Alan Schwartz is a Messianic Jew and Project Manager for the Entertainment Industry. He lives in LA and has detailed his perspective on this month's question is below: .
"Respect God"
By: Alan Schwartz
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” – Proverbs 9:10
The term “fear of God” or “fear the Lord” appears many times throughout the Old and New Testament. It is used mostly as a pre-emptive warning, to keep us out of trouble. The Hebrew word for fear in the above verse is yirot. This word comes from the same root word that respect and awe come from. The Grand Canyon is awesome, a great white shark, a tornado, or hurricane is awesome. They are fearful also because of the power that they possess. During our childhood we may have heard the expression “wait ‘til your father gets home”. This may be the view of authority or discipline we have carried into our adult life. Our earliest encounter with authority is usually our parents. Statistically many children get off to a bad start with either no authority figure to respect or an authority figure that is not respectable at all, possibly to the point of blame, fault, condemnation, and punishment. The other context for this term is to explain the lawless and rebellious that ignore God’s warnings. Any sane parent would warn their children against carelessly running into the street, or from touching a hot stove. This, in most cases, is done out of love and for the welfare of a child and to display greater knowledge and trust of the instruction of a worthy parent. Unheeded cautions may even come with a rebuke, an “attention getter” to serve as a remembrance, for the next time. Sadly the current standard in this country is against the disciplining of our children. Nonetheless, God gave us free will, God also has a “permissive will” when he allows us to exercise our free will, sometimes we use it for things we are cautioned against. Let’s take a look at the Bible, which is where we find all we need to know about God and His relationship with us. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us,
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
The fall of man in Genesis chapter 3 is a perfect example of disobedience. Have you noticed you don’t have to teach a child to lie? Anyone who has caught a little one with his hand in the cookie jar before dinner time understands this. God could have made us perfect, obedient, loving Him without question. What good is that? I want my children to love me by choice, not because I command it. God wants our love and obedience as well, and by our choice. He wants us to come to Him. God seeks our fellowship, obedience, and love.
There have been several infractions that have resulted in death. God gave specific instructions and warnings to Lot through His angel in Genesis 19.
They were instructed not to look back on the destruction he was going to rain on the rebellious Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife disobeys the instruction in verse 26 and she is turned to a pillar of salt. Two of Aaron’s sons are struck down in Leviticus 10. They attempted to bring an unholy fire into the Tabernacle where God would appear to accept sacrifices. God did not ask them to do this and nothing unholy can be near God. As we read further into the story Aaron’s sons had been drinking wine and made a fatal error in judgment. They were Levite priests, and not rookies either, they should have known better. God tells Moses, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored”. One other account is when Uzzah tries to keep the Ark of the Covenant from sliding off a wagon in 2 Samuel chapter 6. Uzzah reaches out to steady the Ark and is struck dead. The Ark was kept in the house of Uzzah’s father and perhaps Uzzah was a little too familiar and comfortable with it. Another illustration is under toned in this story. We can’t help God, nor should we try. Also, the Ark was not being carried as it was instructed to be, it was on a wagon instead of being carried by Levite priests. Numbers chapter 3 and 4 is where we are told that only the Levite priests are to bear the burden of the “Holy things” lest anyone should die. Uzzah was not a Levite priest. 
Why do most automobile drivers wear seatbelts? Because it’s the law or heeding this rule may save their life? These events occur early in the life of the Israelites as God’s children and authority may have been necessary to establish. The Israelites routinely backslid into idolatry and were accustomed to being slaves worshipping the false gods of Egypt. Although this can possibly portray God as unforgiving, holding the importance of rules over the love of His children, God is awesome and Holy and should be respected and feared. It’s healthy. But these incidents aside, there is plenty of Scripture that reflects God graciousness, patience, and love. His greatest act of love for unruly mankind was in the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, our Messiah. If we seek His sacrifice for payment of our wrong doings we will be cleansed from sin and be suitable to spend eternity in God’s presence. Remember the lesson we learned from Aaron’s sons, we can’t be near God in an unholy condition and sin is unholy.
The book of Romans chapter 13 tells us “For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended”. This standard makes sense regardless of anyone’s spiritual beliefs. The two main reasons most drivers obey traffic signals or speed limits is for safety and fear of the law. In my opinion it is a sad commentary that most obey civil law but have little regard for what God recommends. I would say if we are obedient we should have no fear of God, but the word obedient gives it a tone of having to abide by some standard we don’t agree with. But whether we love a parent and/or God we should desire to abide by their rules. The book of 1 John chapter 4 tells us “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love”. But what of those who do not choose to receive Jesus, God’s gift of redemption? This is what God tells us in Ezekiel 18,
“Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?”
We are inundated with movies, television shows, and commercials wherein dads, our Earthly authority figures, are portrayed as bumbling and incompetent, unable to make a sandwich without the assistance of his wife or child. However, God has sadly received an unfair persona with an implication similar to a vulture on a branch waiting to swoop down in judgment on some unsuspecting victim.
There is a general disrespect for God partly due to irreverent media portrayals which flaunt parodies of Him and Jesus. Well, there is that disobedience thing again. My dad took me and my three brothers for a tour of the local police station jail. Fear of what we saw kept us all from having a police record. Respect for God, or fear of God, whichever phrase you choose, is good. God desires that all be redeemed, by our own choosing, but in being a just God there will be the penalty for rejecting the Jesus and not heeding God’s instruction. He is patient but there is a limit to it. This life has an expiration date. No one one’s when that will be. Don’t wait. The next world has a gate, and a Gatekeeper who has a Book with the “guest list”. Make sure you are in that Book, eternity is long time.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, - Hebrews 9:27
It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. – Hebrews 10:31
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