Near the middle of the movie The Great Outdoors two brothers-in-law on vacation sit on the front porch of their mountain cabin looking out over a lake and the forest beyond. [Bob] (played by John Candy) sees a beautiful forest draped in a sunset that takes his breath away. He says he could just sit on that porch and drink in the beauty of the lake forever. [Tom] (played by Dan Ackroyd) sees a vast region of untapped resources—the potential for a hotel, a logging enterprise, and perhaps a mining company. He can not wait to begin to exploit the resources of the lake for his own gain. [Bob] is in awe of the lake, the forest, the whole scene; he sees something bigger than himself, something that feeds his soul. [Tom] just sees something he can control and use—water, wood and minerals that could only feed his pocketbook.
This simple conversation between two imaginary characters illustrates the progression of the church's attitude towards God. Like [Bob], the early church was in awe of God, overcome by the beauty of His creation and the power of His works. God inspired a sense of fear and wonder that permeated the church and the attitudes of believers. Believers spent time on their knees or even on their face before the Lord. The prayers of the early believers were more likely to praise God than to ask God for help. But too much of today's church is like [Tom], looking at God as a resource to exploit. It is not enough to just be in His presence; many are only satisfied when God solves a problem or meets a need. God is seen more as a helpful friend than as a [powerful creator]. Our familiarity with God has led to expectations: He will "perform" for us if we are "good." As a result, many prayers are centered on asking and very few are devoted to praise. The respect and reverence toward God displayed by the early church is disappearing.
These are strong words and this is a harsh view of today's church, but I do not take this position as an outsider. I was like [Tom]—falling, without noticing it, into the trap of viewing God first as a resource and only second as a powerful creator. Only after a long and repeated study of the book of Job did I realize that my view of God was inadequate and distorted. Although I had learned about God and grown as a believer over the years, I needed to rediscover my own sense of awe and wonder. I needed to remind myself that no matter how much I studied the Word, no matter how much I learned about God, He still remained a mystery. This book is the result of that quest, which, by the way, is on-going. .
What is Awe?
The first step on this journey is to understand what awe is and why it is important in our relationship with God. Although you know it when you feel it, awe is beyond words. It is the feeling you get on a cool crisp evening when you sit quietly and watch the sun paint the sky as it sets. It is the feeling you get when you stand outside at night and gaze up at the stars. It is the feeling you get when you first fall in love, when your first child is born, when you first come to Christ. It is that sense of wonder that occurs when you face beauty and majesty beyond your comprehension. Coming from the depth of your soul, it is your response to the unexplainable. It is a curious mixture of conflicting emotions: You feel insignificant yet part of something great, fearful yet joyful, unsettled yet at peace.
I live in a part of the United States which is surrounded by natural beauty. The Pacific Northwest is blessed with abundant outdoor resources close to its cities. When I go camping or hiking I see the surroundings much like the Candy character. I especially enjoy lying out at night and starring up to the heavens. Without the interference of city lights, the sky is full of stars. I become immersed in the beauty and wonder of it all. Looking up at that vast expanse of pin point lights against a jet black background I realize that I am just a small spark of life on a little insignificant planet on the edge of a galaxy of millions of stars. Yet at the same time I feel like I am part of something so much larger. I am part of the family of God. I am of child of the God that created all that I see. That is awe.
Formally, awe is defined as a mixed feeling of reverence, fear and wonder caused by something majestic, sublime, or sacred. Proverbs 1:7 describes reverence of God as ". . . the beginning of knowledge and wisdom." What we know and what we understand about the world begins with a sense of the mystery of God. This book, then, is the first step on the path to those qualities: By rediscovering a sense of mystery about God, you lay the foundation for wisdom.
Why is Awe important?
We must approach God with awe because he commands us to do so. But awe is foundational in our relationship with God for other reasons, as well. It is at the core of our need for God, it is the first step in our search to truly know God—it is why we worship Him,. . But most of all, our sense of awe allows us to begin to realize the enormity of the gap between God and ourselves. Without awe, we are like the builders of the Tower of Babel, who felt they could build a physical structure tall enough to reach up to God. With awe, we acknowledge that the gap between God and us is so large that we can never bridge it. Our sense of awe makes us place God first in our lives.
Awe is a command
Awe is important because it is a command. All through the Word there are commands to acknowledge the mystery of God. In the Old Testament, believers are commanded to ". . . stand in awe of God." (Ecclesiastes 5:7). The writer of Hebrews in tells us to "... so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe." (Hebrews 12:28).
