What God Can Do With Fear

What God Can Do with Fear

Thank you for listening to GodNAmerica’s weekday podcast. My name is Perry Greene, I am your host. You may find us at GodNAmerica.com for more information and resources.

There are certain themes that I have been catching myself repeating. Fear is one of those. I think it is important to talk about it because God does so often in scripture. Someone has counted 366 passages dealing with it in the Bible. It is so prevalent today. That is why we are being subject to lockdowns and experimental injections.

Joshua 2:8-11 (ESV)

8 Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof 9 and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. 11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

This passage involves the conversation between Rahab and the two Hebrew scouts that Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho and the entrance into the Land. I find it interesting that this rag-tag bunch was causing fear in the kingdom of Jericho. This group really wasn’t much of an army. They were they descendants of the generation that died in the wilderness because of their fear and unbelief. They had failed to enter Canaan, let alone conquer it. So God led them in circles in the wilderness for forty years.

Fear was the root of their failure. Remember the report of the ten spies? Numbers 13:31-33 (ESV):

31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

The result was the fear and despondency. The people despondent that they wanted to return to Egypt according to Numbers 14:1-2 (ESV).

Forty years later, as the Hebrews approached Jericho, the people of the land feared THEM. They had heard the stories of the Exodus. They heard about the Red Sea. They heard of the Hebrews’ victories in the wilderness. As a result, they were afraid of them and their GOD! As outsiders looking in, the Canaanites saw what God was able to do and believed that He was able to conquer them as well. So, the people of Canaan were overcome with fear as the Hebrews stood on the threshold of the Promised Land.

I think there are modern applications for us and I want to mention three. First, this generation learned to trust God in the wilderness. The previous generation had been trusting in themselves and their own abilities. They were right that they could not defeat the inhabitants of Canaan on their own, but forgot God was with them.

Second, when the spies spoke with Rahab, they learned that the occupants of Canaan feared them because of what the LORD was doing through them. Were they surprised? Very possibly! But that brings me to modern followers of God. What groups would you say fear Christians and their God today? Not many.

I hear a lot of fear from Christians today. “I am afraid of __________.” You fill in the blank. A common one is, “I’m afraid I am going to die because of the virus.” Don’t forget, you are going to die of something. Stop fearing and start living again with trust in God.

When the fear of things in this world paralyze us, why should we think people of the world will look to the God that we don’t trust? I believe that when we let the spirit of fear from the evil one control us God is unable to work through us. When the disciples were unable to cast out a demon they went to Jesus in Matthew 17:19-21 (ESV) and asked: