Scripture Introduction
Bill Watterson, the creator of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, describes well the feelings of guilt and fear which overtake Calvin after he breaks his dad’s very expensive binoculars. His dad does not yet know about the incident, but Calvin’s anxiety causes him to sweat with panic. Then, when dad asks him to pass the napkins, Calvin dissolves in a puddle of guilt and confession.
[Comic Strip]
That cartoon reminds me of Genesis 3. Sin intrudes into the idyllic paradise, and for the first time, we hear of, “fear,” as our first parents must face up to what they have done. Our text is Genesis 2.25 – 3.13, as we consider the Beginning of…Fear.”
[Read Genesis 2.25-3.13. Pray.]
Introduction
The development of psychology as the primary religion of our modern world has led to a proliferation of names for every fear that affects people. I read about these fears:
• Peladophobia: fear of baldness
• Decidophobia – fear of making decisions
• Porphyrophobia: fear of the color purple
• Dextrophobia: fear of objects on the right side of the body
• Catoptrophobia - fear of mirrors
• Thalassophobia: fear of being seated
• Anthophobia – fear of flowers.
• Triskaidekaphobia – fear of the number 13.
• Agyrophobia (what the chicken had) – fear of crossing roads
• Phobophobia: fear of having a phobia.
On March 4, 1933, in his Inaugural Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself….”
As usual in political speech, Roosevelt surely did not intend the populace to take his words literally. I think he knew of things to fear in addition to fear. He simply observed, poetically, that many of our fears are irrational, or misplaced. We easily exaggerate problems in our minds, and inflate fears to the point where we become incapacitated.
But how does that relate to God? How are we to think, and feel, and act toward the judge of all the earth? Adam and Eve feared and hid. Did they have something to fear other than fear itself? Is hiding the correct response? Is there some type of psychological problem, “godophobia,” that makes people fear the Lord irrationally?
Some Bible texts encourage fear.
• Joshua 24.14: Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.
• Proverbs 1.7: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge….
• Acts 9.31: So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
• Ecclesiastes 12.13: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
But the Bible also speaks of the end of fear when we come to faith.
• Isaiah 41.13: For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”
• Hebrews 13.5-6: He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
• 1John 4.18: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
• Luke 12.32: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
How do we understand fear in relation to God? Notice, please, four things from our text.
1. Fear Results Directly From Sin
Prior to eating the fruit, Adam and Eve delighted to hear the Lord walking in the garden. He was their friend and Father, the giver of life and the source of all good. But they refuse his warning and take evil into themselves.
Then, suddenly, they see the folly of their choice, the fall from happiness, the misery of their position. They rejected God’s love, forfeited his favor, defaced his image, and lost their right to rule. Now their own hearts are corrupt; they feel regret; they sense the war within, between flesh and soul. They are disrobed of honor, disgraced, and degraded – and they are afraid.
Their fear makes perfect sense. Sin is the worst filth ever to defile a creature. Sin calls down God’s wrath and turns away his face; it repulses God’s favor and grieves his person. Sin stains the beauty of holiness, and drives our souls, without mercy, to Hell. Their fear is not irrational – it rightly rises from the knowledge that they have taken evil into their souls.
2. Fear Produces “Flight” Responses
Now, notice the ways Adam and Eve attempt to solve the problem of guilt and shame and fear: we can call them, “flight” responses. One is blame: “the woman whom you gave me”; “the serpent deceived me.” Do you see the fingers pointing away from me and toward another? We still blame others.
• “It is not my anger that is out of control, but the driver who cut me off.”
• “It is not my fear of failure that led me to cheat, but the teacher’s unreasonable demands.”
• “It is not my pride that pouts and refuses to cooperate on the project, but his failure to honor my contributions.”
Shifting the blame relieves guilt and fear, at least for a moment.
Covering or concealing failure is another flight response. At the end of chapter two, Adam and Eve are naked and unashamed. They wore no clothes, of course, but much more about them is seen than their bodies. Their souls are pure and innocent; they have nothing to hide; no one can accuse them of flaw or failure. Every thought and desire can be exposed without fear of embarrassment.”
But now they must sew fig leaves, cover up, pretend to be what they are not. They do not want exposure, because they are dirty and defiled, and they hope to conceal this from themselves and others.
In his book, The Problem of Pain (47-48), C. S. Lewis offers an example of how we might do this: “We suppose ourselves to be roughly not much worse than Y, whom all acknowledge for a decent sort of person, and certainly (though we should not claim it out loud) better than the abominable X. Even on the superficial level we are probably deceived about this. Don’t be too sure that your friends think you as good as Y. The very fact that you selected him for the comparison is suspicious: he is probably head and shoulders above you and your circle. But let us suppose that Y and yourself both appear ‘not bad.’ How far Y’s appearance is deceptive, is between Y and God. His may not be deceptive: you know that yours is…. Every man, not very holy or very arrogant, has to ‘live up to’ the outward appearance of other men: he knows there is that within him which falls far below even his most careless public behaviour, even his loosest talk. In an instant of time—while your friend hesitates for a word—what things pass through your mind? We have never told the whole truth. We may confess ugly facts—the meanest cowardice or the shabbiest and most prosaic impurity—but the tone is false. The very act of confessing—an infinitesimally hypocritical glance—a dash of humor—all this contrives to dissociate the facts from your very self.”
