Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and no one shall make them afraid.
Isaiah 17:2 (emphasis added)

On the face of it, this sounds like a very positive verse. Bad cities will be forsaken and will be turned over to sheep. It will be so peaceful that the sheep will lie down where they want, when they want, and no one will harm them or disturb them. Contextually, this is in a passage about the destruction of Damascus, a Syrian city. Enemies of Israel being brought low because of their behaviour so that they are unable to continue to plague Israel. It is great right up until you realise that the cities of Aroer were within Israelite territory. They were within the claims of Reuben (Joshua 13:16). The main city of Aroer was built by Gad (Numbers 32:34). But in the ancient world nations were ruled by rulers and just as a ruler could be punished for the sins of the people, the people could be punished for the sins of the ruler (they were a unit in triumph and guilt). “But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin. In those days the LORD began to cut away parts of Israel; and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan” (2 Kings 10:31-33). So Aroer became a fortress border city of Hazael — until the Moabites later gained control of it. But while the Syrians had it, this judgment came upon it.

Why the judgment? Because the people had turned away from Yahweh God. “In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the Asherah poles or the incense altars. In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation. For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings” (Isaiah 17:7-10). When the Lord had granted the Israelites the land, He had told them that the power of life and death was in their hands (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). If they followed Him: blessing and success. If they rejected Him: curses and defeat. Does it seem harsh to bring curses on them? Well, that’s a language thing.

In actuality, the Lord wasn’t promising them that HE would curse them. He was promising them that if they rejected His blessing, they would be at the mercy of the curse. If they rejected His protection, they would be at the mercy of the world. If they refused to put Him first, there was nothing He could do. It is the same thing that humanity faced in Genesis 6: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil. The LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart” (vs 5-6). Since evil was so prevalent and humanity had thrown itself into it so enthusiastically, there was no point in them continuing. Like a diseased limb, they needed to be cut off to save the rest of the world. It still sounds harsh. But today in modern medicine, when cancer is found in the body we irradiate the body in the hope of killing off the cancer cells. What can happen to the rest of the body? Tiredness. Feeling and being sick. Hair loss. Infections. Anaemia. Bruising and bleeding. Sore mouth. Loss of appetite. Skin and nail changes. Memory and concentration problems. Sleep problems. Sex and fertility issues. Diarrhoea and constipation. Emotional issues. That seems harsh to me. Why would you willingly do that to yourself? Because the alternative is worse.

Right about now, you should be really, really, really happy that you aren’t under the Old Covenant. That the Law and how things worked isn’t the system that faces you. We have a better covenant. We have a better deal. We have absolution, restitution, and redemption. We don’t have to worry about this whole life and death thing, right? “Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2). We have the same choice as the Israelites did. We have the same choice that Adam and Eve did. We have the same choice that all humanity has. Each and every man and woman: will you follow the Lord or will you not. When we follow the Lord, we are where He can bless us. When we do not follow the Lord, we are where the world can harm us. Who would willingly choose to make themselves vulnerable to the world’s whims when they could rest in the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1)? Too many of us.

““I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing,’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;” (Revelation 3:15-17). These are prophetic words spoken by the Lord Jesus to the church at Laodicea. Laodicea was located in what is now Turkey. It was a wealthy city during the Roman period, located on major trade routes and a centre of textile production and banking. It was rich. In our way, we are rich. Don’t look at funds, look at functionality. What can we not do as a people? We have wealth, yes. But we can achieve a high standard of living for our citizens — this is regardless of country or location because in today’s world it is POSSIBLE even though in many cases it doesn’t happen. The foods of the world are at our fingertips. We have culture, entertainment, and daily hours in which we can relax. We have a relatively set time of work in our lives and at a given point retire to just lie back and do nothing but relax. We have amazing technology. We are a world of medical marvels. We are in a superior position as a species to all other times before us by many human markers. And that is our problem.

