THERE’S NOBODY LIKE HIM! (2)

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Pr 9:10 NKJV

In a world out of control, we like a god we can control: a comforting presence who blesses, provides, and advises. Kind of like “God in a box.” But when it comes to Christ, no box works. His contemporaries designed an assortment of boxes for Him, but He never fit in any of the boxes. They called Him a revolutionary, but He paid taxes. They labeled Him a country carpenter, but He confounded scholars. They came to see His miracles, but He refused to entertain them. He was a Jew who attracted Gentiles, a rabbi who gave up on synagogues, a holy man who hung out with streetwalkers. In a male-dominated society, He recruited females. In an anti-Roman culture, He opted not to denounce Rome. He talked like a king yet lived like a pilgrim. People tried to put Him in a “box,” but they couldn’t. And we can’t either; indeed we must not! “Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-God, insight into life from knowing a Holy God” (v. 10 TM). Most of our fears are unhealthy. They rob us of peace and joy. But the fear of the Lord does the opposite. One author writes: “There is nothing neurotic about fearing God. The neurotic thing is not to be afraid, or to be afraid of the wrong thing. That is why God chooses to be known to us, so that we may stop being afraid of the wrong thing. When God is fully revealed to us and we ‘get it,’ then we experience the conversion of our fear…‘fear of the Lord’ is the deeply sane recognition that we are not God.”

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