Fear No Fear

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

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.”
(Judges 21:35)

“This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.””
(2 Peter 3:1-4)

The men of Gibeah were depraved in what they had wanted to do (Judges 19). The Levite was depraved in his selfishness and his actions toward his concubine – when she was living AND after she died (also Judges 19). He gained the righteous indignation of the people of the Land, but no one consulted God. There was such moral and spiritual perversion described in this situation that they NEEDED to consult God, but did not. There were wrongs on both sides and neither side was consulting God about what HE thought. They only asked very black and white questions about what THEY wanted. They put themselves in a place where the only judgment they would receive was physical. They got a civil war. God could have dealt with them differently if they had consulted Him. But even when they saw things going wrong, even when they gave sacrifices to God, they weren’t asking Him what HE thought. They were STILL going with their own ideas, their own understanding, and their own feelings. They cried before God. They mourned before God. They asked of God. But they did not humble themselves, submit to God, and seek His point of view in any of it. They truly did whatever it was that they wanted without any real input.

When I read these chapters I am reminded of Peter walking on water (Matthew 14:22–33; Mark 6:45–51; John 6:15–21). Peter only asks IF it is truly Jesus on the water. He doesn’t ask if he SHOULD go to Jesus. He doesn’t ask if it is WISE to go to Jesus. He bases his entire eager leaping on whether Jesus is actually Jesus. Jesus answers the question Peter ASKED, but Peter didn’t ask the right question. When Peter wrote his second letter, he was in a very different place. With Holy Spirit living in him and trusting intently in Jesus as his Lord and Saviour, his perspective on wilfulness had changed. In fact, he mentions in verse 5 that the ungodly people will WILFULLY forget. The thing about feelings is that they change. Another thing about feelings is that they are blind. They are simply a sense. Like touch, hearing, or taste. They do not see consequences. They do not ask right or wrong. They only feel. When we choose to live ONLY according to feelings, we make poor decisions. Feelings are meant to be warnings, information, and should be considered. But we aren’t meant to build emotions from them. We are meant to build emotions from God’s Fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). We are meant to build them after consulting God for wisdom (James 1:5). We are meant to consult God for HIS point of view and to align ourselves with Him (Romans 12:2). The world around us can be observed, but only the foolish will choose to put their trust in its immutability. In the idea that it has always been this way and always will be this way. The foolish look at their feelings as facts and therefore wilfully chose not to consult God.

Summary

We’re smart people. Humans are intelligent. We observe the world around us, investigate it, and both discover and develop some pretty cool and amazing things. We’re kinda great. But we ONLY know what WE know – and let’s face it: that barely scratches the surface. We don’t know what is in someone’s heart, only the face that they choose to show us. We don’t know all the myriad effects of the situations that come upon us – the ripples from the flapping of the butterfly’s wings). We only see the surface. We only know so much. We can only guess so much. We NEED the Lord. We NEED the ONLY objective point of view. We NEED the One who can see into all hearts, see ALL outcomes, and knows the end result of everything. We need God. We need to consult God. All of the problems we end up in (verses situations that come at us but find us secure in the Lord) are problems because we didn’t trust in the Lord heading toward them. Storms are going to come. Period. But we can either be with Him in the boat or we can be in the water at the storm’s mercy. It is OUR choice. Consult and then obey, proving we trust in the Lord and believe what He says; or end up being tossed to and fro by the waves.