Awe in Scripture is the soul's natural and proper response to encountering the living God — a trembling reverence that encompasses both terror at his holiness and wonder at his majesty. It is not merely an aesthetic emotion (as when someone calls a sunset "awesome") but a deep, reality-calibrating recognition that God is infinite and we are not. The "fear of the Lord" that runs through all of Proverbs and Psalms is this awe — it is called the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). Those who stood before God in Scripture fell on their faces (Isaiah 6:5, Revelation 1:17). Awe is what keeps theology from becoming mere intellectual exercise.
AWE, n. Fear mingled with admiration or reverence; the emotion inspired by something sublime, frightful or dreadful; reverential fear. Stand in awe, and sin not. (Psalm 4:4) Awe, applied to persons in authority, is nearly equivalent to dread.
The word "awe" has been so completely evacuated of its original terror that we now use it to describe tacos and sunsets. "That was awesome!" means nothing more than "I enjoyed that." What was once a word reserved for the most profound encounters with divine reality has become a filler adjective. More dangerously, modern Christianity has systematically replaced awe with familiarity — God becomes a buddy, a life coach, a cosmic vending machine. The trembling that marked encounters with God throughout Scripture is replaced with casual praise songs and breezy prayer. When awe disappears, so does the fear of the Lord — and with it, wisdom itself.
Psalm 33:8 — "Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!"
Isaiah 6:5 — "And I said: 'Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips… for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!'"
Proverbs 9:10 — "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."
Revelation 1:17 — "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, 'Fear not, I am the first and the last.'"
Hebrews 12:28 — "Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe."
H3374 — יִרְאָה (yir'ah): "fear, reverence, awe" — the foundational OT concept: the proper human posture before a holy God
G1630 — ἔκφοβος (ekphobos): "greatly afraid, terrified" — used of Moses trembling at Sinai (Hebrews 12:21)
G2124 — εὐλάβεια (eulabeia): "reverence, holy fear, godly awe" — the acceptable worship posture (Hebrews 12:28)
"When was the last time you were undone by awe in God's presence? Not moved — undone? Isaiah was. John was. The mark of a living faith is that the God you pray to still has the power to silence you."
"A theology that produces no awe is not biblical theology — it is a philosophy about a manageable deity."
"We need to recover the vocabulary of awe — and more than the vocabulary, the experience that gave birth to it."