“And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.” (Gen. 20:11)
God has breathed the word “fear” into His written word 509 times. The authors of the text recorded “Fear of the Lord” 30 times, while the term “Fear of God” was recorded eight times. There are many words used in the bible to define for the word fear. “The most common of these (giving the noun forms) are Heb. yir’â, ‘reverence’; Heb. paḥaḏ, dread’, ‘fear’; Gk. phobos, ‘fear’, ‘terror’.”
The New Bible Dictionary contributes the word fear as Holy fear. “To fear God is to regard God with reverent awe.” Genesis 20:11 is representative of this usage of the word fear. Abraham premeditated that he would not be safe in the land of Gerar, which was located between Kadesh and Shur. His rational was that the people of that land knew not the Living God of the Hebrews; therefore, they had no reverence for Him. Without reverence for God, the people of those lands certainly would have scarcely deliberated the moral implications of such nefarious acts of murder, rape, and pillaging. These heinous acts would have been merely customary behavior. We can also purpose that because the people of the land did not reverence Jehovah, they also did not have fear of His mighty hand of judgment. This type of fear would be best interpreted as fright or terror.
Fear, that is terror or slavish fear , is also found in Second Chronicles 20:29. Which reads, “And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that the LORD fought against the enemies of Israel”. This fear is a conjoint characteristic of unconverted people who live according to heathenism, and annalistic philosophies...
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... even those who fall prostrate before Him, scripture tells us “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (Second Peter 3:9)
“In the Bible, however, fear is perhaps more often than in popular culture regarded not as pure emotion but as wise behavior.” Those who fear God and seek wisdom early shall find it. Those who fear the Lord shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. They who fear God shall walk with Him and shall not follow the paths of the unrighteous. God shall provide for all needs to those who fear Him. Fear of the Lord will bring to us wisdom and knowledge as we grow spiritually into the image of Christ. Our desire shall be for the things of God and His righteousness and flesh shall be crucified.
The Dangers of Fear Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worst attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point where they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous examples used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were.
When people are scared, they tend to follow a routine, or pattern. In "Night" this is shown when a prisoner tries to steal soup during an air raid. Elie states "Hundreds of eyes were looking at them, shining with desire. Two lambs with hundreds of wolves lying in wait for them. Two lambs without a shepherd, free for the taking. But who would dare? Fear was greater than hunger." (Wiesel 59) This shows the way that fear can cause conformity in a society because the prisoners were too scared to go out and even attempt to try and get some food. They were
The ritual of the sotah from the book of Numbers is a fascinating passage to read in the Hebrew Bible. For one thing, this ritual deals with the idea of a man being able to bring his wife to trial, even if he has no evidence against her. While such an instance might be seen as negative treatment of women, others might explain it as the Israelites’ constant concern over the idea of impurity. Another interesting aspect of the sotah rite is that it is the only example of an ordeal similar to those practiced in other cultures of the Ancient Near East. While other ordeals are told mostly in story form, Num. 5:11-31 is the only instance in which the actual process of an ordeal is laid out point by point. Finally, the ritual merits attention due to its continued practice even after the Temple was destroyed, as is depicted in the Talmud. These reasons and more are evidence as to why this small 20 verse passage has been subject to such scrutiny and study over the course of the years.
Fear has the power to control, twist and break the ways of the human mind. The body, and mind are tricked and we find ourselves confused and fighting to piece together a troubling puzzle of straying emotion. Franklin D. Roosevelt stated, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, projecting that fear knows no bounds and is a great power. Fear and power go hand in hand, without fear there is no power, a teacher has no power over a student if the student is not afraid of the consequences of stepping out of line. This is shown in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The boys on the island experience fear in many different forms and their basic human instincts are swayed to do things they would not do otherwise.
Fear motivates many people to act upon matters, right or wrong. This emotion has been important in many events in both works of literature, and in the real world. It has forced military geniuses into retreat, and influenced them to plan another method of attack. Fear can be both a positive and a negative acting force in one’s life, a quality that can motivate one to success as well as to downfall.
"A variety of terms are used to describe fear. The Bible uses words like fear, afraid, terror, dread, anxious, tremble, shake, and quake over 850 times to portray this core human emotion. Healthcare professionals use terms like fear, anxiety, panic attack, and phobia to illuminate the spectrum of our fears." (2)
... “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. The fear of the Lord will change one’s distorted thinking into God’s perspective. Psalms 31:19 (ESV) says that the Lord encamps around those who fear him. When we are crippled by fear we can be comforted by the presence of the Lord because we are to fear him and him alone. As one who fear the Lord, they can take comfort and rest in knowing that the one who fears the Lord has a secure fortress (Psalm 14:26, ESV).
To reiterate, fear links to constant fear of conformity, secretive behavior, and obsession with religious teachings that protect the conservative views of the society of Waknuk. What I have learned in The Chrysalids by John Wyndham is that fears affect perception, your perception changes according to your psychological state and it affects your behavior as well. People reflect regarding their fears all the time and as they feel that they will come upon them, they start becoming apprehensive. When an individual is afraid of something, they may experience unusual judgment that they would have never made before which all the main events that occur in The Chrysalids relate. The main thing I learned was the two powerful emotions that result our actions is fear and love.
What fear is. Fear is the reply to when someone is intimidated by something that 's immediately going to harm their well-being. For example, a dog barking at a person and chasing them down the street. That person would feel dread, which would then give them the desire to protect themselves. In a fear situation, that desire turns into the fight or flight response. We either fight off the danger or we run and hide from it (Lamia). This response is considered a fear response because of the quickness of the reaction time; it happens immediately after the danger is sensed.
The word fear makes my mind draw a blank. I am trying to make sense of it but I can not, at least not for everyone. It is a word that is left up to a person’s digression. It almost seems unfair to have a clear cookie-cutter definition of what it is. The word is too broad to be sectioned off by one definition.
In the words of Bertrand Russell, “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Fear causes many problems in our lives. Fear influences many of a person’s actions and decisions. However, people usually regret the decisions or actions they made out of fear. Also, these actions and decisions can cause problems for those people in their future. Fear is a harmful emotion, for it clouds people’s judgement, disables them from taking action, and causes them to make decisions that they will regret later.
...o I have created…’” (Gen. Ch 6, line 12) God tells this to Noah, explaining that he will end the lives of all in order to cleanse the land. The Hebrew belief that their god had the power to end all forced the people to be fearful and respect their covenant with the lord.
President Roosevelt once observed, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Nevertheless, people need fear, people love fear and people fear fear for multiple reasons. It fuels society and its decisions in ways that people do not realize. In fact, fear is one of the strongest and most influential emotions people experience. One’s perspective of fear might be vastly different from another, since it provides a unique experience for each human being. Nonetheless, fear, the emotion of darkness, is a weapon that cannot only be used against people by others, but be an obstacle one faces within one’s self.
Fear was something Armand did not know because he always had domination over everything around him. It was on the last part of the story that he discovered a letter from his mother to his father that revealed that it was indeed he who was black. God did enact the final revenge with the appearance of the letter.
Death it is something we all must face at one point in our lives or another. It is either a death of a loved one, friend or co-worker. Sometimes it’s the devastation from a natural disaster. No matter what makes us face the idea of death it is how we handle this realization that truly matters. When Gilgamesh is faced with the horrendous loss of his dear friend and comrade Enkidu he begins to fear death. In Gilgamesh’s youth he is proud without fear of death, it is not until he watches his friend die that his own mortality becomes a fear.