Fear or Trust
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 22 Jun 2008 in From Steve's Study ::
Fear makes people do strange things.
It is said that the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin so feared for his safety that his residence in Moscow contained eight bedrooms. Each night Stalin chose a bedroom at random to ensure that no one knew exactly where he was sleeping. Louis Pasteur is reported to have had such an irrational fear of dirt and infection he refused to shake hands. US President Benjamin Harrison was so intimidated by the newfangled electricity installed in the White House they didn’t dare touch the switches. If there were no servants around to turn off the lights when the Harrisons went to bed, they slept with them on.
In Numbers 14, we see the people of Israel, who have now left Mt Sinai, on the brink of entering the Promised Land. God has shown his might and his love by rescuing them out of the hands of the Egyptians and by giving them the law. Moses has sent 12 spies into the Land and they have come back with exciting reports about how fertile the land is – flowing with milk and honey. Yet there is a problem for the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large (13:28).
Suddenly the people are racked with fear. They feel they are no match for the current inhabitants of the Land and so refuse to go in.
At the heart of their fear, however, is a lack of trust in their God. Even though two of the spies try to remind them that nothing is impossible with God by their side, they have forgotten all that God has done. They don’t believe that he will help them. Their fear is driven by lack of faith.
What is the antidote to fear? John tells us in 1 Jn 4:18 that perfect love drives out fear. If the Israelites had remembered God’s perfect love for them, his promises to always be with them and to give them the Promised Land, they could have gone on without fear. So to, when the trials and dangers of life afflict us, we will be able to move forward if we remember God’s endless love for us and rely on his strength and promises. This is, of course, one of the main reasons we gather together each week, so that we might encourage each other all the more as you see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:25).
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