Fear Not

Fear not, the words that cause more fear than any other. Until I became a senior pastor I could never figure out why God had to tell Joshua, of all people, to be strong and courageous and not be afraid. Now I know why He has to do that, it is much easier, with far less to fear, to be the number 2 guy. Leadership brings responsibility and risk at a completely new level and requires a whole other level of courage. Joshua and Caleb had been the only two whose counsel was to enter the land but after Moses dies the Lord has to repeat the admonition to not fear multiple times in the first nine verses of the book of Joshua. Before that, in Deuteronomy, Moses' valedictory speech, Moses has said this to Joshua.

All through the Bible what we hear is God necessarily telling people who have agreed to follow Him not to be afraid. Abraham fears foreign rulers and pretends his wife is his sister, Jacob fears Esau and has the wrestling match with an angel, Moses fears both Pharaoh and the people and God has to send Aaron with him, Elijah fears Jezebel, Peter fears a slave girl in the courtyard of the high priest and denies Jesus.

Following God in obedience to His call brings us into some fearsome situations because He takes us out of our depth, over our head, into a place where only He can act. Situations where we can't solve or resolve something tend to cause fear in our lives and He specializes in taking us into those places. The Bible is a collection of such stories, God's faithful people brought to the places where He can reveal Himself through extraordinary means but that generally requires us to go further into faith than is comfortable for us, places where either faith or fear emerges. If we would see and know God, those places are necessary. If we would have greater faith, we must follow to those places.