Fear No Fear

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

“Jehoiada made a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that they should be Yahweh’s people; also between the king and the people. All the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down. They broke his altars and his images in pieces thoroughly, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. The priest appointed officers over Yahweh’s house. He took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from Yahweh’s house, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. He sat on the throne of the kings. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. They had slain Athaliah with the sword at the king’s house.”
(2 Kings 11:17-20)

“Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening, he shall have whatever he says. Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them. Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father, who is in heaven, may also forgive you your transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your transgressions.””
(Mark 11:22-26)

Jehoiada’s motivation was a good one. He renewed the covenant relationship between God and the people of Israel, which redefined the kingship in Israelite terms while rejecting foreign ideas and philosophies that had taken root. They didn’t take down the high places, probably because of architectural value (they had been built by Solomon and were extraordinary in their beauty and refinement), although it ended up being a stumbling block. So it was imperfect renewal, but it was a drastic overhaul of the system the Israelites had let themselves get dragged into. They were trying to get back to a system that looked to God for help, life, and security.

Jesus was against what was passing for worship. It wasn’t an opportunity for profit. It wasn’t a chance to gouge the people with inflation and get themselves into a bad spot just to interact with the Lord (it makes you wonder whether Mary and Joseph brought pigeons not because they were poor, but because sheep were ridiculously expensive – Luke 2:22-24). In the same misguided way, the people were looking for Messiah, but not for spiritual reasons. They were only looking for someone to save them from Roman occupation. Someone to bring them back into prominence on the world stage. There was no thought toward a better relationship with God or a more intimate one. They weren’t seeing the unseen things of the Kingdom or looking to the intent of their hearts. They were again looking only to empty things, the appearance of goodness – like a fig tree with leaves, but no figs (fig trees fruit when they leaf, the two always coming together).

Summary

We are called to look to the Lord more than to what is around us. To consider the Kingdom more than our physical lives. This isn’t about ignoring what life happens around us, but about focus and priority (2 Corinthians 4:18). It isn’t a denial of life, development, or improvement. It is an acknowledgement that God’s things are the real treasure and God the source of all upward mobility and survival (3 John 2). When we follow the Lord, we need to follow with our whole hearts, not put our stamp on His instructions. We need to humbly submit to what we find in the Word, not twist it to suit our narrative, our preferences, or our desires.