Hebrews 10:31 “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
My friend Mark Buchanan has written a book entitled ‘Your God is Too Safe’. He insists that God is not at all safe, but dangerous: “And yet there is something far more fearful and dangerous than to fall into His hands: to not fall into His hands.”
Historically, the growth of the cult of Mary came into being as a reaction against how God was perceived as too angry and cruel, like an aggressive domineering Father. So the masses needed a more gentle, tender, and motherly influence to shelter them and intervene on their behalf. Contrasting this Catholic tendency, Buchanan continues: “In Protestantism, I think we’ve simply substituted the safe god. But the biting irony is this: neither the safe god nor the tyrant god are the real God. The God who truly is, who seeks you and me, who desires our holiness, is far more loving and comforting than the safe god. And the true God is far more fierce and fearsome than the bullying and petulant god of our imaginations. But His anger is not irritability: it is the distillation of His justice, His hatred of evil. It is what we would want, even demand, from a good God.
Having given the Israelites the Ten Commandments on God’s behalf, Moses said to them: “Do not be afraid… so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning” (Exodus 20v20). As Tozer remarked, we take refuge from God in God. Such a God inspires awe and wonder in us, and only a God we fear and yet do not need to be afraid of can set our hearts ablaze for him.
Familiarity can breed contempt, or at the very least complacency. Spend some time today thinking about this dangerous, fearful, awesome God whom you can call Father.
God Almighty, I take refuge from you in you today. Rid me of any notions that you are safe, and use me for your glory. Amen!
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