When Our Fears Get the Best of Us

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. 6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” 10 Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.

11 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.” – Numbers 14:5-12 ESV

We all suffer from it on occasion – worst-case-scenario syndrome. The symptoms are easily recognizable: fear, doubt, a growing sense of panic, and visions of all kinds of disasters happening; one bad thing leading to another. Usually, it starts with a fairly pedestrian situation; one that is negative, but not catastrophic. But before we know it, we’ve conjured up images of all kinds of future mishaps and mayhem. Our minds begin to play tricks on us, causing us to imagine all kinds of negative outcomes as we conjecture what will inevitably happen next. We start playing out a variety of circumstances in our minds, wondering what will happen if…

That’s exactly what the Israelites suffered from in this story as they stood on the edge of the promised land, weighing out the two disparate reports given by the 12 spies. When these men had returned from their investigatory trek through Canaan, they had delivered a report that was equal parts good news and bad news. The land was wildly abundant and fertile, and they had even brought back samples as proof. But while Canaan was bountiful and rich, it was also filled with “giants” who would surely pose a formidable threat to the Israelites.

The spies reported that the land that God had promised to Israel as their inheritance was already occupied and its current residents would be far from pushovers. They were powerful, plentiful, well-armed, and safely ensconced in their fortified cities, and that part of the report was all the people of Israel heard.

Ten of the spies were convinced that any attempt to conquer the land of Canaan would end in disaster, so they launched a campaign of misinformation, blowing the negative elements of their report out of proportion and drawing conclusions that were NOT based on fact. Instead of trusting God, they decided to trust their very fertile imaginations, stirring up the people with outlandish claims and false accusations against God Himself.

“Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” – Numbers 14:3 NLT

In a matter of minutes, these people had turned a bit of bad news into a forecast of complete disaster, and they had accused God of attempted murder. These men had whipped themselves into a frenzy of fright and faithlessness and infected the entire community. Suddenly, the God who had freed them from slavery in Egypt through a series of miraculous plagues, and who had cared for them all throughout their journey to the promised land, was too weak to take care of them anymore. Their troubles were greater than their God, and the symptoms of worst-case-scenario syndrome began to appear throughout the camp.

Yet, Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua tried to put a stop to it by begging the people to trust God.

“The land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land! And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey. Do not rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!” – Numbers 14:7-9 NLT

But the people continued to respond with fear and anger, even threatening to stone Moses, his brother, and the two spies. Consumed by their lurid visions of wanton destruction, they refused to listen to what Moses and the others had to say. So, God intervened. As the people quaked in their sandals over the prospect of facing the nations of Canaan, the Lord showed up and gave them something far more formidable to fear.

Then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the Tabernacle. – Numbers 14:10 NLT

God showed up in all His glory, and He was far from pleased. He informed Moses that He was determined to wipe out the entire nation and start all over again. Despite all He had done for them, they had dared to treat Him with contempt. They had hurled accusations against Him, declaring Him to be uncaring and unsympathetic to their plight. They had displayed a staggering degree of ingratitude for all His past mercies and miracles, and He declared that He had had enough.

“How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them? I will disown them and destroy them with a plague. Then I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are!” – Numbers 14:11-12 NLT

God had run out of patience with these ungrateful and disobedient people, and this was not the first time. Back at Mount Sinai, God had also been prepared to wipe out the people of Israel for their audacity to worship the golden calf (Exodus 32). And on that occasion, He told Moses, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation” (Numbers 32:9-10 NLT).

Despite their egregious and ungrateful rejection of His love, mercy, and provision, God spared the nation of Israel. But here, months later, He vows once again to destroy them and start all over again with Moses. As before, He declares that He will simply make for Himself a new nation. His decision to give the Israelites favored-nation status had nothing to do with them. They had not earned their designation as His chosen people. And He would have been perfectly just and right in doing so. After all, He had been the one who had chosen them in the first place. They had done nothing to earn His favor or to deserve His affection. Moses would later remind the people that their privileged position as the apple of God’s eye was completely undeserved and the result of God’s love, grace, and mercy.

“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” – Deuteronomy 7:6-8 BSB

God had set them apart as His people, not because they were a great and powerful nation, but because He was a covenant-keeping God. According to Moses, their unique relationship with God was totally undeserved and fully God’s doing.

