Job 13:11

Will not His majesty terrify you?

   Will His fearsomeness not fall upon you?

 

I read an article where 23 athletes from one particular country were found to have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, and the country’s leadership and some sport ‘authority’ failed to notify everyone; and then let them participate in the 2021 Olympics anyway. In a world where some countries pull talented kids from their parents at an early edge to train and dominate sports, it’s hard to believe they would also cheat and lie about it afterwards. I jest of course. I assumed ‘they’ cheated the whole time and had some method to get clean right before testing.

‘Majesty’ was also ‘splendor’, ‘excellence’, ‘excellency’, ‘threat’, ‘looming’, and ‘terror’. Hard to pick terror, but only one Jewish source (and it was the weird one) had anything positive. ‘Terrify’ was also, ‘panic’, ‘affright’, and ‘make you afraid’.

‘Fearsomeness’ was ‘awe’, ‘fear’, and ‘dread of’. Dread of seems good, but fearsomeness was just too bold not to pick. ‘Fall upon’ was also ‘seize’.

As a structural engineer who mainly designs steel structures, the dread of using steel from this country was always a thing. It’s not that ‘they’ could not produce a piece of paper saying everything was ok. It was that I wouldn’t believe it unless someone else did the testing. ‘They’ representing some undefined group of evil, faceless minions doing someone higher up’s bidding. Even BP did not allow steel from that country to be used on a project being built in that country from what I overheard once.

Not to bash this country. After all they might put an arrest warrant out for me for speaking bad against their government. That is of course hearsay, I think. The concept here is what do you fear. If you believe in a God who can create the universe, you ought to understand how powerful He is and be afraid of being on His bad side. If you are not in awe of God, you probably do not believe in Him. I believe in this country, and I also fear them as a country because by all reports they do not believe in nor fear God. I have met some great people from this country and I know some are Christians, but some I met are what I would call brainwashed that their government is akin to a benevolent god.

Another article I read dealt with antisemitism at Columbia University. It turns out some Palestinians hate Jews and are sometimes willing to say bad things about them that are out of line even in this free country of America in which they get to spend time. I think people should be able to hate other people. I do not think they should be able to act on this hatred here in America or anywhere else. I do not think it is acceptable for the leaders in Iran to constantly state a desire to wipe Israel and the Jews off the face of the earth. Hitler has been demonized for acting on that belief, but ‘we’ let these Iranians and others get away with planning to doing so.

Note that my fear of the this particular country theoretical. I have no desire to fight them over any of these matters. I buy stuff from there all the time and sometimes even when I have a choice. I have enough of my own problems. My fear of God is real. I want to be on His good side. But not because I am afraid. My fear is reverence for how Majestic God is. I am amazed at what He has done and what He has done for me. His awesomeness has fallen upon me and I try to act accordingly.

Written 4/22/24, Posted 7/27/24, Job 296