But perhaps the psalmist expressed it best "Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him."(Psalm 33:6). Not only does the psalmist highlight the command to be in awe of God, he also establishes the connection between fear and awe. Fear (it is important to note that this is not terror) is a part of the sense of awe - it indicates respect and reverence towards God. Romans 11:20 commands the believer to "... not be conceited, but fear . . ." Hebrews 4:1 warns us "Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to come short of it." Paul instructs believers to work out their salvation ". . . with fear and trembling." (Philippians 2:12). One of the few times the friends of Job get anything right as they try to help him in his suffering (as you will see later in this book), is when Bildad tells Job that "Dominion and awe belong to God; He establishes order in the heights of heaven." (Job 25:2).
It is strange that we should require a command from God to be in awe of Him when it should always be our natural response to God. Yet, it seems that the first step on the path to sin is minimizing God. Satan knew this when he challenged God's authority before Eve in the garden. If he could get Eve to lose some of her reverence for God, then he could get her to sin. Our awe stands as a barrier between us and sin, while lack of awe allows us to contemplate sin. It is so much easier to sin when we do not respect or fear God. His commands and expectations are easy to dismiss when we lose sight of His power and authority. The Psalmist wrote "Stand in awe (tremble), and do not sin . . ."(Psalm 4:4). Jeremiah describes the connection between awe and sin "Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of Me," declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty."(Jeremiah 12:9). Forsaking the Lord is a result of a lack of awe. No wonder it is a command, without awe we are lost. We should always fear the Lord and stand in awe of Him.
Awe is the basis of worship
Many believers think worship is just singing hymns. After all, the substance of the worship service is almost always music. However, although music helps us focus on God, tap into our inner most feelings, and express ourselves, it is not worship. It means nothing if our heart is not in the right place. True worship flows from a sense of wonder and reverence. The writer of Hebrews knew this when he made the connection between reverence and worship "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe . . ." (Hebrews 12:28)
Worship flows out of our sense of wonder and awe. It is the mystery of God that inspires our worship. After all, how can we worship something if it is fully understood? It is a hallmark of the progress of civilization that man moves from worshipping the mysterious to understanding what was once mysterious to controlling the mysterious. For example, man once worshipped the moon but now we understand that it is just a large satellite, we can predict its path, walk on its surface, and determine its impact on our weather. The awe that once led to the practice of worshipping the moon has been replaced by a sense of understanding. Now when we look at the moon any sense of wonder it generates is not associated with the moon itself but is the result of a sense of mystery about the creative structure of the universe of which the moon is just a part. We no longer worship the moon; we just greatly appreciate its beauty.
The point is, that we only really worship that which inspires awe and wonder. It is those mysterious aspects of God that bring us to worship Him. His power to create an entire universe, His grace to give up His Son for us, His desire to be in a relationship with us – these are all mysteries. We worship Him because we cannot understand how or why He works the way He does.
The intensity of our worship is directly related to the strength of our sense of reverence. We worship God precisely because He is greater, more powerful, more mysterious, and more frightening that anything we can imagine. And the more we can understand that the more we can bring to our worship of God.
To put this in perspective, consider two major activities of the church. They are to provide a community to worship God and a place to learn about God. Awe plays a role in both. The goal of teaching is to inspire us to worship and the result of worship is that we are encouraged to learn more about God. In this light, worship becomes the outward expression of our awe and teaching is the inward development of our awe. The more we learn about God, the more mysterious and wondrous He becomes and the more we are driven to worship Him. The more we worship Him, the more we are driven to learn about Him. The believer's life should be one of awe, one of learning and one of worship.
Awe reminds of the gap between God and us
Not many have had the privilege of seeing God, but the few who have all reported being overcome with awe. Isaiah, overcome by the majesty of God, tells of his encounter "Then I said, 'Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the Lord of hosts." (Isaiah 6:5). Isaiah was overcome by the majesty of God. Ezekiel's experience was much the same "...Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face . . ." (Ezekiel 1:28). The Apostle John describes his reaction when he was confronted by the Lord "When I saw Him, I fell at his feet as though dead." (Revelation 1:17) These reactions to seeing God are the result of finally realizing in no uncertain terms just how wide the gap is between God and humankind.