God had miraculously delivered them from their bondage in Egypt. He had led them across the wilderness and brought them safely to the shores of the Jordan River. He had kept their sandals from wearing out. He had supplied them with water, manna, and quail to eat. He had guided and protected them along the way. But now that it was time for them to do their part and enter and conquer the land, they had reneged on their end of the agreement. Moses had made their God-ordained instructions perfectly clear.

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you – and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.”  – Deuteronomy 7:1-2 BSB

But they had decided to reject God’s command and go with their guts. They had determined that their will was more reliable than God’s and believed a return to Egypt was preferable to certain defeat in Canaan.

When we face difficult times, it’s easy to succumb to worst-case-scenario syndrome; it’s almost natural. We begin to doubt and fear, and we blow things out of proportion. Our vision gets blurry. Our memory gets sketchy. We tend to forget things; like God’s track record of goodness in our lives. We become weak and prone to fear, instead of faith. Worry replaces worship. Even little things get blown way out of proportion, and the usual outcome is rebellion.

We refuse to believe, trust, and obey God, and so we fail to experience His power in our lives. We miss out on the blessings. Like the Israelites, we stand on the edge of the promises of God but never get to enjoy them.

But there is a cure for worst-case-scenario syndrome. It’s called trust. Trust is turning our belief in God into action. It is stepping out and relying on God’s goodness. It is resting on His power even in the presence of problems. God doesn’t promise us a life free from trouble but He does promise to see us through them. He promises us strength. He promises us joy and contentment. He promises us His presence. He will see us through. But to experience all those things, the Israelites were going to have to turn their fear into faith and follow God. Little did they know that their best chance at surviving the worst-case-scenario syndrome wasn’t a return to Egypt but a greater reliance upon God.

Just when the Israelites were ready to give up, God showed up in all His glory because that’s what He does. And, as the prophet Isaiah reminds us, only the presence of God can calm our fears and turn the worst-case scenario into an opportunity to see Him work.

Strengthen the weak hands,
    and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
    “Be strong; fear not!
  Behold, your God
    will come with vengeance,
  with the recompense of God.
    He will come and save you.” – Isaiah 35:3-4 ESV

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Walk the Talk

1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. 4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say,

“The Lord is my helper;
    I will not fear;
what can man do to me?” – Hebrews 13:1-6 ESV

The author ended chapter 12 with an exhortation to “be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” and to “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29 ESV). The same God who shook the landscape surrounding Mount Sinai and rattled the knees of the Israelites with His divine presence is our God and He has prepared a kingdom for us. So what should be our response? Proper worship, reverence, and awe. And to make it even more practical, in the closing chapter of his letter, the author illustrates what those things look like in everyday life.

Sometimes we’re tempted to make our worship of God an external show for others to see. We confuse worship of God with the intensity of our singing, the verbosity of our prayers, the selflessness of our service, or the generosity of our giving. But sometimes our love for God is best measured by our love for others. Worship of God that does not include love for others is hypocritical and insincere.

So, the author moves from grand descriptions of God as a consuming fire to a plea for brotherly love. “Let brotherly love continue” (Hebrews 13:1 ESV). Love for one another is an indispensable and non-negotiable requirement for anyone who claims to be a lover and worshiper of God.

At one point in His earthly ministry, Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees, who posed to Him what they believed to be a trick question. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” (Matthew 22:36 ESV). His intent was to entrap Jesus. The question he posed was one that the Scribes and Pharisees debated regularly. They had numbered the laws of God and had come up with the staggering sum of 613, which they categorized into two groups, with 248 deemed positive and 365 designated as negative. Then they divided them all into two categories, the “heavy” or more important ones, and the “light” or the less important ones.

In the question they posed to Jesus, they were asking Him to give His opinion as to which of all the laws was the “heaviest.” And Jesus didn’t hesitate in giving His answer.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:37-38 ESV

Love God AND love others. According to Jesus, those two commands encapsulate the entirety of the rest of the law.

So, it is no wonder that the author of Hebrews told his readers, “Let brotherly love continue.” But he took it a step further. “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers” (Hebrews 13:2 ESV). This recalls the parable of the good Samaritan that Jesus told in response to another inquiry from a Pharisee. 