We no longer strive to survive in many places of this world. And in each and every one of those places, we struggle because the ‘we’ has become the most important thing. Whatever we feel, this is now something we claim as reality. Whatever we feel, this is now what is important. Feelings are taking the place of truth and for a species that is inherently selfish, this is a deadly step. If we look through history, all of the worst atrocities that mankind has inflicted on mankind have come from people whose ‘feelings’ were different from those around them. They didn’t feel that group ‘A’ were people, so they got enslaved or slaughtered. They felt that ‘B’ was their right, so they took or attempted to take it. They felt they were best for ‘C’ so they conquered it or tried to. Billions of people since the beginning of humanity have suffered and died because of human feelings. Yet this is the altar the modern world is trying to build. We think we are rich, but we are naked, blind, poor, miserable, and wretched. If you don’t believe that, realise that the behavioural therapy industry is worth $16.5 billion today. And rising. That might not be a lot against the $808 billion US healthcare industry, but for a happy, rich, and content people $16.5 billion in therapy is a lot.

Oh, but that’s mental disorders and that’s DNA and environment and failed parenting strategies etc etc. No, that’s the curse in action: “Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life. In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” for the fear of your heart which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see” (Deuteronomy 28:66-67). “The LORD will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart. You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you” (Deuteronomy 28:28-29). Sounds like anxiety, depression, and several other mental disorders to me. And remember that language thing. God isn’t doing it to you, you are placing yourself where you are vulnerable to it. Wait, are you saying I did this? I am saying WE did this. As a species. As humanity. We have moved out from underneath the shelter of the Lord’s blessing and we are out there in the backwoods of the curse. So what, you say, can I just choose to feel better and I’ll be fine? If you accept Jesus’ healing, yes. Jesus’ healing is inherent in salvation. That’s why He died. To save us spirit, soul, and body. We can be completely restored once our spirit is restored (3 John 1:2, 1 Peter 2:24, Matthew 8:16-17).

But if you look at those verses you see something very clear. It is about our spirit and our relationship with that spirit that enables everything else. Because once we are saved, we are dealing with Jesus’ spirit in us. We have become His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). We have no excuse. Spiritually we are carbon copies of Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30). So why aren’t we all looking and acting like it? Because we think we are rich when we are wretched. As we think in our heart, so we are (Proverbs 23:7). Why don’t we think we are completely, totally well in every way? Why do we accept sickness and mental disorders and disease and all that stuff? Because we as a species have given ourselves over to the curse and to sin. We have wallowed in it, built it up, and made it so pervasive that it is part of who we see ourselves as being. Once we are saved we’re spiritually just like Jesus is. But our flesh still has sin habits. Our minds still think in those patterns. Sanctification is the lifelong process of letting Holy Spirit guide, correct, and lead us to change our thinking into that of Jesus. If our spirits and our souls are both aligned perfectly with Jesus, then the flesh will follow suit. But because of freewill, it is not instantaneous, the timeline is different for everyone, we teach ourselves that it is or isn’t true, and we struggle with the patterns we have taught ourselves.

In Revelation 2:21 Jesus says “I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.” He is talking about a spirit of Jezebel that was prevalent in the church of Thyatira. That isn’t exactly what we are talking about here, but the first part of the verse is echoed again and again in scripture: I gave her time to repent. The Lord is a merciful God. He gives us time. He works with us. He is available to us. But at a certain point, we’ve chosen our choice. We can do it consciously or we can do it by refusing to choose. We can do it by choosing not to work at what needs working at. But there is a time limit. In Genesis 15:16 God is talking to Abram and tells him that his descendants (at this point Abram didn’t even have a single child) would return to this region and conquer it, but that it couldn’t happen until then because “iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full”. Hundreds of years later the Israelites — descendants of Abram — did return. One group of Amorites attacked them before they entered the land and were destroyed (Numbers 21:21-35). The other Amorites attacked after they entered the land and they were destroyed too (Joshua 10:1-27). The western empire of the Amorites were wiped out completely.

Like the Amorites and like the inhabitants of the cities of Aroer, we have a choice. We have a time period. We have a limit to the depth of the cup of God’s wrath. Does that mean that we have to worry about a smitey God? No. God is love. He doesn’t seek to harm us in any way. But there are boundaries that He has set on time and behaviour. We have to worry about our own freewill. If we continue to ignore the Lord and go against what He wants, sooner or later we will bring upon our own heads the consequences of our own actions. Like the players in a television sitcom, we will get our comeuppance. That is never pleasant. That is never good. That is never the plan of the Lord (1 Timothy 2:3-6).