When Israel demanded a king God restored their awe through a demonstration of His power. As recorded in 1 Samuel 12:18 "Then Samuel called upon the LORD, and that same day the LORD sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the LORD and of Samuel." Once the people of Israel were in awe of God, they realized, just as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John, that they were nothing before the Lord. They expressed their fear"The people all said to Samuel, 'Pray to the LORD your God for your servants so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.'" (1 Samuel 12:19)
Seeing God, facing His holiness, His power and authority is a terrifying experience. The awe that seeing God inspires is more than what we feel when we look up into the night sky and soak in the beauty of His creation. Seeing God makes us realize that we are less than insignificant – we are "unclean" and deserving of death. Seeing God makes us realize that the width of the gap between God and us is overwhelming and uncrossable. But while the gap between God and us may inspire the fear component of awe, God's response to us when we fall on our face before Him should inspire joy. Consider how God dealt with the fear of Isaiah. Isaiah knew his lips were unclean, so God responded with grace and love as reported in Isaiah 6:6-7: "Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs. And he touched my mouth with it and said, 'Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.'" Ezekiel's fear cause him to fall on his face before the Lord, so God's grace was to raise Ezekiel to his feet "Then He said to me, 'Son of man, stand on your feet that I may speak with you!' And as He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet . . ." (Ezekiel 2:1-2) This process of grace was repeated when the people of Israel regained their sense of awe after their demand for a king. God reassures them of His love in 1 Samuel 12:20 "Do not be afraid," Samuel replied. "You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart."
Man's first response to seeing God is fear and God's first response to man is loving grace. There in lies the great mystery that should inspire awe. Why does a Holy and Majestic God give us such grace? Paul put words to this mystery in Romans 3:23-24. In verse 23 he describes the gap between us and God as "... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." In verse 24 he describes how God responds to those who understand the gap as "...being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." Paul's words reflect the real experience of Isaiah and Ezekiel. God is so much greater than us and yet He reaches out across that vast gap to pull us to Him. That process alone should produce the full range of awe in us.
We don't have to actually see God to be in awe of Him. Just watching God at work in the world should be enough to expose His power and our weakness. God's work in our lives should inspire awe. Isaiah outlines this idea in Isaiah 29:23 "But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, they will sanctify My name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel." The prophet Malachi writes about the Works of God found in His covenant with man. Malachi 2:5 describes this covenant as something we should approach with awe: "My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence; so he revered Me, and stood in awe of My name."
Losing Awe
If awe is so important in the life of a believer, then why is it so easy to lose it? What is it about us that makes it hard to maintain a sense of wonder in God? Even more puzzling, why is it that the new believer seems to be filled with wonder while the mature believer does not seem to display the same level of awe? While there are a number of possible answers to these questions I think there are three main reasons why awe is lacking in today's church. The first is the influence of worldly knowledge which makes us think we are too sophisticated to need God. The second is a level of comfort in the mature believer which makes us too proud of our relationship with God. The third is a fear of God which drives us to find an alterative and safe subject for our awe.
Worldly Knowledge
One important source of awe towards God comes out of an appreciation of the wonder and mystery of creation. Like the John Candy character, we can look at a lake nestled in the woods and be moved by its beauty. God tells us in Romans that the evidence of His power is written into that scene. Our wonder at the beauty of the lake is really an awe of God. We lose our awe of God when we lose sight of the link between the beauty of nature and the creative mystery of God.
In part that link is broken because we have become more sophisticated and wise about the nature of the world God created for us. To the early church, the world was a mysterious and frightening place. Little was known about the forces of nature that shaped the storms, volcanoes, and earthquakes that possessed such great destructive power. Since God created the world and was in control of these forces of nature, that made Him even more mysterious and powerful to the early church. But as we have begun to understand the world, it has lost much of its mystery and God in turn has become less mysterious as well. His hands do not hold the universe together, gravity does. He does not heal the sick, modern medicine does. He no longer is the Creator; the theory of evolution explains our origins. Not only have we lost our awe of God, we have transferred it to ourselves. The wisdom of man has replaced God as an object for awe. Science can explain and maybe even control the forces that used to frighten us. As a result, even within the church we seem to hold a greater awe for science than for God.
Comfort with God
As the church has matured over the centuries, believers have experienced some real positive changes. God's Word is freely available to all. We have the benefit of looking back in history to see the fulfillment of prophecy. We have access to a wealth of godly teaching and guidance. But for all that we have gained, we have lost something equally (or perhaps more) important. We have lost our simplicity and with it our sense of wonder about God. Knowledge of God has replaced the mystery of God. This loss has distorted our concept of God. It is as if a boundary that used to keep us on the right track has disappeared and now we are "free" to roam about and form new views of God. Like the Ackroyd character in the Great Outdoors, it seems that God has become a useful resource to the church more than a savior. The pace of life has also increased so it seems that we rarely have the time to sit and contemplate the awesome beauty of God's creation. Unlike the John Candy character, we either don't have the time or just don't take the time to let God feed our soul with the wonder of His power. In fact an important difference between today's church and the early church may be that today we want to be fed with His power while the early church was fed simply by a sense of awe of His power.
