An idea underlying much of Reeve’s book ¹ is that the expression “the fear of God” is used in two different ways.
This is seen perhaps most clearly in the story of the Israelites at the base of Mt. Sinai, just after Moses received the ten commandments. (Ex. 20:18–20). Seeing the lightning and thunder, the mountain smoking, and the earth shaking as a display of God’s power, the people cried out in terror, “You [Moses] speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”

The fear that the people initially displayed is typical of the sinner before angry god, and is characterized by a dread of punishment. However, the fear that God wants to grow in the people (v. 20) is characterized by an awestruck respect for God that will keep us from sin, not because we are fearful of punishment, but because we are in relation to Him.

Reeves refers to the first type of fear as “sinful” fear (not that the fear is sinful, but that it arises from an awareness of our sin). (Other writers ² refer to it as “servile” fear, since it is like the fear of a servant for a cruel master.) He refers to the second type as “filial” fear, a fear that grows out of a relationship. He develops the idea that filial fear comes when the love and adoration that we have for God is so intense that it causes us to physically tremble.
As we read through the book of Genesis, we see several uses of “the fear of God” which clearly imply a fear of punishment. For example, when Abraham is confronted by the king Abimilech concerning his deceit in claiming that his wife Sarah was, in fact, his sister, his defense is “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’”. In other words, these people have no fear of God to restrain them from going me harm – no fear of his punishment.
Or consider Adam in the Garden, after he and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit. When God calls out, “Where are you”, his response is “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked”. Perhaps not punishment, since we don’t know of any specific punishment that had been designated for being naked, but certainly not a consequence that he is looking forward to. In other words, it was a fear that drove him away from God.
Contrast that fear with what was displayed by the Israelites in Exodus 14:30–31, after God has saved them from the pursuing Egyptian army by opening up the Red Sea, and then drowning the Egyptians when they pursued. “And when the Israelites saw the might hand of the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.” ³

So this fear draw the people toward God.