Fear No Fear

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

“He answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house, in that you have forsaken Yahweh’s commandments and you have followed the Baals. Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel to Mount Carmel, and four hundred fifty of the prophets of Baal, and four hundred of the prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.””
(1 Kings 18:18-19)

“I will come to you when I have passed through Macedonia, for I am passing through Macedonia. But with you it may be that I will stay with you, or even winter with you, that you may send me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not wish to see you now in passing, but I hope to stay a while with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”
(1 Corinthians 16:5-9)

Jezebel was known for murdering God’s prophets. A hundred of them had been hidden in a cave to avoid her at one point. In a nation of three hundred and fifty to four hundred thousand (the common population estimate), God later tells Elijah that there are only seven thousand who had not fallen to worshipping Baal in some way (1 Kings 19:18). When Elijah challenges the people to stop waffling between idols and God, the people don’t answer him (1 Kings 18:21). The sages teach that it isn’t that they didn’t understand or felt ashamed, but that they didn’t realize you couldn’t worship both. They hadn’t been taught. Ahab and Jezebel had done such a good job persecuting the prophets of God and trying to stamp out worship of Yahweh, that the message was muddled. The people were ignorant – and because of the persecution happy to be so. There were only a few people who choose to stand with God no matter what.

Pentecost was a pilgrimage festival and normally, Paul would have travelled in order to be in Jerusalem at the beginning of it. However, when choosing between attending a festival and availing himself of an opportunity to preach and spread the Gospel of Messiah Jesus, spreading the Word was deemed more important. It wasn’t that the festival wasn’t important or didn’t have purpose. It was that Paul was unwilling to let this great opportunity pass him by. An opportunity that MUST have had the potential to be worthwhile because he was being attacked by MANY people. The devil doesn’t want the kingdom to spread. The world doesn’t want their deeds exposed (in order that their hidden shame become a feeling they can’t ignore). Both sides attack the spread of the Word. If you’re coming under attack, you’re probably doing something right.

Summary

If the devil and the world aren’t bumping elbows with you, then you must be travelling in the same direction they are. There’s a famous line that the only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing (paraphrased from John Stuart Mill, from an 1867 inaugural address at the University of St. Andrews). Stands need to be taken. Opportunities to do the will of God need to be followed. In doing do there will be push back. The ungodly do NOT want to feel guilty. They do not want to feel shame. They LIKE ignorance and darkness because it hides their sin from their own conscience (John 3:19). We can EXPECT persecution for Jesus’ sake when we spread Jesus’ message (John 15:20). Instead of fearing it, fleeing from it, or getting anxious about it, we can take heart that we are in fact doing what we have been tasked with and God is touching people’s hearts – even when they want to shake it off.