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March 07, 2004

Charm is Deceitful

Charm is deceitful
Beauty is vain
But a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised
A woman who fears the Lord

In a world where we see with our eyes
I pray for eyes that see the heart
'Cause flesh is unfaithful
And is of no gain
But a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised
A woman who fears the Lord

And I know that when He sees me
It won't be beauty that He longs to hold
It'll be the love that He finds inside my heart

'Cause charm is deceitful
Beauty is vain
But a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised
A woman who fears
Yes a woman who fears
A woman who fears the Lord

I've had this Kim Hill/Wes King song taken from Proverbs 31:28:31 in my head most of the week, as we've been gearing up for Women's Day. Cultural concepts related to who women are and ought to be are vary greatly worldwide. I've really struggled to understand what are simply my American Protestant opinions; the truly Biblical essentials are summed up with "a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."

Posted by TulipGirl  |  01:37 AM|  TrackBack (0)  |   Words

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"Fear the Lord"? That's like fearing my best friend or mother.

The Perfect Deity has no needs or requirements for us to follow. He/She lacks nothing, wants for nothing. God is Life and Love. There is nothing to fear.

Posted by: Mark at March 13, 2004 12:47 PM

I like how you compare God to "my best friend or mother." In the Bible, God reveals Himself using imagery of relationships. The ones I see primarily are:

* Our Creator, we His creation
* God the Father, we His adopted sons
* Christ the Bridegroom, we the Church His bride

Others I see, though less emphasized, include:
* King of Kings, Our Divine Sovereign
* Many mothering images, though not communicated with the same directness as God the Father
* Christ, our Brother, our Friend

Now in these relationships are expressed many nuances of how we interact. And I do see in the Bible, the appropriateness of "fear"--especially when we look at the original languages.

While I do think the English translations in general accurately represent the original manuscripts, whenever there is translation, some of the nuance and connotations are lost. For example, I think John 3:16 reads closer to the meaning of the original text in Russian, than in English! Not that "For God so loved the world. . ." is inaccurate, but it does. . . lack. . . some of the feel that I get from the Russian.

In the same way, I hear you reading "fear" with very negative, punishment, rejection sort of connotations.

Looking at the Hebrew language resources through Strongs Concordance and going back to the root word, I read a different sort of connotation:

"Dictionary and Word Search for 'yare' (Strong's 03372) ' " . Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2002. 14 Mar 2004.

1) to fear, revere, be afraid

a) (Qal)
1) to fear, be afraid
2) to stand in awe of, be awed
3) to fear, reverence, honour, respect

b) (Niphal)
1) to be fearful, be dreadful, be feared
2) to cause astonishment and awe, be held in awe
3) to inspire reverence or godly fear or awe

c) (Piel) to make afraid, terrify

2) (TWOT) to shoot, pour

I see a lot of these meanings "fitting" into the relationships that God uses to communicate Himself to us. Honour and respect both would be included in the mother/child, friend/friend relationships you mentioned. To cause astonishment and awe--well that fits when I am amazed at the creation and the Creator. Reverance, godly fear, awe--those are appropriate when relating to God as Sovereign King.

I agree, God is Light and Love--but that doesn't negate these aspects of "fear" in our relationship with Him.

Btw, glad you stopped by. *grin* I enjoyed visiting your blog--I see we share a lot of similar political opinions.

Blessings,
Alexandra

Posted by: TulipGirl at March 13, 2004 06:16 PM