Not only has the church as a whole lost its awe towards God, but individual believers seem to travel this path as well. Remember when you first accepted Christ. You were overwhelmed by a sense of wonder and joy. You were childlike in you feelings. Children live in a world very much different from that of adults. To them, everything is exciting, scaring, new, and mysterious. It is no wonder that Christ said that to come to Him we must first be like little children. We must have a childlike sense of wonder when we approach God. But eventually many believers lose that initial awe and, like the Dan Ackroyd character, begin to see God more as a resource than as a master.
It is important to understand that growing in our faith and in the knowledge of God is a primary task for the believer. However, as our knowledge grows we must never lose sight of the infinite nature of God. We must always remember that no matter how much we learn there is always more to learn for it is when we think we have mastered the subject of "God" that the mystery of God is minimized. Even Paul who through the gift of the Holy Spirit was given amazing insights into the nature of God realized that he had so much more to learn. He writes in Romans 11:33-34: " Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?" An important theme that will weave itself throughout this book is that in order to maintain our sense of awe we must never lose sight of the infinite nature of God.
Safety
Mark Buchanan writes about a "deep and culture wide theological sentiment" that I think suggests another reason why we tend to lose our awe of God. He calls it our desire to have a "safe" God and describes it as ". . . a God who provides but doesn't intrude, who protects but never demands, never judges, never meddles, We want a God who keeps His distance and doesn't crowd us." Yet, the result of this is a safe God that "inspires neither awe, nor worship, nor sacrifice."
Awe is not necessarily safe, it involves fear. It demands that we fall on our face before God and that is not a comfortable position. As a result, we tend to find other safer ways to experience awe in our lives – ways that do not involve fear. Perhaps this explains why celebrities are the target of so much of our awe. Just look at the reaction of a crowd to their favorite singer at a pop concert or the crowds that wait for hours outside the Academy Awards just so that they can get a glimpse of a movie star walking into the building. What a sad commentary on current values when we can be more in awe of another human being then of our own creator.
How do we find awe?
A sense of awe and wonder towards God is vital to our spiritual health and our relationship with Him. Yet, we have lost the full flavor of awe both as individuals and as a corporate church. Rather than accept the mystery of God we try to understand Him in ways that result in minimizing His glory. So what do we do about it? How do we return to our first love and recover our innocence? How do we rediscover that sense of mystery and reverence? The first step is to recognize that we have lost our complete sense of wonder. After all, no one starts looking for something until they realize that it is lost. The fact that you are reading this book should be evidence that you have made this first step or are at least interested in the state of your own awe in God.
Since awe is not an emotion that you can turn on or turn off at will, you can't find it simply by willing it into existence. You can't be told about it; you can't just read about it, you have to experience it. Awe must be developed through contact with the target of awe. A sense of wonder grows with experience. I could not tell you to be in awe of the beauty of a quiet mountain lake nestled within a forest of tall evergreens. You would have to see if for yourself in order to experience the beauty and peace of such a scene. You might ask yourself, then, why read this book? The answer is that this book will not generate a sense of awe in you rather its purpose is to encourage you to try to experience God in a new way. In order to accomplish this, there are several themes that will weave themselves into each chapter of this book. They include the difference between hearing God and seeing God; the nature of expectations of God; the role of suffering in the life of a believer; and the mysteries of creation. All of these should provide a framework around which you can build your own sense of awe.
Summary
What has happened to the respect, reverence, and awe that once were reserved for God alone? Where did it go and how can it be restored? These are the questions that this book will address. The goal of this book is to take you on a journey- a journey to rediscover a sense of awe about God. In a way, it is a return to your first love – that innocent childlike wonder at the beauty and majesty of God the Creator that you experienced when you first accepted Christ. This is not a unique journey. It is a journey that I am on. It is a journey that any believers have already taken. J.B. Phillips in his 1961 book "Your God is Too Small," described the modern search for awe in God:
The trouble with many people today is that they have not found a God big enough for modern needs. While their experience of life has grown in a score of directions, and their mental horizons have been expanded to the point of bewilderment by world events and by scientific discoveries, their ideas of God have remained largely static.
We want and need to find a God big enough for modern times.