Isa 29:13  Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as these people draw near me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips me, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the commandments of men.

Fearing God cannot be taught by men. True fear of God comes through encounter. We must encounter God in order to actually fear Him. Dead generation after dead generation have taught this by the commandments, by the traditions of men. One dead generation after another passes on abstracts truths that bears no life. They draw near with their mouths and with their lips they honor God and teach that we should be afraid of Him, but their very traditions are insurmountable barriers. Only the heart that has encountered God can truly know and fear Him. It shapes us and molds us, like the potter molds the clay. The clay cannot gain anything outside of the hand of the potter. How arrogant and utterly foolish are we who think that by mere head knowledge we can come into a right relationship with the Almighty God.

Isaiah finds this out. He finds himself in the presence of God. He is utterly undone. If he had something to cover himself with, he would have covered himself. If he had something to crawl under he would have crawled under it. Yet no, there he stands and his eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, the King of all glory. Notice what happens when he is touched by the coal of fire from the altar and his iniquities are taken away and his sin purged. He no longer has a desire to hide. He cries out “here am I.” What a transformation! Here am I God, here am I. When God called out in the garden, Adam and Eve could say no such thing. Rather, they covered themselves and hid. Now Isaiah can be sent. He “knows,’ God. He has encountered God. He knows what it is to fear God. And that fear promotes within him a reverence and and awe of the Majesty of God and now he can be trusted to go, God could send him.

We must know the fear of God. It is fundamental to our relationship with Him. It is fundamental to our being sent. It is fundamental to representing God here on earth among men. This is who God will send. If you do not fear God by virtue of encounter then you can honor God with your lips all day long, you can try and teach man the fear of God, but your heart will be far from Him. There will be no power in your words, no meaning in your traditions, it will just be the empty sound of the clanging cymbal and a resounding gong. If we shall see a marvelous work in our day, then it must start here. God will cause the wisdom of their wise men to perish. The wisdom that has propped up dead religion shall perish and good riddance to it. For unless this barrier comes down we shall not see, in our day, the marvelous works of God. One must choose whom they will serve. The wisdom of men or the fear of God?