We 1) shift blame and 2) cover reality, both to flee the fear we feel. The third “flight from fear” of Adam and Eve may be the most obvious: they hide. At first, their pathetic attempts to cover their sinfulness with fig leaves must have seemed helpful, because they forget, for a moment, God. But then they hear him, and they are petrified, so they run and hide, hearts racing.
Do we still hide today? The Bible remains the number one selling book in the world, and remains closed on millions of shelves. To open it is to hear the voice of God, and from that, we must hide. Faithful pastors preach thousands of sermons each week to empty chairs, while people go on about their way, claiming to know and love God. Why is the preaching poorly attended, except that, for all the weaknesses and failings of pastors, God’s word is heard in the sermon, and mankind hides.
The ways to flee the voice and presence of the Lord are many; the fact remains that our sin makes us fear a holy God. But is that a reasonable response?
3. Fear Is a Reasonable Response
Some people but signs or stickers on their cars that say, “No fear.” I want to stop them and say, “Really? None at all? You have no fear of losing a loved one, of rejection by your friends, of failure in life, of dying?”
They say there are no atheists in foxholes. I’m sure that a certain amount of bravado and pride keeps some men from chapel during war, even while the enemy amasses an invincible army. But I find it revealing that in our country, which seems so set against the promotion of Christianity, taxpayers still pay pastors to serve as military chaplains. Fear is a reasonable response to facing God, who has appointed all “to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9.27).
Something happens in Genesis 3.9 that seems very important. The Lord God calls to Adam, “Where are you?” Some writers have suggested that God is hurt by Adam’s hiding, or lonely without his creatures. But this is not the question of ignorance or longing; it is the effectual call of judgment. We know that because Adam’s response is immediate. There is no hiding when God demands an explanation. Hebrews 4.13: “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Whether we blame, cover, or hide, none has any effect.
Fear has to do with punishment, and God has made us so that we know punishment is the proper payment for our rejection of all that is good and holy. This is why Jesus taught, “Fear God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10.28). Yet fear is not the end of the story, is it?
4. Faith Overcomes Fear
In spite of their rejection of God’s word, Adam and Eve do not meet God’s wrath. I expected fire, smoke, thundering, and judgment. But God returns just as he did the previous day, walking in the Garden.
Here, in its most nascent, seed-form is a first sign of a gospel of grace and the means by which we receive it.
We all want to be close to God; but it is always a terrifying experience. It is as if our souls have two layers. God laid down a layer which longs to know him. We recognize that we remain restless until we find rest in him. We want to know the glory of him, by whom and for whom we were made. We need to touch the holy. Yet another layer sits on top, placed by our sin. Thus we fear (or even are repulsed by) that which is holy. What will we do?
Matthew 10.28-31: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Did you hear Jesus? “Fear God, and fear not.”
When Daniel was really young, he once drug his foot across part of our wooden deck, driving many splinters deep into the skin. It was a traumatic event. But there was only one solution – probing and pulling with tweezers. He wanted to run away from Helen and me, because the tools of healing would hurt worse for a season, but healing required traveling through the trauma of their removal. Fear the tweezers and fear not, for they bring healing.
God alone can remove the splinter of sin from our souls, freeing us to experience that which is holy. Adam and Eve blamed, covered, and hid. They ran from him who could heal. What will you do?
Tomorrow when you are tempted to remain quiet while a co-worker insults Christianity, will you come to God with the promise of Psalm 118.6: “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
When you worry about problems at work or school, or conflicts in your marriage, will you come to God with the promise of James 1.2-3: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness”?
When you fear getting cancer, will you come to God with the promise of Romans 5.3-5: “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame”?
When you feel defeated by age, will you come to God with the promise of Isaiah 46.4: “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save”?
When you feel overwhelmed by the decisions you must make, will you come to God with the promise of Psalm 32.8: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you”?
I don’t want to sugarcoat the difficulties of life. We have every reason to fear. Suffering, heartache, sadness, disappointment, trouble, trials, and tribulations await around every corner. Job rightly complained that “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5.7). We have good reason to fear.
But you have better reasons for faith. God does not expose Adam and Eve to the fury of his hatred of sin; instead, he calls them to confession and judgment to prepare for messiah. Jesus fulfills this picture of grace: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11.28).
5. Conclusion
Two explorers were on a jungle safari when suddenly a ferocious lion jumped in front of them. "Keep calm" the first explorer whispered. "Remember what we read in that book on wild animals? If you stand perfectly still and look the lion in the eye, he will turn and run."
"Sure," replied his companion. "You’ve read the book, and I’ve read the book. But has the lion read the book?"
God wrote the book, and fear has read it. Stare fear down with the promises of God and you will find health for your souls. Amen.
