Fear Not

Love Drives Out Fear

Fear Not/Brian Zater

Chapter 10

November 16

Exodus 20:

20. Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."

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Preface

This is an example of when meaning can get lost in translation. First, we're told to not be afraid. Then we're told that the fear of God will be with us. In the Hebrew two different words are used: yare, meaning 'fearful,' and yir a, meaning 'reverence.'

God doesn't want us to be afraid of Him, as if He's a mugger in the night. There's no love in such fear. He wants to inspire reverence from love, because this is the only door through which He can enter our lives, making His infinite power available to us.

Fear closes that door, rendering us vulnerable to attack. 

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First, the people are told, "Do not be afraid." Then they're told, "...the fear of God will be with you." In the Hebrew two different words are used: The first, yare, causatively means 'fearful'; the second, yir a, the feminine version of yare, connotes 'reverence.' Though both words carry portions, so to speak, of fear and reverence within them, the first more heavily weights toward fear, the second, toward reverence. It's the difference between fear of getting into a car wreck and fear of breaking your mother's--child's, significant other's--heart.

God is telling us that He doesn't want to be the cause of fear. That's not his intent at all. (How could it be? Fear is the opposite of faith. There's no love in fear.) What he wants is our reverence, which both inspires and is born from faith. In other words, He demonstrates His power in our lives to inspire faith and reverence, not fear. And, within this, challenges arise as opportunities to practice faith and to give praise. They're not reasons to practice fear and complaint.

To reverence God is to never have to fear anything or anyone in the world. Reverence makes His power available to us while also inspiring us to see how much more valuable--peaceful, safe, secure, abundant, joyful, rewarding--the way of righteousness is compared to the ways of sin. It reveals the difference between gold and granite. And it builds for us a life we enjoy living.

To fear things and people in the world is to not fully trust God. Such fear can cut His power off from them, like turning off a faucet. His power is still always made readily available to them, like the water in the faucet, but fear closes their mind to knowing this, directing them to seek peace, safety, security, abundance, joy and reward through the material ways of sin. They choose granite, trying to turn it into gold (and then always wonder why they "fall short" and things don't work out). This generates for them a life predominated by misery--anger, sadness, frustration, vengefulness, impatience and violence.

Moses is essentially telling us what Apostle John later told the gentiles, that "there is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear." (1 John 4:18)

Fear erodes love, depressing spirit, making resolve brittle in the face of temptation or challenge. Faith, on the other hand, expands love, eroding fear, making resolve impenetrable, transcending perspective, from which the offer of sin appears repulsive, keeping us from sinning; from falling short of our committed to goals. And we're empowered to overcome any, all challenges.