Confusing fear and reverence, some Christians think God wants us to feel afraid of him. They might assume that the angel’s call to Moses was designed to teach him the fear of the Lord. But I would suggest that it was designed to protect Moses from danger—the danger of a presumptuous approach to the divine that failed to recognize God’s holiness. God didn’t want Moses to stay away. Indeed he wanted Moses to approach him, because he wanted to share his heart with him. But he wanted Moses to approach him as the Holy Other.
