December 20, 2025
Our Beloved
God of Dread
But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy.
Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of
offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses
of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They
shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and
taken. Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching
among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord, who
is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I
will hope in him.
I S A I A H 8 : 1 3 - 1 7
We find these verses smackdab in the middle of Isaiah’s
prophecy of the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel
(and near destruction of Judah). The prophet’s reminder to the
people of Judah, to those who follow the Lord, is not to walk
in the way of the Assyrians, nor fear what they fear (vv. 11-12).
Instead, “Let [God] be your fear and let him be your dread,”
he says. This doesn’t sound much like a comforting promise.
“Our Beloved God of Dread” isn’t something you’ll see cross-stitched on a pillow or a Christmas tree ornament, nor is it likely
to be the title of any Christmas carols sung this year.
But before we move past this admonition, let’s first consider exactly what it means to fear and dread:
-To fear God, is to honor him as holy (v. 13).
-To fear God, is to know God as our Creator (Psalm 33).
-To fear God, is to trust him above all else.
Isaiah says “Let him be your fear,” meaning fear and dread
in God alone, for he alone is powerful enough to not only conquer our enemies, but to save us from destruction. He alone is
a secure and safe dwelling place. Trust in God, and you have
no need to fear anything else.
As we plod through the Advent season, fearful of not meeting end-of-the-year quotas, of not getting the perfect Christmas gift for our kid in time, or perhaps even of the time we’ll
spend alone while it seems everyone else is off together celebrating, remember that it is Jesus Christ - the swaddled babe
who comes to us in bursts of tears and need of milk - who is
our fear. We fear him because he is God, and we are not. And
he comes not just to live, but to die for you and for me so that
the wrath of God is satisfied that we might be reconciled with
the Almighty, brought back into the house of Jacob.
Without him, we will fall and be broken. We will stumble on
our works as a means to righteousness (Rom. 9:31-33). But
with him and in him, we have sanctuary.
DEAR JESUS, THANK YOU FOR BEING BOTH OUR FEAR AND
OUR SANCTUARY SO THAT WE CAN TRUST
YOUR WORK ON THE CROSS TO OVERCOME
OUR SIN, DEATH AND THE DEVIL. AMEN.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be
translated in whole or in part into any other language.
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Coming Home for Christmas: Advent in Isaiah © 2025 1517
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