"Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done." Psalm 78:1-4
Peering into the Grand Canyon all I could think about was the majesty of God. As we showed up and started walking around the south rim, we saw a trail that started to descend down into the canyon. We quickly came up with the plan to walk towards the trail and hike part of the way down into the canyon before we left for our next planned adventure of the day. We walked for a good hour and half and still weren't even close to that trail. When we started it looked like we might walk for half an hour or so and be able to start down into the canyon. It was just so big. You could see everything with amazing clarity--open skies led to a wide open canyon, but it just kept going--nothing was quite as close as it seemed.
You could see the physical layers of the rocks like stripes cascading horizontally all around, one on top of the other for miles. Different colors and thicknesses, in my mind, marking different seasons and different stories. What had happened to make that layer so red? Why was that layer resembling the Sherwin Williams shade of "biscuit" (now up in our kitchen walls) so thick? Why was there vegetation in that part of the canyon, but not the other?
I thought about the flood recorded in the Bible. That there was enough water on the face of the earth to completely cover and carve this canyon and all the amazing, miraculous mountains we had seen that week leading into this moment at the grandest canyon of them all.
As Christians we know there is bad news to our remembering. What brought the flood was sin. God had righteous wrath and completely submerged the earth in water. In His mercy he spoke to Noah about building an ark. Just like in Psalm 78 it says "I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us." It was in wrath that God covered the earth. And it was righteous. It should be a part of our remembering. So much of the time we are afraid to speak truth because of how we perceive it might make people feel. Looking out at that canyon, as vast and complex as the creation itself seemed, the message I heard from God was quite simple, but honestly one that I had to wrestle with to hear clearly. The wrestling came with another word that I had heard from Him fairly recently.
A little over a month ago I had a vivid dream. I rarely remember my dreams so when I do I pay attention. I ask the Lord about them and see what He has to say. This one went like this:
I was having a camp fire in the woods with a couple of other people. One of them tried to start another fire close by, right under a massive pine tree--the tree caught. The fire jumped up the whole tree in a matter of seconds and caught the neighboring tree it was touching--just like that there was a raging forest fire and we had to start running. It was consuming everything in its midst.
And just like that I woke up. At first I wasn't sure if it had to do with the enemy and the spread of coronavirus or what. I just kept hearing "consuming fire". I looked up passages when "consuming fire" has come up in scripture.
The thing is--it always talks about God's wrath. I hope you hear my heart in this--I have been wrestling with understanding the fear of God and His righteous wrath against sin. I want to hear God clearly as He speaks about it. He always speaks truth, but He always speaks it in love. He wants us to understand His anger so that we can fully understand His grace and mercy. We are told:
"Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
'When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will derive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.'" Deuteronomy 4:23-31
This passage starts so heavy and a lot of the time we want to pass through the hard stuff to the "fluffier" stuff. I just believe it's time for us to ask ourselves about how we fear the Lord and honestly to remember that He is a righteous and holy God. When we understand the fear of the Lord we start to understand the weight of what He has done for us and it is such good, miraculous news. Like we are told in Psalm 85:
"Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger." vs. 1-3
His anger is righteous, but He forgives, He withdraws His wrath, and He turns from His hot anger. He has covered all His children's sin, just like the water covered the earth. Because He loves us! It goes on to say:
"Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us! Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation." Vs. 4-7
Sometimes I think we forget how honest we can be with God. Even about His anger and the deepest desires of our hearts. More from this passage:
"Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land." Vs. 8-9
He will speak. Are we seeking His voice? It is a request in this passage--let me hear--
God, please, let us hear!
There is even more good news in this passage:
"Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way." vs. 10-13
When I looked out at the canyon I knew that God had something He wanted to say, but honestly it was something I had to wrestle with. It's not that it was overly complex, because God is kind to keep it pretty simple for us. I just want to hear Him clearly. I want to express His heart about His anger, grace, and mercy in a way that honors and glorifies Him. What I heard was this:
"You have to understand the full depravity of where you have been to understand my mercy and grace for you in this moment. Each layer laid on the map of your life before you knew me was stained in sin. I am jealous for you. But it's the waters of my grace that can flow and change the topography of your life in a moment. Lean into knowing me, experiencing me. Don't rely on simply hearing from other people what I have to say, but press in to hear me for yourself. I am speaking to you. Each layer in your life doesn't need to plague your thoughts as sin anymore, but a reminder of the love I have for you and what I have done for you. I love you. I came for you. I'm speaking to you. I will never stop pursuing your heart, but you have got to press into knowing me for yourself. I am worthy of your fear. I am a jealous God. It's when you repent, when my Son's blood has completely covered you and washed you clean, that I turn my hot anger from you. This I promise to you. My children fear me and through their healthy fear, understand my grace for them. It is all because I love you."
It's ingrained in us from the time of childhood that fear is bad. The time that you woke up with a racing heart from a nightmare or maybe when a sibling jumped out and scared you. But the truth is this: fear of the Lord brings wisdom.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!" Psalm 111:10
I just believe it's time that we don't skip past the heavy stuff to something that feels a little more palatable to us. The Lord is a gracious and loving God, but He is worthy of our fear. Our real fear.
Children should have a healthy fear of getting in trouble by their earthly Father. The Lord has placed these men as head of the house and if a child does wrong it is okay that they are scared of the consequence that comes from disappointing their father. That doesn't mean they don't still feel extreme love and grace come flowing from their father's heart. Being intimate and having a relationship with your earthly father should hold a level of fear that we don't necessarily have with other people. What a beautiful picture of what it means to have a relationship with the Lord.
Our heavenly Father is awesome. He spoke the earth into creation. He covered the earth in rain. He is a consuming fire. When we understand and actually start to feel fear of Him we have revelation on how mighty His love and forgiveness is.
The God who brought the rain is the same God we worship now. He loves you more than you will ever be able to comprehend. My question is simply this:
Do we, do I, fear Him in the way that He so deserves--in the way that He is so worthy of?
