The Fear of the LORD

I am currently listening to Passion Hymns...Charlie Hall has a great rendition of How Great Thou Art! "When Christ shall come...with shouts of acclamation...and take me home... what joy shall fill my heart..then I shall bow... in humble adoriation...and there proclaim...MY GOD HOW GREAT YOU ARE!" I can't wait for Christ's return!!!!
Today, I read Leviticus 10 and here's what it says:

Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over it. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him a different kind of fire than he commanded. So fire blazed forth from the Lord's presence and burned them up, and they died there before the LORD.

Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD meant what he said, 'I will show myself holy among those who are near me. I will be glorified before all people.'" And Aaron was silent.

For a while now I have been wrestling with this phrase...the fear of the Lord. At one time in my life, I would have taken this as a negative way of viewing God, but as I have read more and more, it is a phrase of reverence. Throughout this passage, I wondered if Nadab and Abihu thought that God was just joking when he was so specific when he told how to go about the sacrifices. They had a different kind of fire than he commanded it says. Honestly, I probably would have overlooked something like that and Nadab and Abihu probably thought--let's be creative and do something different--their "creativity" became disobedience.

What happened to Nadab and Abihu?...they were consumed with fire and they died before the LORD. This passage is a BIG reminder that God means what he says and even the smallest things in which we think we can get by with....matters to God.

What would have happened if God overlooked their disobedience? They would have taken more freedom in the way to do the sacrifice.

Oh, how I have erred in many and countless ways in the small things that I think God would overlook! This passage today gives me an incredible look at what it means to fear God. Obedience is key in the small things.....my delight should be in pleasing God, not in others.

Have we as a church overlooked this fear of the LORD? I like what Ray Comfort says in his book, Revival's Golden Key: "The happiness gospel has the laborers tied up in the function of being counselors and propping people up, when these problem people don't need counsel or prop up. They need repentance." I personally believe in churches we are missing this crucial aspect of fearing the Lord. We fear people more than God. We fear their response rather than God's judgement. We fear heaven more than we fear hell!

I say all of this to say that I am as guilty as anyone else....I wonder how many times, because I have been in the shoes of Nadab and Abihu, God would strike me down.

Can you imagine what was going through the mind of Aaron? It just says that he was silent. Through that word silent, I see the fear of the LORD in that word. Aaron finally knew what it meant that God is holy(unfortunately he had to learn it through this way).

If I(we) were to take this and run with it--this aspect of God being holy and fearing God, I believe I(we) would see incredible revival---I pray that for myself, family, and for you--that we would all fear God, revere Him, and be in AWE of Him. Father, forgive me for my lack of reverence! Show me your holiness!