Reverence and Relevence Part 3: The Consequence of "Yes"

Before I get into the consequences of affirming that the American Church has largely played-down the fear of God, I want to clarify my approach. I don't know what the specific role of the fear of God is in the life of the believer. I do have a feeling that we play it down more than we should. What I'm doing here is essentially recording the process of trying to figure it out. There is no guarantee of success here, I may never know. I may give up on the quest. But for the mean time, this is a subject of interest to me, so I'm going for it.

Now then, I have a little story to tell. This Wednesday, a couple of evangelists came to Cal Poly and allegedly preached that God hates the sinner as much as He hate the sin. I cannot verify nor deny that this was their message, it's what I saw in the school paper. Regardless of what actually happened, it opens up the dialogue on the fear of God (and I guess there was an impromptu debate at the site of the street preaching). I don't agree with the alleged message, but I think I can see where it would come from.

At the beginning of shows like Survivorman, Man vs. Wild, the Crocodile Hunter, even Jackass and Ninja Warrior, there is a disclaimer that says something along the lines of "These activities were performed by professionals or under the supervision of professionals. Accordingly, we must insist that no one attempts to duplicate them." Why would such a varied list of shows have the same general warning? While many would answer "because the people who do those things are stupid," the real reason is because WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS DANGEROUS! If you've watched even 5 minutes of one of these shows, you see what happens to the people who are properly prepared.

Leviticus 16:1-4 says:
1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered profane fire before the Lord, and died; 2 and the Lord said to Moses: "Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. 3 Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering. 4 He shall put the holy linen tunic and the linen trousers on his body; he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with the linen turban he shall be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore he shall wash his body in water, and put them on. . . .

Coming in to the presence of God is dangerous! God will not permit unclean thing in His presence! The priests were trained professionals in coming before God, and some of them died anyway! Take Steve Erwin, the Crocodile Hunter, as an example. How many times did you see him get bitten, scratched, hit, spit on, or have any number of other bad things happen to him as a result of entering the presence of animals that were familiar to him? (His unfortunate death is a lasting witness of the unpredictability of wild animals, and I wanted to mention it because it no doubt comes to mind, though I don't want to use it as an example in this analogy.) How many times did he explain "I let my guard down for a minute there," or "You really need to pay attention at all times when you're dealing with wild animals"?

Imagine what happens to the unprepared!

2 Samuel 6:3-7
3 They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart 4 with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. 5 David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.
6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The Lord's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.

First of all, the ark was meant to be carried on special poles, not on a cart (Exodus 37:1-5). Second, no one was to touch the ark on pain of death, as demonstrated by Uzzah.

There are two basic lessons here.
1. One should not approach God without the proper preparation. In our case, the blood of Christ. (John 14:6 "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'")

2. Once you are properly prepared to come before God, you still need to guard your steps. (Romans 6:15-18 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.)

Remember all those incidents between Steve Erwin and the animals he knew and loved. By the way, do you have as close and as studious of a relationship with God as Steve Erwin did with those animals? (Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.)