Teachings: Fear Not (Part I)
FEAR NOT—I AM WITH YOU
ALWAYS. (Is 41:10) (Part I)
1Keep silence before me, O coastlands;
let the nations renew
their strength.
Let them draw near and
speak;
let us come together for
judgment.
2Who
has stirred up from the East the champion of justice,
and
summoned him to be his attendant?
To
him he delivers nations
and
subdues kings;
With
his sword he reduces them to dust,
with
his bow, to driven straw.
3He
pursues them, passing on without loss,
by
a path his feet scarcely touch.
4Who
has performed these deeds?
Who
has called forth the generations from the beginning?
I, the LORD, am the
first,
and at the last I
am he.
8But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
offspring of Abraham my
friend—
9You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth
and summoned from its
far-off places,
To whom I have said, You
are my servant;
I chose you, I have not
rejected you—
10Do not fear: I am with
you;
do not be anxious: I am
your God.
I will strengthen you, I
will help you,
I will uphold you with
my victorious right hand.
11Yes,
all shall be put to shame and disgrace
who
vent their anger against you;
Those
shall be as nothing and perish
who
offer resistance.
12You
shall seek but not find
those
who strive against you;
They
shall be as nothing at all
who
do battle with you.
13For
I am the LORD, your God,
who
grasp your right hand;
It
is I who say to you, Do not fear,
I
will help you.
I
will help you—;
the
Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.
There
are three kinds of fears. One is natural; one is unnatural; both are
human. The third is a result of faith
and grace. If I come across a bear, there is a natural fear or instinct which
arises within me. This natural fear speaks of imminent danger and the need to
remove myself or protect myself from this threat.
The
second fear is unnatural because there is no objective reason for it to rise up
in me. This may be called worldly fear, because it tends to prevent us from
living a full, healthy natural life. It is psychological or taught and it
debilitates and paralyzes me. There are many such fears that we may have
allowed to control us, such as fear of stepping on a crack in the sidewalk,
fear of heights, fear of the future, fear of enclosure, fear of the bully, fear
of the unknown, etc. I have a fear of
eating fish that is not deboned. This comes from my father who, when I was
young, would say when we would eat fish, “Watch out for the bones.” It is hard
for me to enjoy a good fish, unless it is filet and even then I am concerned
about the bones.
The
third fear is Fear of the Lord. Unfortunately, the English word Fear does not
adequately translate the Hebrew words in the Scriptures, which are several with
different meaning. We should fear the judgment of God or falling into the hands
of God if we are among the wicked and not the just. However, we are to Fear the
Lord not because he will hurt or punish us but because, knowing who he is and
who we are in relationship, we have a reverential awe of the Lord. This comes
from faith and grace. God, who is all in
all, chooses to be part of our lives and for us to be part of his. Even though this
spiritual fear may begin in the fear of God’s punishment for our wrong doings,
its end is to delight in love for and of God which is eternal union with him.
Some
of you may remember the Baltimore Catechism version of the Act of Contrition.
“O my God, I am heartily sorry for my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven
and the pains of hell, but most of all because I have offended you, O my God,
who is all good and deserving of all my love.”
This is known as an imperfect Act of Contrition. A perfect Act would be:
“O my God, I am heartily sorry for my sins, because I have offended you, O my
God, who is all good and deserving of all of my love.” The focus is not fear of
punishment, even though I deserve it, but the love and mercy of God which is
pure gift. The focus is God and not us.
This
is the intent of the prophetic word from Isaiah, with which we began. God reveals again and again who he is (“I,
the LORD, am the first, and at the last I am he.”) He is the mighty
Creator of the Universe. There is no other God.
At the same time, he reveals that he has chosen Israel to be in
relationship with him as Servant. Therefore, because of this choice and this
relationship there is no need of human fear but of awe and wonder. Then he
gives them once more the assurance of his presence with them and providential
care for them. Listen to his words again: “Do not fear: I am with you; do not
be anxious: I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will
uphold you with my victorious right hand….For I am the LORD, your God, who
grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, Do not fear, I will help you. I
will help you—; the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.”
If
we do fear, we are not to fear God, who is love, but we are to fear his just
punishments as a result of our non-love which we call sin. Instead of fear, we are called to fall in
love with God. In fact, what we should
fear, because of God’s grace and our relationship with him, is sin and its
consequence in our life. We should not even fear Satan the bully who wants us
to think he has power to control us. His
is only pseudo power. It is the power of the bully. The bully though stronger
than us has only the power of making us afraid of him. Once we are afraid of
the bully then we are under his power. If the bully sees that we are not
afraid, then he realizes that even if he hurts us, we will not yield to his
power.
Satan
is real and spiritual warfare is real. He is the spiritual bully “who roars
like a lion, roaming about the world seeking whom he may devour.” But the
Scriptures reminds us of the One who has the greater power. “Fear not, I am
with you.” I John attests to this: “He
who is within you is greater than he who is outside.”
When
Adam and Eve were innocent and in right relationship with God, they were in awe
and wonder of the Creator. They had a holy Fear of the Lord. There was no other
focus. This was because they shared in his own divine life. But they were tempted to take their eyes off
God and seek what is good for them outside of God. Thus, came sin into the
world. But when they sinned, they became afraid of God and hid themselves. They
knew they had done wrong, they had violated his command and they became afraid
of his punishment, which they deserved.
We should not fear Satan
nor his many temptations. As I have
said, what we should fear is falling into sin.
Wasn’t this what Moses told the Israelites on their journey? “Do not be
afraid. For God came in order to test you, and so that the dread of him might
be with you, and you would not sin.” (Ex 20:22)
Like Jesus, when tempted,
we should keep our eyes on the One whom we are in awe with, God, for he is with
us at that moment. It is at those times we need to recall the words of Deuteronomy
31:6 : “Be strong and
courageous. Do not fear or be in dread…, for it is the Lord your God
who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
Throughout
the Scriptures there is this constant word from the Lord. Fear not, I am with
you. Probably next to the command of God
for us to love, this is the next most frequent statement from God, occurring
nearly 150 times. This was his message to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, Elijah,
King Jehoshaphat, Jeremiah, Mary, Joseph, Peter, Jairus, etc.
We
are cautioned about allowing the ordinary human fears, whether natural or
psychological and emotional to overwhelm us.
For these fears make us the center of our life, rather than the Lord. We
become afraid because we can’t do anything humanly about a situation. The Word
of God tells us to trust in him at those moments. That is why he reminds us:
“Fear not, I am with you.”
According to Isaiah, Fear
of the Lord is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. We read in Isaiah
11:2 “The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and
of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge
and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.” These
are known as Sanctifying Gifts of the Holy Spirit in contrast to the
Charismatic Gifts of the Spirit spoken of in the New Testament.
Even though Fear of the
Lord is the last mentioned, it is actually the key to wisdom and the other
gifts, as we read in Ps 111:10 and other places. ”The fear of the LORD is the beginning
of wisdom” It is the Holy Spirit that empowers and enables us to be in
reverential awe and humble wonder of God so that we may be able to see a
situation as God sees it, which is Wisdom.
Fear of the Lord enables us to
obey the commands of the Lord and to love the things the Lord loves, which is
the Gift of Piety. As a consequence, we
are told: “Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the
LORD. ... See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.”
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