Fear Not; Do Not Be Afraid Part 3 Series

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Fear Not; Do Not Be Afraid Part 3

(Rev. Barry Johnson and Rev. Rodney Johnson)

Introduction

This is the third lesson in our study of fear and how it can impact us as Christians. Before we get into the lesson, let’s open with a word of prayer.

The foundational passage for this series has been Numbers 13, the record of the ten spies or tribal leaders and their message of fear and dread that they gave to the children of Israel when they returned from exploring the land that the Lord had promised to their forefather, Abraham. The primary point we brought out in the passage was that the ten spies took what they had seen and, in their minds, didn’t believe that the children of Israel could defeat the inhabitants of the Promised Land in battle. And because of this, they concluded that the children of Israel should not even attempt to try to occupy the land.

In Deuteronomy 1:20-21, Moses is reminding the people of what the Lord had said to them at that time. “(20) And I said to you, ‘You have come to the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. (21) Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you, do not fear or be discouraged.’” Moses encourages the people to believe the Lord when he says do not fear and do not be discouraged. He says “Don’t be afraid to trust the Lord your God. He is with you. And don’t be discouraged and feel like the inhabitants will stop you from taking possession of the land because they can’t stop the Lord your God from fulfilling His promise.”

But instead of immediately obeying the Lord, the people asked Moses to send spies to search out the land – to verify that it was everything the Lord said it was – and report back to Moses. The spies returned and told Moses and the children of Israel that the Lord had told the truth. But there was something the Lord didn’t tell them. The Lord didn’t tell them about the war-like people who were physically larger and stronger than Israel and He didn’t tell them how fortified the cities were.

The ten spies, because of their own fears, convinced the people that they would be slaughtered if they tried to drive the people out of the land. Numbers 13:32 says “And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land…” The King James says, “And they brought up an evil report…” The Contemporary English Version says, “Then they started spreading rumors…” The God’s Word version says, “So they began to spread lies among the Israelites…”

As we stated in the previous lesson: “In other words, because of what they had seen, the ten unbelieving spies, who were the heads of their tribes, were so filled with fear that they forgot about God’s promise to them. Not only had they forgotten about God’s promise pertaining to the Promised Land, they literally forgot about what their lives were like in Egypt and what it took for Pharaoh to release them.”

And we ended the introductory remarks with: “They forgot about all the plagues and walking across the Red Sea on dry land – all forgotten because of fear. And, for us, there are two overarching, yet similar points in this passage. The first point is that fear can cause us to forget God’s promises to us. The second point, and this is important to think about, fear can cause us to miss out on God’s promises being fulfilled in our lives.

The Events Leading Up To First Samuel 15

Now with this introduction in mind, we’re going to take a somewhat detailed examination of an incident in the life of Saul, the first king of Israel, in First Samuel 15. The chapter is a record of how Saul’s fears resulted in him living the last 15 to 20 years of his reign as king in rebellion to God. And because of his rebellion, he robbed his descendants of the opportunity to succeed him on the throne.