Fear No Fear

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

“May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples, and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, that you may inherit the land where you travel, which God gave to Abraham.””
(Genesis 28:3-4)

“He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.“
(Matthew 8:26)

There is our way of doing things and there is God’s way of doing things. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12). It’s not always PHYSICAL death. It can be the death of innocence, the death of relationships, the death of career, the death of opportunity, or as in the case in Rebecca’s life, the death of family. She was so certain that her son deserved the best that she arranged for him to deceive his father to ‘steal’ a blessing. She gave into her fear that Jacob would get nothing. And truth be told, it wasn’t even that good of a blessing. It wasn’t bad – riches and the people around you being subservient to you (vs abusing you or ruling over you). But that’s it. Very monetary and temporary. Not much for your kids to walk into after you. It certainly wasn’t all-encompassing like Abraham’s blessing (Genesis 12:1-3; 22:17-18). So why did she even want it?

Back in Genesis 25, God gave her a promise: “Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples will be separated from your body. The one people will be stronger than the other people. The elder will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:20-25). She wanted that to happen. But she didn’t wait for God to bring it about. Like Sarah and Abraham before her (Genesis 16:1-4), she did it HER way. What did she get? A pale blessing for her son, an opportunity for hatred from Esau, no doubt strained relations with her husband, and having to send Jacob away and never seeing her beloved son again. That’s a LOT of death for one family to endure. And we see that Isaac gave Jacob the blessing of Abraham when he sent Jacob off to get a wife. Knowing full well who he was blessing (Genesis 28:1-5). And that was the blessing that God ratified (Genesis 28:10-15). The blessing Rebecca craved was always meant for Jacob. He WOULD have gotten it. She only had to be patient (trust Him over a period of time) to see it come to pass.

The disciples had recently seen Jesus heal a leper (Matthew 8:1-4); heal a Gentile’s son by remote (Matthew 8:5-13); heal Peter’s mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14-15); AND heal every single sick, diseased, and possessed person that a MULTITUDE of people had brought to Him (Matthew 8:16-17). But when they got into a boat with a command to go to the other side (implied in Matthew, but explicitly stated in Mark 4 and Luke 8), they panicked when the storm hit. They didn’t trust in the command. They seem to have forgotten the power of God that was present in their lives. They gave into their fear. But it was unfounded. Jesus told them they would get across and they did. He had to intervene by trusting instead of them choosing to trust, but they DID get across. Their way would have brought death. God’s way didn’t.

Summary

We do not like waiting. We do not like being patient. But patience is simply trusting in God over a period of time. It doesn’t matter HOW MUCH time. What God says will be, WILL BE. He doesn’t make idle promises. His Word comes to pass. Even when things look dark, improbable, or impossible, we can STILL choose to trust in God. We have Holy Spirit living in us and we can inquire of Him to find out what actions we CAN do – even if it is only to stand on our promise. There is POWER in God’s Word. There is POWER in God’s promises. And they NEVER fail. Take HIS way, and don’t insist on your own.