Articles
Don't Fear Fear
“Do not be afraid of sudden fear
Nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes;
For the LORD will be your confidence
And will keep your foot from being caught.” (Proverbs 3:25-26)
What is the opposite of faith? In the Scripture, it is often fear!
“The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted” (Prov 29:25).
“By faith [Moses] left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen” (Heb 11:27).
“Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue” (John 12:42).
Of course, the issue is not fear of God, which is constantly promoted in Scripture as the beginning of wisdom (Prov 1:7) and the foundation of trust in God (Psa 115:11). Rather, the issue is the fear of mankind. Man is constantly inventing things to be afraid of, shadows to jump at, and distractions to be anxious over. Irrational fears paralyze him from being useful or productive, like the sluggard who says, “There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!” (Prov 22:13). But if we are wise, we should not fear the hypothetical lion to the point where it paralyzes us from action. Rather, we should fear the God who made both us and the lion, and who protects us from harm in both this world and (more importantly) the next.
The world is dominated by rampant conspiracy theories. This is more of Satan’s work. No matter where we turn, there are news outlets reporting on how some foreign country is going to destroy us, or how some politician is going to take away all of our stuff, or how some deadly virus is going to infect our cheeseburgers and kill us all. For the avid follower of current events, it is easy to get caught up in the tossing tumultuous waves of society’s fears. Mankind often forgets that much of what passes for “news” is not really “new” at all, but rather a sensationalizing of the latest craze or the latest scare.
In Proverbs, the father admonishes his son not to get caught up in such sensation. If we had some wisdom and some perspective, we would not fear these “sudden fears” when they come upon us. We would not constantly tremble at the onslaught of the wicked. The prophet Isaiah also wrote a warning against this when he said:
“You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’
In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,
And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.
It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear,
And He shall be your dread.” (Isa 8:12-13)
Then there is Jesus, who warns us not even to fear death! “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28). If somebody puts a gun to our head today and tells us that we must choose between faith in God and our life on this earth, the Lord tells us not to fear in that circumstance, but to boldly confess his name before men, so that we might be likewise confessed before the Father in heaven (Matt 10:32).
If the Lord did not see the fear of death as a valid reason for compromising one’s faith in Christ, how much less should any of the other fears of society be an excuse for compromising one’s exercise of the gospel? One cannot use fear of insults or offenses as an excuse to avoid handling conflicts with one another in direct loving manner. One cannot use fear of being “awkward” or “alienating” to excuse one’s need to share the gospel with others. One cannot use fear of being embarrassed or proven wrong as an excuse to avoid searching for the truth. Etc. etc.
The writer’s exhortation in Proverbs not to be afraid of fear leaves me with a personal challenge and a reminder that I still have a long way to go on the path to wisdom. If we want to be wise and rooted in the “fear of the LORD” (Prov 1:7), we must forsake all other fears. This is the path of wisdom. Let us not fear fear!
