The Fear That Builds a Fortress: A Generational Refuge Text: Proverbs 14:26
Introduction: The Age of Anxiety and the Flight from Fear
We live in an age that is drowning in fear, while simultaneously despising the only Fear that matters. Our culture is riddled with anxieties. We have anxiety about the economy, anxiety about the climate, anxiety about our health, and a thousand other boutique anxieties tailored to our modern sensibilities. The therapeutic solution offered by the world is to eliminate fear altogether. We are told to be fearless, to follow our hearts, to banish all trepidation. The goal is a padded room, a safe space, where nothing can possibly frighten us. But in running from every lesser fear, we have stumbled headlong into the arms of a much greater, and far more terrible, bondage to fear itself.
The world tells you that the path to security is to remove all threats. Build a high enough wall, pass enough legislation, silence enough dissenting voices, and you will finally be safe. But this is a lie from the pit. The man who fears everything is the man who fears nothing rightly. And the man who fears nothing rightly is a fool who has built his house on the sand. When the storm comes, and it is coming, his therapeutic platitudes will be washed away in the flood of God's reality.
Into this frantic and cowardly generation, the book of Proverbs speaks a hard, bracing, and glorious word. It does not offer us a path away from fear. It offers us the path of the right Fear. It tells us that the beginning of wisdom, the foundation of knowledge, and, as we see in our text, the only source of true security, is the fear of Yahweh. This is not the cringing terror of a slave before a tyrant. This is the awesome, trembling, joyful reverence of a creature before his infinitely glorious Creator. It is the fear that swallows up all other fears. This proverb is a direct assault on the flimsy fortresses of self-esteem, government provision, and godless self-reliance. It shows us that true security is not a feeling we manufacture, but a fortress we are given. And it is a fortress with walls so high and foundations so deep that it provides refuge not just for us, but for our children after us.
This is a generational promise. In a world that eats its young through abortion, sexual confusion, and godless education, this verse is a battle plan for building a lasting heritage. It tells us that the greatest inheritance a father can leave his children is not a portfolio of stocks, but a legacy of fearing God.
The Text
In the fear of Yahweh there is strong security,
And his children will have refuge.
(Proverbs 14:26 LSB)
The Foundation of Fear (v. 26a)
Let us look at the first clause:
"In the fear of Yahweh there is strong security..." (Proverbs 14:26a)
The first thing we must do is define our terms with biblical precision. Our culture has neutered the word "fear" and turned it into something like "a healthy respect." But the Hebrew word here, yirah, is much stronger than that. It certainly includes reverence and awe, but it does not exclude trembling. It is the appropriate response to coming into the presence of the Holy One who spoke the universe into existence. It is what Isaiah felt when he said, "Woe is me! For I am lost" (Isaiah 6:5). It is what the disciples felt in the boat when Jesus calmed the storm and they were "filled with great fear" (Mark 4:41). This is not the fear that God is going to harm you arbitrarily; it is the fear that comes from knowing He has the absolute right and power to do with you as He pleases. It is the creaturely awareness of the infinite gulf between His holiness and your sin.
But notice the paradox. In this fear, and only in this fear, is there "strong security." The word for security here means a confidence, a place of trust, a fortress. How can this be? It is because when you fear God rightly, you cease to fear anyone or anything else. The fear of God is the master fear that drives out all the lesser, illegitimate fears. The man who fears God does not need to fear the stock market, because his trust is in the God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He does not need to fear political tyrants, because his King is the one who sets up kings and brings them down. He does not need to fear sickness or death, because his life is hidden with Christ in God. The fear of God puts all other fears into their proper, creaturely perspective. They are revealed to be yapping dogs on a very short leash, held by your heavenly Father.
