwhelming.
We just finished a study on Job presented by Francis Chan in the RightNow media Sunday School class. The gist of it was that Job was rather self-righteous in wanting to question or challenge God because he felt that he had been wrongly treated. In essence he did not deserve the treatment he received, but he was arrogant in asserting that he was without sin. When God speaks to him out of the whirlwind he comes to understand just how small he is in comparison to the greatness of God. The dialog ends with Job stating:
“Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me… I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees Thee; therefore, I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42: 3b and 6a
And as we all know, God ultimately restores to Job everything and more than he had lost. I believe the point is to understand just how great our God is and how unworthy we are despite our best efforts to follow Jesus. We will always fall short and need to regularly ask for forgiveness which thank God, He freely gives.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” John 3:16-17