God is good and terrifying.

So I never have found the time to read C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, although I have the books myself I just never seem to get around to them. However, I recently got on audiobook The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and have finally been able to at least listen to it.

Unfortunately the book is packed away so I will not be able to give you a direct quote, but listening to the book has been fascinating. Lewis deserves major props for making a story that is filled with Christian imagery/themes without it being necessarily apparent, especially the first time through. By the resurrection of Azlan it starts to become more apparent. But if you did not know you were approaching a Christian story, you could work your way there and all of the sudden be surprised that you have been dabbling in a tale riddled with Christian themes. There is much I think is worthy of talking about: two worlds, how they overlap (particularly in relation to time), atonement, prophecies, seasons, and so on. Hopefully I will dip my fingers in to some of these on other occasions. Today I want to specifically talk about the description of Azlan.



There are two key moments I am thinking about, and I apologize that I cannot give the precise quotes with my book packed away (hopefully in the future I will edit and add them in the bottom of this particular post), but there are these two moments where I found Lewis' description of Azlan quite interesting. The first is when the Beavers are talking about Azlan to the four and the question arises as to whether Azlan is safe or dangerous. The answer was not what we might expect when speaking about a Christ-figure in the story, we are told that he is quite dangerous. Hardly the description we might give to our servant Christ.

This comes up a second time when Azlan first appears to Lucy, Peter, Susan, and the Beavers. If my memory is correct, Azlan is called "terrifying". But in both of these occasions we are told this is juxtaposed with a nature that is "good". Just because something can be dangerous or terrifying does not mean it cannot be good we are told.

What does it mean to speak of Azlan, and ultimately of God and Christ this way? For one, I think this reinforces Lewis' theme that Azlan is "not a tame lion". That is, as that relates to God, we do not control God. And once we realize that, just as much as we speak of a Lion that cannot be tamed, we immediately ought to recognize the danger and how terrifying a thing it is to come before him. In the book, no one wants to be the first to approach Azlan. Peter suggests Beaver should make the introduction, but Beaver says that children of Adam should go first, Peter then urges his sister under the "ladies first" excuse, but she rejects it and insists that he should, invoking the "eldest first" excuse. Only then does Peter finally lead the way.

This is even though they know, we know,  that Azlan is good. What would it mean to speak of the fear of the Lord? Perhaps we ought to take a page out of Lewis' book when we speak of the goodness of God, that goodness does not mean God is tame, it means God is good. That is incredibly important when we confront the reality of how we are often not good. To face a good that you do not control and cannot tame is what we need when we are victims of evil, but it is terrifying news when we are the bringers of evil. I think of how in the book at the mention of Azlan's name all the Pevensies react, but the reaction is different based on how they stand in relation to good. To Edmund, who has betrayed his family and the Narnians, he is filled with fear.

Fear of the Lord, awe of the Lord, recognition of truly how powerful the Lord is and dangerous the Lord can be, is something that has major themes and use throughout the Bible. It is often used relationally, sometimes almost as if describing faith, "The men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows." (Jonah 1.16) or fear of the Lord is said to be "the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1.7). It is used quite positively.


Luther likewise picks up on the aspect of fear of the Lord in his catechism. But what is quite interesting is he places it especially under the 10 Commandments (under the Law). After the first commandment where we are taught to "Fear, love, and trust God" above all other things, the explanation of each successive commandment begins "We should fear and love God that we...".

One of my mentors once told the class that we have by and large forsaken the fear of God. We want the goodness, we want the love of the Lord, but have avoided speaking of the fear of the Lord. That, he said, is something we must recover. I'm not saying sinners in the hands of an angry God kind of recovery, this is not about going back to fire and brimstone and making people fear hell, it is about going back to the call to fear but one thing in this world, God. For the goodness of God, the trust of God, and the power of God through the cross is something quite different when we know how great a thing it is, when we are humbled before it. When our access to God through Jesus Christ is not something to be taken for granted, nor is our treatment of his creation.

Fear of the Lord is an even greater thing to speak of when we encounter God, just as when the band of travelers came upon the Lion, when Christ is no longer talked about, but we speak of him here, when we look up with scales falling from our eyes to see Christ before us, and that is the reality we live in, one where Christ is with us always, unto the end of the age (Matthew 28.20) the juxtaposition of our love and fear, of God being good and terrifying perhaps become more real. There is a reason the resurrected Christ enters rooms with the greeting "Peace be with you." There is a reason we need the gospel words. Perhaps one of the great abandonments of the church and hearing the gospel message is the lack of fear of the Lord, a forgetfulness of needing his divine goodness shared. Or perhaps it is because of fear of the Lord, where we do not come to the presence of God because we cannot bear such a fearful God, or because we do not want our Christ to be "untamed". In either instance we imagine that a God who is fearful cannot likewise be a God who is good or would be good to us when we have been not good.

Yet as in Narnia, that is precisely the story. That the God who is good and terrifying would so arrange for Edmund's freedom with his own life. Fear and love, dangerous and good, these words don't negate the way our untamed God has so chosen to choose us in Christ. Nor does the graciousness of God negate such an aspect about him, it merely holds onto us when we would think we could never be before someone so good and so terrifying.