Deuteronomy 10:20

I love this verse. It talks about fearing God. So many people have problems with the idea of fearing God. Some of them wonder why they should be afraid of a loving God, and they water the term down until it means nothing more than a vague respect. Others are in the camp that portrays a short-tempered God who unleashes wrath upon anyone who gets on His bad side. This verse gives a much broader view.
"You shall fear the Lord your God"-- what does this mean?-- "Serve Him" --actively acknowledge Him as Master. This means that we do His will, not our own. Why? Because He is our legitimate King and Master. He has unlimited rights over us. -- "Cling to Him" -- The first piece challenged the camp who waters down the fear of God. This part challenges those who take a more fire-and-brimstone approach. A proper fear of God does not repel us from Him in terror. Rather, it forces us to acknowledge that even if God is not "safe," our only proper place, the only place where we will ever become everything we were meant to be, is in His arms. I believe C.S. Lewis portrayed this concept well when he chose to make Aslan (a figure representing Jesus) a lion. He was terrifying, but to those who knew Him he was their closest friend. To quote Mr. Beaver, "Of course he isn't safe! But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." The other aspect to this is that a proper fear of God acknowledges Him as the supreme authority over all of the other things in the world of which we are often afraid. Poverty, child abusers, terrorists, cancer, creepy demonic things- they are all subject to God. The one thing more terrifying than the boogey man is the one who makes the boogey man run in terror. But if it turns out that this terrifying being also loves you, then it makes sense to come to his side, however terrifying the experience might be at times, because you know that it will free you from the boogey man -- "Swear by His name" -- Swearing by a name indicates that you will voluntarily make yourself accountable to that entity for your fulfillment of the vow and you believe that this entity has the highest possible authority, ability, and motivation to hold you accountable. If the receiving party has reason to doubt any of those three qualifications (authority, ability, and motivation) then they won't accept the vow. God does not want us to bind ourselves to anyone but Him. Furthermore, it would not be logical for the other party to accept a vow to any other.