Matthew 8:28 - 9:17 The Fear of God Is Consternation, Not Admiration.

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Proverbs 9:10 tells us “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.” It is vogue today to redefine the fear of God as respect or admiration. Many people refuse to believe the fear of God is an unpleasant emotion in any way.

However, the Hebrew and Greek words that are translated fear clearly mean something negative. True fear of God involves terror, fright, horror, trepidation, and consternation.

The negative emotion of fear is something we should experience when we truly grasp the power and authority of God. Matthew 8 and 9 contain some examples of people being face to face with the power of Jesus. Their reaction helps illustrate the correct understanding of the fear of God.

After Jesus finished His sermon on the mountain, He descended from the mountain and large crowds followed Him. He healed a leper.

Then He entered Capernaum and healed the centurion’s servant as well as Peter’s mother-in-law. He also cast out many demons. When Jesus saw the crowd, He and His disciples got into a boat to go to the other side of the sea. A storm arose while Jesus was sleeping on the boat, but when He was awakened He calmed the wind and the seas.

In today’s passage we will read about an event which took place in the region of the Gadarenes, which was on the southeast side of the sea, as well as what happened when Jesus returned to Capernaum.

Matt. 8:28 ¶ And when He came to the other side, into the region of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way.

The two men were very violent. They would have been a menace for the local people.

Matt. 8:29 And behold, they cried out, saying, “What do we have to do with You, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

Notice the phrases “Son of God” and “before the time”. The demons knew Jesus is the Son of God. They also understood there is a designated time for demons to be tormented. They asked Jesus if He came to torment them before the time appointed for their torment. The demons knew their final destiny.

Matt. 8:30 Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a distance from them.

Matt. 8:31 And the demons began to plead with Him, saying, “If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.”

The demons understood they were at the mercy of Jesus.

Matt. 8:32 And He said to them, “Go!” And coming out, they went into the swine; and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters.

Matt. 8:33 Now the herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs.

Why did the herdsmen run away? What would you do? Would you stay near someone with that kind of power?

Matt. 8:34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their region.

Even though Jesus had removed a local menace, the people who benefitted from the removal of the demons asked Jesus to leave. Why were they so ungrateful?

Perhaps they were afraid. The Gadarenes were afraid of walking near the demon-possessed men because they were a menace the Gadarenes could not control. Then Jesus came along and forced the demons into the swine. If the Gadarenes could not control the demons, they certainly could not control Jesus, so they were even more frightened and asked Him to leave.

Matt. 9:1 ¶ And getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to His own city.

According to Matthew 4:13, His own city was Capernaum.

Matt. 9:2 ¶ And behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”

Matt. 9:3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man blasphemes.”

Matt. 9:4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?

Matt. 9:5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

Matt. 9:6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.”

Matt. 9:7 And he got up and went home.

This explains why Jesus did miracles. The purpose behind healing people and all the miracles Jesus did was to prove that He was God. Anyone can claim to be God. Jesus not only claimed it, He proved it.

Matt. 9:8 But when the crowds saw this, they were afraid, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Why were the crowds afraid? It was because Jesus was demonstrating power that no other man had. If Jesus had the power to heal a paralytic, then the people rightly would have assumed that Jesus had the power to cripple any of them or kill any of them. The people understood they were face to face with a power that all of them combined could not control. That caused a negative emotion.

Matt. 9:9 ¶ And as Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax office; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he stood up and followed Him.

Matt. 9:10 ¶ Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples.

Matt. 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?”

The Mosaic Law put a premium on being clean. The Pharisees thought that tax collectors and sinners were unclean; therefore, they believed Jesus was making Himself unclean by eating with them.

Matt. 9:12 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

If the Pharisees were indeed as righteous as they thought they were, they should have understood that the tax collectors and sinners needed the message of Jesus more than anyone.

Matt. 9:13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The Pharisees prided themselves on observing the Mosaic Law down to the most minute detail. However, in the process of being religious, they ignored the needs of the general population. Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 to teach the Pharisees that compassion is more important than sacrifice.

Matt. 9:14 ¶ Then the disciples of John came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

At that time, the Pharisees determined the standards of piety. Fasting was very important to the Pharisees; therefore, the disciples of John practiced fasting.

Matt. 9:15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the attendants of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

People do not mourn when their loved ones are still alive. They mourn after death. Jesus was referring to Himself when He mentioned a bridegroom. It would not be normal for the disciples of Jesus to mourn while Jesus was still with them.

Matt. 9:16 But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results.

Matt. 9:17 Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

The disciples of John were following the standards of the Pharisees which was the old garment or the old wineskins. That would have involved fasting. However, Jesus was bringing something new. With the advent of Jesus, the Pharisees were not the correct arbiters of piety, Jesus was. The disciples of Jesus did not fast because Jesus was still with them and was not requiring fasting.

Many people refuse to believe the fear of God is an unpleasant emotion. However, the Hebrew and Greek words that are translated fear clearly mean something like terror, fright, horror, trepidation, and consternation.

When Jesus cast the demons into the swine, the local people were frightened because they understood Jesus had power they could not control. When the crowds watched Jesus heal the paralytic, they experienced a negative emotion because they understood Jesus had authority that comes only from God.

The fear of God is not merely respect or admiration. God is so powerful that all of humanity combined cannot begin to control God. The proper response to that is to experience the negative emotion of fear.

“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”