This man approached Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25 ESV). In His inimitable way, Jesus responded with a question of His own, asking the man to tell Him what the law said. The Pharisee quickly replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

What Jesus said next must have surprised the learned Pharisee. It was not what he was expecting.

“You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” – Luke 10:28 ESV

Unsatisfied with Jesus’ answer, the man asked for clarification. “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 22:29 ESV). That’s when Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan. In it, He described what it truly means to show hospitality and kindness to someone who is a stranger and in need. It involves sacrifice. It requires giving up your rights and a commitment of your resources. The author of Hebrews echoes the sentiment of Jesus’ parable when writes, “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body” (Hebrews 13:3 ESV).

Our love for God is best expressed by our love for others. The apostle John encourages us to compare the love Christ expressed for us with the way in which we love others.

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. – 1 John 3:16-18 ESV

Love should permeate all of our relationships, including that between a husband and wife. A couple that truly loves one another, as Christ loved them, will find no place for adultery or immorality in their marriage. They will always want what is best for one another.

Self-obsession or self-love is the greatest detriment to loving others. When we love ourselves too much, we are incapable of loving others. We end up pouring into our relationships in a selfish attempt to get something in return. We give to get, and those relationships quickly become self-serving rather than selfless.

It’s interesting that, in this context, the author warns against the love of money. “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have” (Hebrews 13:5 ESV). The love of money is self-directed. We love money for what it can do for us. And yet, to properly love others, our money may need to be involved. We may be required to let go of our resources in order to best express our love. It was James who said, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15-16 ESV).

Talk is cheap. Words cannot fill someone’s stomach or make them warm.

The walk of faith is to be future-focused, recognizing that the ultimate promise of God is our glorification and final redemption. We are to live with the end in mind. But our faith walk is also to be God-dependent. We are to spend our days on this earth with a constant recognition that He is our provider and sustainer. That is why the author reminds us to be content because God has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5 ESV).

But not only are we to be future-focused and God-dependent, we are to be other-oriented. We are to live our lives with an outward orientation that puts the needs of others ahead of our own. When we love others, we are loving God. When we lovingly sacrifice for others, it is an act of worship to God. When we give up what we have for the sake of others, we are letting God know that we are dependent upon Him. All that we have comes from Him and is to be used for His glory and the good of others. Our constant attitude is to be, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6 ESV).

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Putting Faith Into Action.

Esther 5-6, James 2

Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. – James 2:18 ESV

It is so easy to claim belief in God. But it's something altogether different to live that belief out in daily life. In the story of Esther, we have belief or faith in God put to the test. Esther and Mordecai had to take what they knew about God in a purely academic or cerebral sense and apply it to their circumstances. They both had to take steps of faith and learn to stand on and trust in the character and power of God. Esther knew that, while she was queen, she was under the same law that prohibited anyone from coming into the presence of the king unless summoned. The penalty for violating this law was death. Yet Esther, after prayer and fasting, determined to trust God and place her life in His hands. She boldly walked into the king's presence, uninvited and unexpected. But rather than encountering the king's wrath, she “won favor in his sight, and he hold out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand” (Esther 5:2 ESV). Not only that, the king greeted her with the shocking words, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to half of my kingdom” (Esther 5:3 ESV). As God had done so many times before in the history of the people of Israel, He influenced the heart of a king and caused him to show favor to His servant. Mordecai, the man whose refusal to bow before Haman had caused the dire situation in which the people of God found themselves, continued to show up at the gate and do his job. He didn't flee in fear or run for his life. He remained committed to His God and consistent in his refusal to bow down before a man. Under pressure and faced with the prospect of watching his people ruthlessly murdered, Mordecai didn't compromise his convictions or succumb to situational ethics. He remained firm, trusting God, in spite of all that he saw happening around him.

What does this passage reveal about God?

