FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 7, number 35, August 28, 2008
As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened, Exodus 14:10.
Overcoming Fear
Perhaps you suffer from Triskadekaphobia (fear of the number 13) or from Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
(fear of the number 666). Maybe you suffer from Phalacrophobia (fear of
becoming bald) or Thantophobia (fear of death). Surely you have certain
recurring fears. Some of them are minor and really don’t affect your life one
way or another. But then you may have certain fears which can bring on a
feeling of isolation, paralysis, or despair. How should you overcome fear? What
are your fears? You can probably state them very quickly. They are often with
you.
Yahweh’s
action on behalf of His covenant people in Exodus 14 is instructive for us in
this regard. He has already brought the ten plagues on Egypt and Pharaoh has
finally relented, allowing God’s people to go. Israel is on their way to
freedom when God commands a rather strange thing. He tells them to go back from
where they came and to camp at Pi hahiroth, on the shores of the Red Sea (some
scholars think this was the bitter lake east of modern day Alexandria). It is
clear from verses 1-4 God engineers this confrontation for a specific purpose-
to show Pharaoh that He is the Lord. The contest between Pharaoh and Yahweh was
continuing. Pharaoh believed he was deity and he stood vehemently against
Yahweh. When Pharaoh heard that Israel was “wandering aimlessly” he changed his
mind, and went after Israel. He fell directly into Yahweh’s trap. But when Israel saw Pharaoh coming with 600 chariots and his foot soldiers they panicked and became totally
irrational, saying, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in
this way, bringing us out of Egypt?” But we then find Moses responding in faith
and obedience, calling Israel, “To not fear, to stand by and see the salvation
of the Lord.”
You know what happened then, Moses raised his staff at God’s command, the
waters parted, Israel walked through, Pharaoh and his army followed in hot
pursuit, and the waters closed back over them, drowning every one. God plays
hardball with those who stand against Him and His people.
How do you overcome fear? Before I answer that question I need briefly to
answer three other questions- what is fear, how does it come, and what does it
do? The New
Testament word for fear is phobia, meaning to be frightened, to
be alarmed. There is both a good fear and a bad fear. We are to fear God,
Revelation 1:17, Proverbs 9:10. I don’t simply mean we are to reverence and
worship God, but I literally mean we are to fear Him. We are to fear what He
can do if we walk in disobedience, kind of like a healthy fear a child has for
his father. We ought to fear falling from thirty or more feet in the air. Why?
God has created the world in such a way that we cannot withstand such a fall.
The fear of God produces wisdom. But there is a wrong kind of fear, and that is
the fear of anything else. Jesus told us not to fear man who can kill the body
but rather we are to fear God who can destroy both the body and soul in hell.
Fear is never something in the past or present. It is always in the future. You
already know the past and can deal with it. You are experiencing the present
and you can deal with that too. But you don’t know the future and the
uncertainty of it is what evokes fear. What are your fears? Do they include the
fear of losing a child to illness, to an automobile accident? Do you fear the
loss of your spouse? Do you fear a long, painful illness, economic ruin,
invasion by a Muslim nation? See. They’re all in the future.
Why does fear come? It comes when we trust anything but Jesus for anything. In
Matthew 6:25 Jesus said, “Do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall
eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” If you trust
yourself, your company, the economy for your economic well being, then you will
sooner or later worry. “What if they don’t deliver? What if I have a bad
quarter and I am fired?” If you trust yourself, your diet and exercise program
to keep you alive, then you will worry sooner or later. “Did I work out enough
last week? Maybe I should not have eaten that cherry pie a la mode last night?”
Pete Maravich
died in his forties from a heart attack and Jim Fixx, the running guru of the 1970’s who
wrote that running extends one’s life, dropped dead after a ten mile run. I am
not saying that we should not be prudent and careful. I am saying your life is
in God’s hands and you will not die one minute before, or one minute after
God’s appointed time.
What comes from fear? Elijah in I Kings 19, after his triumph over the prophets
of Baal, when Ahab told his wicked wife Jezebel what happened, and she got word
to Elijah that she would kill him; the text tells us that he arose in fear and
ran for his life to Beersheba, leaving his servant there, and traveled another
day into the wilderness and sat under a Juniper tree, asking God to take his
life. The wrong kind of fear can bring a sense of isolation. We run from God
and those who can help us. It brings paralysis. We don’t know what to do so we
simply sit, wallowing in our misery, feeling sorry for ourselves, allowing our
circumstances to rush over us like a mighty ocean. And it brings a sense of
despair or helplessness. We think nothing will work.
Well, what must you do to overcome fear? You must obey God for today and trust God
for tomorrow. In Matthew 6:33, 34, after putting forth His teaching on
overcoming worry, Jesus concludes by telling us to seek first His kingdom and
all our basic necessities will be provided. He goes on to tell us not to worry
about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself, that each day has enough
trouble of its own. Obey God for today. Learn His promises and speak them back
to yourself, when you are afraid. A good place to start is to memorize and
meditate upon Psalms 3, 4, 27, and 46. And do the next thing correctly, however
minor it may seem. This gets you moving. Get up out of bed, take a shower, read
your bible and pray. Go to work. Do a good job. Come home and take care of your
responsibilities there. Just do what you are supposed to do. So much of
depression comes from people refusing to do what they know to do. And then
trust God for tomorrow. He is sovereign. Nothing in your life is outside of His
plan for you. Look for comfort in His mighty deliverance of Israel. He is engineering everything in your life, providing for you at the last moment for
His glory and your good. He will give you what you need at the exact moment you
need it. Look to Him and trust Him.
FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker,
pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian
Church in West
Hartford, Connecticut.
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