Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 727
Delivered on Sunday Morning, December 23, 1866, by C. H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
“And the angel said unto them, Fear not.” Luke 2:10.
No sooner did the angel of the Lord appear to the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, than they were sorely afraid. It had come to this, that man was afraid of his God, and when God sent down His loving messengers with tidings of great joy, men were filled with as much fright as though the angel of Death had appeared with uplifted sword. The silence of night and its dreary gloom caused no fear in the shepherds’ hearts, but the joyful herald of the skies, robed in mildest glories of Divine Grace, made them afraid.
We must not condemn the shepherds on this account as though they were peculiarly timid or ignorant, for they were only acting as every other person in that age would have done under the same circumstances. Not because they were simple shepherds were they amazed with fear, but it is probable that if they had been well-instructed Prophets they would have displayed the same feeling. There are many instances recorded in Scripture in which the foremost men of their time trembled and felt a horror of great darkness when special manifestations of God were vouchsafed to them. In fact, a slavish fear of God was so common that a tradition had grown out of it, which was all but universally received as nothing less than the Truth of God.
It was generally believed that every supernatural manifestation was to be regarded as a token of speedy death. “We shall surely die because we have seen God” was not only Manoah’s conclusion, but that of most men of his period. Few, indeed, were those happy minds who, like Manoah’s wife, could reason in a more cheerful style, “If the Lord had meant to destroy us He would not have showed us such things as these.” It became the settled conviction of all men, whether wise or simple, whether good or bad, that a manifestation of God was not so much to be rejoiced in as to be dreaded. Even Jacob said, “How dreadful is this place! It is none other but the House of God.”
Doubtless the spirit which originated this tradition was much fostered by the legal dispensation which is better fitted for trembling servants than for rejoicing sons. It was of the bond woman and it gendered into bondage. The solemn night in which its greatest institution was ordained was a night of trembling. Death was there in the slaughter of the lamb. Blood was there sprinkled on a conspicuous part of the house. Fire was there to roast the lamb—all the emblems of judgment were there to strike the mind with awe. It was at the dread hour of midnight when the solemn family conclave was assembled. The door being shut, the guests, themselves, standing in an uneasy attitude, and awestricken, for their hearts could hear the wings of the Destroying Angel as he passed by the house.
Afterwards, when Israel came into the wilderness, and the Law was proclaimed, do we not read that the people stood afar off and that bounds were set about the mount? And if so much as a beast touched the mountain it was to be stoned or thrust through with a dart! It was a day of fear and trembling when God spoke to them out of the fire. Not with the melting notes of harp, psaltery, or dulcimer did God’s Law come to His people’s ears! No soft wings of angels brought the message, and no sunny smiles of Heaven sweetened it to the mind! No, with sound of trumpet and thunder, out of the midst of blazing lightning—with Sinai altogether on a smoke—the Law was given.
The law’s voice was, “Come not near here!” The spirit of Sinai is fear and trembling. The legal ceremonies were such as rather to inspire fear than to beget trust. The worshipper at the temple saw bloodshed from the first of the year to the end of the year. The morning was ushered in with the blood-shedding of the lamb, and the evening shades could not gather without blood again being spilt upon the altar! God was in the midst of the camp, but the pillar of cloud and fire was His unapproachable pavilion.
The emblem of His glory was concealed behind the curtain of blue and scarlet and fine twined linen—behind which only one foot might pass—and that but once in the year. Men spoke of the God of Israel with bated breath and with voices hushed and solemn. They had not learned to say, “Our Father which are in Heaven.” They had not received the spirit of adoption, and were not able to say Abba, Father. They smarted under the spirit of bondage which made them sorely afraid when by any peculiar manifestation the Lord displayed His Presence among them. At the bottom of all this slavish dread lay sin.
We never find Adam afraid of God, nor of any manifestation of Deity while he was an obedient creature in Paradise. But no sooner had he touched the fatal fruit than he found that he was naked and hid himself! When he heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Adam was afraid and hid himself from the Presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Sin makes miserable cowards of us all! See the man who once could hold delightful converse with his Maker now dreading to hear his Maker’s voice and skulking in the grove like a felon who knows his guilt, and is afraid to meet the officers of justice!