It can come as quite a shock to see the God who is love described as “the Fear.” But in Genesis, when briefly listing some divine titles, Jacob speaks to Laban of “the God of my Father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac” (Gen. 31:42; see also v. 53). This startling title speaks of the profound impression left upon Jacob by his father’s faith. Evidently, Jacob had been taught that the Lord God is so intrinsically “fearful” by nature and identity that he can be known simply as “the Fear.” (And in Ps. 19, among the various descriptions of the word of God—the “law of the Lord,” “the
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