What the Lord wants for us is Psalm 91. Us choosing Him as our refuge. Us choosing to abide in Jesus. Us choosing to give real weight to the authority of the Word. To strive to love on God more than we seek anything else — including and especially our creature comforts. Can’t we give up some of our time to seek His face? Are we aware of the rewards that await us? They are better than TV, social media, entertainments, gatherings, family, and rest. This is nothing human or temporal. This is the Almighty Lord God we’re discussing. And He wants to meet and greet with you. He wants to fellowship. It doesn’t mean we will lose everything else or ignore everything else, but if we did the reward would be so rich we wouldn’t notice any loss. Because He is that awesome. If we were all doing it, think of the richness of our relationships with each other! Everything we did would be filtered through the total righteousness of God!

It’s what we are called to. We are called to love God. If we truly love Him, we will find ourselves obedient to Him. If we’re obedient to Him, then the Word and our praise life to Yahweh God will be first and foremost in our lives. When God comes first, true richness follows. Spiritual richness. Richness of our soul. Satisfaction in all things, because all things are in Him. We give Him everything, we put ourselves in the right mindset to receive from Him. Our worldly level of status, possession, or thingness won’t matter. It won’t have a hold on us. It won’t matter to us. We’ll be satisfied in the One who brings satisfaction. We’ll be whole inside and out, spirit, soul, and body. That is where we are headed. That is the end point of our sanctification.

Are you on the journey to fulfilment? Or are you on the journey to the wasteland of Aroer? Will you have abundance of life (John 10:10) or will sheep be grazing in your life with no fear of interference? The Holy Spirit was sent to us to provide guidance, teaching, correction, and all things that we need to move on the paths the Lord Jesus sets for us. Rely on Him. Abide in Jesus. Stand on the Word. Get it into you and comply with it. It can be believed, verbatim, as written. We may not understand it all and it may fly in the face of the world’s thinking, but they’re blind and lost anyway. Grasping at mud pies and claiming they’re caviar. Trust in the only One who can be trusted. Stay focused on Jesus. Continue to walk in His ways. Love God and obey Him. Don’t let your city become abandoned. Take heed, pay attention, and see yourself as God sees you. Make Psalm 91 your motto today.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Galatians 2:20

We get to be Him. There ya go. That says it, doesn’t it? Is there anything else? Jesus gave Himself up for us so that we can be in Him. We get to lay aside all our garbage. All our baggage. All our not ever enough. We can embrace love. We can become patience. We get to be whole. Can you imagine it? Really see it? Stand in front of a mirror and not see you, but all that you are in Him? Can you see yourself with nothing broken? Nothing missing? All the pieces there and working the way that they should be? We don’t have to accept weakness. We don’t have to accept sickness. We don’t have to accept vulnerability. We don’t have to accept frailty. These are all part of the human condition. But we don’t have to be human anymore. We can be in Jesus! We can be in Him as He is in us. That’s huge. That’s transformative. That means we are not subject to the rules of this world. We are not subject to the thinking of humanity. We don’t need to accept reality. We can accept His Word instead. His Word is a truth beyond truth. It is the solid bedrock that created all that will ever be. Spoken from before Time it created all that will be after Time. It is a multi-dimensional creative force that will renew you from the cells of your being to the tips of your spirit. And in Jesus, through Jesus, by Grace, through Faith we can walk in that. We can experience that. We no longer live in the flesh, but by faith in the Son of Yahweh God Almighty. It is offered to us in love. And what love that is. An offer to restore us to where we were when we rejected Him. It is the turning of the divine cheek that we slapped. It is love incarnate. And we are invited to live inside Him. Why would we pause? Why would we wait? Why would we prioritise this world over Him? Accept His love. Walk in the faith of the Son of God today and in all the days afterward. He gave Himself up for you. Give yourself up for Him.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.