God is always at work, most often in ways that are invisible to our eyes. He operates behind the scenes and orchestrates events in unseen ways. Esther had no way of knowing that the king would show her favor. Neither she or Mordecai had any idea what was taking place behind the closed doors of the palace and in Haman's own home. Haman was plotting the public hanging of Mordecai. King Ahasuerus was having trouble sleeping. And God was behind it all. Haman, driven by pride and anger, was plotting his revenge on Mordecai. But he was unaware that his plans for Mordecai's demise would be turned against him. He had no way of knowing that the gallows he had constructed for Mordecai's death would become his own place of execution. Esther was oblivious to her husband's insomnia and his seemingly random request to have “the book of memorable deeds” read to him. In that book he would hear of the earlier actions of Mordecai, who had exposed and foiled a plot on the king's life. Haman had no idea that, when he had shown up early for work that morning, his timing was God-ordained. And when asked by the king, “What should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” (Esther 6:6 ESV), Haman had no idea the ramifications his self-centered response would have. In this passage we see both the sovereignty and sense of humor of God. Thinking that the king wants to honor him, Haman came up with a very elaborate, over-the-top recommendation for honoring “the man” the king has in mind. Haman had no concept that the king was to Mordecai. He had no way of knowing that his words would be used to honor his mortal enemy. And Mordecai was oblivious to the fact that God was getting ready to reward his faithfulness and convictions. God was working in unseen ways, putting together a plan by which His enemies would be destroyed and His people, blessed.

What does this passage reveal about man?

As human beings, we live by sight. We are circumstantially based, and prone to focus on what we can see. We evaluate the situation surrounding us and draw certain conclusions. We make assumptions and make determinations based on the facts as we know them. But we tend to overlook what God may be doing behind the scenes. That is where faith comes in. The writer of Hebrews gives us a wonderful definition of faith: “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:2 NLT). Paul told us that we are to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV). The word he used for “walk” is a word that means “to conduct your life.” It conveys the idea of living your life, going about your everyday affairs, by faith, not by sight. In other words, we are put our faith into daily action, by trusting in what we can't see: the reality of God's behind-the-scenes involvement in the everyday affairs of our life. Faith has practical ramifications. Believing in God is far more than a mental assent to His existence. It is a daily reliance upon His power, sovereignty, love, mercy, and unwavering commitment to our long-term well-being. While things may not look promising, we can always count on God keeping His promises. He will never leave us or forsake us. He will not fail to keep His commitments to us. But our greatest temptation will always be to doubt God. We will always find ourselves prone to allow our faith to become compromised and our actions to be based on human reasoning. James wrote to his audience warning them of this very thing. They were showing partiality, treating those with wealth as more important and significant than those who had nothing. They were using human reasoning to determine that sucking up to the rich made sense. They had convinced themselves that associating themselves with the wealthy would have long-term benefits. But to do so, they were having to violate God's royal law of love. It made no sense to love the poor because common sense said there was nothing to be gained by doing so. But faith rarely makes sense. Doing things God's way will not always seem reasonable or practical. But the life of faith rarely makes sense from a human perspective.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

I can claim to have faith in God, but the proof is in the pudding. In other words, faith must show up in practical ways. It can't remain hidden. Esther was going to have to walk into the presence of the king sooner of later as an expression of her faith in God. Mordecai was going to have to stay committed to his convictions if he wanted to see His God act. To have compromised or caved in would have openly declared his lack of faith in God. James whole point in dealing with faith and works was to convince us that faith is not some ethereal, hidden characteristic, but a practical, visible manifestation of what we know about our God. Esther's faith in God became visible when she placed her trust in Him and stepped into that throne room, in spite of her fears and the voice of reason screaming inside her head. Mordecai kept showing up to work each day, knowing that his refusal to bow down to Haman had led to the possible destruction of the entire Jewish population. Everything in him and everyone around him was probably telling him it wasn't worth it. He had to have been wrestling with whether or not he had gone to far. Certainly he entertained ideas of giving up his hopeless crusade and was tempted to rationalize a more reasonable solution to his problem. But he stayed committed because he trusted God. He had told Esther, “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place” (Esther 4:14 ESV). He didn't know exactly how, but God was going to save them one way or the other. His hope was not in Esther, but in Esther's God. How we act in this world should be based on what we know about God. Our belief in God should impact our behavior. What we know about our God should influence our actions, regardless of what we know about the ultimate outcome.

Father, I want to be a man of faith. I want to learn to live by faith, not by sight. Help me to understand that it is my growing awareness and understanding of You that drives my behavior. It is my confidence in You that allows me to live confidently and uncompromisingly in this world. My faith has an object: You. And it is my faith in You that allows me to live faithfully in this world, regardless of what I can see or not see. Amen