The
words ‘delight’ and ‘fear’ in the same sentence can be confusing if you do not
understand the nature of God’s word and the fact that it has been translated
from another language. When you are confused by a word or words in scripture,
it is always good to do a little research. I just google ‘definition of (word)
in the bible’ and will start searching and reading what I can find and ask God
to lead me to understanding. Delight has two different meanings in the Old
Testament and another different meaning in the New Testament. Since I am
studying from Isaiah, I am looking at the Old Testament meanings. Here is what
I found:
The Old Testament. Two of
the most common Hebrew terms for delight are hepes [,pej], "to bend towards, to be
inclined towards [an object or person], " and rasa [h'x'r], "to delight or take
pleasure in."
The next word I looked at
was actually the phrase “fear of the Lord”. I already understand that it is not
the kind of shaking in your boots, going to pee my pants kind of fear of something
frightening but a healthy respect for the power, wisdom, will and awesomeness
of God. It was interesting to read a 2 minute article on this topic and confirm
my understanding is on point. Read that article here: http://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/throughout-bible-we-are-told-fear-god-what-does-me/
The Bible is a complex
compilation of God’s word and took hundreds of years to get to the point where
we have it today. So always take into consideration that a word or phrase that
isn’t familiar or you just don’t get, is probably because of this and God wants
you to just dig a little deeper and ask for help in understanding.
Isaiah 11:3 …and he will delight in the fear of the
Lord.
