The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.
The fear of God in each of us depends mainly on ourselves.
Proverbs. 1: 7 The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; Fools only despise wisdom and instruction.
Source
Fear is the purification of the soul through the prayer of a prophet who says: "nail your fear to my flesh" (Psalm 119, 120). Where fear dwells, all spiritual purity remains; because every vice and every evil action flees from there; and bodily limbs, driven by fear, cannot rush into unseemly matters.
The Human fear
Let's talk about ordinary human fear to better understand the fear of God.
Fear, shyness, panic, fear - this is all a feeling, an unpleasant feeling, but necessary to save a person in this world.
Example:
If I walk past an angry dog, the same feeling of fear will quickly determine the safe distance this dog should approach. If the dog breaks the chain, stay calm, a feeling of fear will give me the direction and speed to avoid his teeth.
To summarize: a feeling of fear makes us move away or flee from an element that we are afraid of.
The feeling of fear is one of the strongest emotions of a person, which causes an adrenaline rush in the blood that does not give love, hate, kindness or joy, except that it is extremely intense physical pain.
They turn gray with fear! They lose consciousness out of fear! They die of fear!
Human fear is not taught, as no other feeling is taught: love, hate, joy, sadness ... they are there or not!
Fear of fear "makes a difference"!
Now let's go back to the fear of God. What is common with ordinary fear? And after asking us this question, amazing things start:
It turns out that there is practically nothing in common between human fear and fear of God.
Furthermore, fear of God in his properties and habitat is the opposite of human fear. They have only one thing in common: fear of God, just as human fear is meant to preserve human life.
So the goal of human fear is to move a person away from the source of fear (from the edge of a roof, from an angry dog, etc.)
Where does a person's fear of God lead?
Jeremiah 32:40 "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good, and I will put my fear in their hearts that they will not depart from me."
They fear God so as not to turn away from God! Quite the opposite of human fear!