I’m reading to you Malachi 2:5. I’ll read two versions; first is the New King James Version, “My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, And I gave them to him that he might fear Me; So he feared Me And was reverent before My name.” And the Berean Standard Bible, “My covenant with him was one of life and peace, which I gave to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.”

God gave us a promise of life and peace. That was His side of the promise. Our side was to fear Him, to revere Him, to stand in awe of His name. Life and peace are amazing promises. We all desire life and peace. We all need life and peace. We all desperately need life and peace. There’s not much to our side of things. We need to revere the Lord, fear Him, be in awe of Him.

It should be easy to be in awe of One who can speak life and peace. It should be easy to have reverent awe of the One who made heaven and earth, set the boundaries of the seas, and gave the sun its atomic energy. It should be easy to have reverent fear for the One who can throw us into hell, who can speak and have the earth open and swallow us whole. Except, that’s not what He did. He didn’t make a promise of torture. He gave a promise of life and peace that we might fear Him.

Psalm 130 says that there is forgiveness with the Lord that we might fear Him. He’s not an evil tyrant to turn on in anger. He brings us to the fear of the Lord by His beautiful promises and merciful offer of forgiveness. He’s the great God because He alone has it in His power to offer us what we really need: forgiveness. Forgiveness that gives us life and peace with God.