Tag Archives: fear of God

Track 1: The Fear of the Lord

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Psalm 19
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46

Moses talked to God, face to face, but that was the last thing the children of Israel wanted to do. Today we read from the book of Exodus:

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.”   (Exodus 20:18-20)

Moses had read for Israel, the 10 Commandments of God. The people listened. They said that would keep the commandments, they just did not want to face God. Moses understood that their keeping of the commandments would depend on whether or not they feared God.

The psalmist wrote:

We need the fear of the Lord today. We see so much evil. People are discouraged and dejected. What is the answer? The psalmist wrote:

The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.   (Psalm 19:7-9)

Do we respect God and reverence his word? Do we have a teachable spirit? When we do not we are vulnerable to the ways of this world Do we fear the evil more than God? There is no rest and hope when we focus on evil. Only God’s word can bring joy to our hearts.

The psalmist David wrote:

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
    I fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.   (Psalm 23:4)

 

Track 2: The Fruits of the Kingdom.

Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:7-14
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46

God spoke through the prophet Isaiah:

Let me sing for my beloved
my love-song concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.

He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;

he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.   (Isaiah 5:1-2)

God referred to Israel as his vineyard. The psalmist picks up this same theme:

You have brought a vine out of Egypt;
you cast out the nations and planted it.

You prepared the ground for it;
it took root and filled the land.

The mountains were covered by its shadow
and the towering cedar trees by its boughs.

You stretched out its tendrils to the Sea
and its branches to the River. (Psalm 80:8-11)

He acknowledges God’s planting and nurturing. He understands that Israel is God’s vineyard. But then he asks this question:

Why have you broken down its wall,
so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?   (Psalm 80:12)

Do we expect to deliberately sin and not be punished? Does that apply to us today? When things are not going our way, do we become angry?

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells a parable about a vineyard:

Jesus said, “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”   (Matthew 21:33-41)

Jesus took the words of the prophet about a vineyard a step further. Not only did Israel not respond to God’s nurture, but they became hostile to him. Over the years they stoned God’s prophets. And then they did not respect the very Son of God. Instead, they crucified him on a cruel cross.

Today, we are the engrafted branches of Israel. Are we producing the fruit that God expects? The Apostle Paul enumerates the fruit:

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions,envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.   (Galatians 5:19-23)

Whether or not we produce God’s fruit depends on how we receive and respect his Son. Have we accepted Jesus? He is a Holy God who convicts us of sin by his very nature. We either hide from him or we come before his cross.

Jesus goes on to explain his parable:

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”   (Matthew 21:42-46)

Jesus died on the cross once. He will not be crushed again. Now he expects fruit. We have this warning in the Book of Hebrews:

For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away, since they are crucifying again the Son of God to their own harm and are holding him up to contempt.   (Hebrews 6:4-6)

Fruit is required. James wrote:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.   (James 2:14-17)

We are God’s tender plants. If we allow him to water us and nurture us through his word, he will help the fruit of righteousness mature in us.