“Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear
Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them
and with their sons forever!” Deuteronomy 5:29 NASB
You want the well being of your
children, right? I know you do.
This promise from the Lord is one of
my favorites. But what kind of heart is He talking about? And what does it
really mean to fear God? I already know there is no way to keep all His
commandments because I’ve broken most of them. Initially these thoughts leave
me in a hopeless state.
As I have studied the ancient kings of Israel and Judah over the years I have discovered that none of the kings of Israel and most of the kings of Judah did not have a “whole heart” towards God. Only three did: David, Hezekiah and Josiah. There was something in common about these three men that stands above the rest. They obviously weren’t perfect, so what was it? Tracking their paths from I Samuel through II Chronicles, we see this common conviction: they tore down all the idols. Are you willing to tear down all your idols? Do you even know if there are some?
Beyond
that, what does it mean to fear God? We know that “the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” (Proverbs 9:10) Some say that it means to
reverence God. But is that it? I think it’s much more than that because Jesus states it very strongly when he says, "Don't
be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul.
Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28) And Paul says to work
toward complete holiness because we fear God. (2 Corinthians 7:1)
William
D. Eisenhower puts it this way in his article 'Fearing God" in Christianity
Today:
Unfortunately,
many of us presume that the world is the ultimate threat and that God's
function is to offset it. How different this is from the biblical position that
God is far scarier than the world. When we assume that the world is the
ultimate threat, we give it unwarranted power, for in truth, the world's
threats are temporary. When we expect God to balance the stress of the world,
we reduce him to the world's equal. As I walk with the Lord, I discover that
God poses an ominous threat to my ego, but not to me. He rescues me from my
delusions, so he may reveal the truth that sets me free. He casts me down, only
to lift me up again. He sits in judgment of my sin, but forgives me
nevertheless. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but love from the
Lord is its completion.
Beyond
the mystery of fearing God, if God knew we weren’t going to be able to keep
“all His commandments” how could this promise mean anything to me? Obviously
this can only be true of me if I am in Christ – because He kept all the
commandments perfectly. (Romans 5:19)
So what
if I reside in Christ, tear down the idols and fear God (to the best of my
understanding) and it is not well with one or more of my children? Am I
going to believe what I see or what God says is true? This is where faith comes
in: “Now faith means putting our full confidence in the things we hope for,
it means being certain of things we cannot see. It was this kind of faith that
won their reputation for the saints of old. And it is after all only by faith
that our minds accept as fact that the whole scheme of time and space was
created by God’s command—that the world which we can see has come into being
through principles which are invisible.” Hebrews 11:1-3 JBP
Let’s
believe God when He says, “Oh that they had
such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my
commandments, that it might go well with them and with their
descendants forever!” ESV
I really
like that “forever” part, don’t you? And not just my children but also my
descendants forever!
THIS IS
WHAT A WHOLEHEARTED DAD DOES!
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