Our beloved brother Alan shared the following:
‘Fear’, as a normal response to whatever you may see as a danger or threat, is a common manifestation of the emotions of the soul; the mind, the will and the emotions we tend to rely upon for trusted information. Reasonable fear can be very healthy. Irrational fear, however, normally comes from ignorance of what you are ‘seeing’, or perceiving.
There are many types of events or peoples or situations that may cause a logical fear because of not knowing, in advance, what the outcome will be. This is the fear described by the word ‘pachad’ (Strong’s #6343, and pronounced ‘pah-hkhad’), and is usually associated with a negative physical response, sometimes referred to as quaking, shaking or rattling. The idea of being rattled emotionally gives an adequate description of what this word ‘pachad’ is describing. This word ‘pachad’ is usually describing a ‘fear’ of a threatening person or circumstance, and/or what that threatening person or circumstance may be able to do to you.
The other word most commonly translated as referring to ‘fear’ is the word ‘yara’, generally recognized as Strong’s #3372. This word is more a description of a fear, intellectually or otherwise, produced from failing to understand what you are ‘seeing’. This word ‘yara’ is a use of the common verb ‘ra-ah’, Strong’s #7200, which is translated loosely as ‘to see; to look at, or inspect or observe’. However, the importance of the verb ‘ra-ah’ is that of having understanding or insight into what you are ‘seeing’. The verb ‘ra-ah’, of which the word ‘yara’ is only one of many derivations from this root verb ‘ra-ah’, primarily is referring to ‘seeing’ with Spiritual understanding, or Spiritual insight.
Those with keen Spiritual insight were called ‘seer’ before they were called ‘prophet’, and the word ‘seer’ is from this Hebrew verb ‘ra-ah’. Consequently, because of man’s distorted mindset, and because men irrationally and ignorantly ‘feared’ God, because they couldn’t ‘see’ a physical form they could identify as ‘God’, they ‘feared’ what they could not see with their natural senses. And this ‘fear’ was promoted and used by the leadership of the people to manipulate and herd the people into a manageable mentality. The people were told to ‘fear’ YHVH, or God. However, this exact same word that gets translated as ‘fear’ is also translated as ‘to see’ God. What, then, is the understandable difference in these uses of the verb ‘ra-ah’?
People were told, and taught, to ‘fear God’, because failing to please God would result in a negative response, or retaliation, from God. Or, so the religious leadership preached to the people. And the people, because they could never completely appease the demands of religion and religion’s hierarchy, ‘feared’ God because they couldn’t properly ‘See’ God through their own Spiritual understanding. People naturally imagined a God that would treat people the same way that they themselves would treat others if they themselves could be God. And because the people failed to See God Spiritually, they negatively responded to a God they could not see with their own natural senses.
How could I come to this conclusion? The beginning verses of Genesis introduce us to a God of immense Spiritual Love, and investing that Spiritual Love into all of creation. Gen. 1:31 “And God ‘saw’ (ra-ah) all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” The Hebrew language translated as ‘very good’ literally means “…good that continues to perpetuate abundantly”. That is, of course, my own definition, but I rest my reputation upon it.
God empowered creation with the Spirit of Truth in Love, which is the nature of God, and that empowerment was to perpetuate Good continually. That action describes a God of Love, and not a God to be feared. ‘Man’, in separation from the Love of God, began to distrust God, and promote that distrust and fear to others. And the pattern didn’t change for thousands of years. Actually, that pattern continued until “…when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we can receive the adoption of sons”.
Gal. 4:5 Only with the appearing of Yashua (Jesus if you prefer) did mankind have the opportunity to cease ‘seeing’ God through the eyes of fear, and begin to See God as the Father of Love. “If you have seen me, you have seen The Father”. And even till this very day does man continue to ‘see’ God through the eyes of fear (yara) rather than to See (Ra-ah) God as our loving Heavenly Father. Also, the word ‘yara’, which is most often translated as ‘fear’, is numerous times translated as “…to see”. When you ‘see’ correctly, and properly discern what you are ‘seeing’, it produces no fear. Fear not.