The world seeks security by eliminating threats. The Christian finds security by running to the greatest "threat" of all, the holy God, and finding that in Christ, He is our Father. The cross is where the fear of God and the love of God meet. At the cross, we see the terrifying holiness of God that demands payment for sin, a payment so great it cost the life of His only Son. That should make us tremble. But at the same time, we see the immeasurable love of God that provides that payment for us. That should give us unshakable confidence. The Christian, therefore, lives in this glorious tension. We approach God with the reverent fear due to a holy Judge and the joyful confidence of a beloved child. This is the strong security the world cannot understand and can never attain.
The Generational Inheritance (v. 26b)
The second clause of the verse shows us that this security is not a private, individualistic affair. It has a long tail.
"And his children will have refuge." (Proverbs 14:26b)
This is a covenantal promise. The God of the Bible is not the god of disconnected individuals. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is a God who makes promises to a man "and to his seed after him." This proverb is a beautiful illustration of that principle. The man who fears Yahweh builds a spiritual fortress, and the walls of that fortress extend to encompass his children.
How does this work practically? First, a man who fears God will govern his household according to God's Word. He will teach his children the Scriptures. He will discipline them in love. He will model for them what it means to live before the face of God. His life becomes a living sermon, a tangible demonstration of God's faithfulness. His home is not a place of chaos, emotional tyranny, or godless indulgence. It is a place of order, justice, mercy, and worship. That home becomes a refuge for his children from the insanity of the world.
Second, a man who fears God will pray for his children with confidence. He knows he is not just wishing into the void. He is petitioning a covenant-keeping God who has promised to be a God to him and to his children. He claims the promises of God over his household. He stands in the gap for them, pleading the blood of Christ over their lives. His prayers are a spiritual bulwark against the attacks of the enemy.
Third, and most importantly, the refuge his children have is ultimately in the God whom he fears. The father's fear of God points the children to the object of that fear. He is not the refuge; God is the refuge. The father is the gatekeeper of the fortress, the one who ushers his children inside. He shows them the way. A father who lives in the fear of man teaches his children to be cowards and people-pleasers. A father who lives in the fear of financial ruin teaches his children to be materialists. But a father who lives in the fear of Yahweh teaches his children where true safety is found. He is a signpost, pointing constantly away from himself and toward the towering reality of God.
This does not mean the children are saved automatically. Each must have his own faith. But it does mean that God has established a covenantal pattern. He has ordained that a godly heritage is the ordinary means by which He extends His kingdom through time. The promises are "for you and for your children" (Acts 2:39). To neglect this, to live as though our faith is a private affair that has no bearing on our children's eternal destiny, is to despise the very means God has appointed for His glory to be declared from one generation to the next.
Conclusion: Building the Walls
So what is the application for us? It is profoundly simple and profoundly challenging. If you want security in this anxious age, you must cultivate the fear of God. And if you want your children to have a refuge from the coming storm, you must lead them into that same fear.
This means you must turn off the noise of the world that is constantly screaming at you to fear all the wrong things. You must steep your mind in the Scriptures, which reveal the God who is truly to be feared. You must learn His attributes: His holiness, His sovereignty, His justice, His wrath, and His covenant love in Christ. Meditate on them. Pray through them. Let a holy awe of God recalibrate your entire emotional and spiritual life.
For you fathers, this is your primary calling. Your central task in raising your children is not to make them successful, or popular, or even happy in the world's sense. Your task is to teach them the fear of the Lord. You are building a house. Will it be a flimsy shack of worldly values, destined for collapse? Or will it be a fortress, founded on the rock of the fear of God? The security of your children depends on your answer.
The ultimate expression of the fear of God is to flee to Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate refuge. He is the one who, in His delight in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:3), stood in our place and absorbed the full measure of God's righteous wrath against our sin. He took the terror so that we could have the security. He was cast out of the fortress so that we could be brought in. In Christ, the fear of God is transformed from the terror of a condemned criminal to the reverent awe of an adopted son.
Therefore, fear God and nothing else. Build your life on this foundation. Govern your homes by this principle. And in so doing, you will find a strong security that cannot be shaken, and you will provide for your children a refuge that will last for all eternity.