Fear No Fear

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

“When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned Yahweh’s law, and all Israel with him. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had trespassed against Yahweh, with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. The people were without number who came with him out of Egypt: the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians. He took the fortified cities which belonged to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. Now Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah, who were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “Yahweh says, ‘You have forsaken me, therefore I have also left you in the hand of Shishak.’” Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, “Yahweh is righteous.””
(2 Chronicles 12:1-6)

“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
    They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity.
    There is no one who does good.
God looks down from heaven on the children of men,
    to see if there are any who understood,
    who seek after God.
Every one of them has gone back.
    They have become filthy together.
    There is no one who does good, no, not one.
Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
    who eat up my people as they eat bread,
    and don’t call on God?
There they were in great fear, where no fear was,
    for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you.
You have put them to shame,
    because God has rejected them.
Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
    When God brings back his people from captivity,
    then Jacob shall rejoice,
    and Israel shall be glad.”
(Psalm 53)

If they would obey and listen to God, they would be blessed and there would always be a son of David on the throne. That’s what God has been telling them for MANY years. Once things were secure in his kingdom, Rehoboam and the leaders of the country (military, political, etc) stopped following God. They leaned into their own understanding instead of God’s. And they got exactly what God promised. He told them that if they went off into the weeds on their own, they would be off in the weeds on their own. If they left the place where He said there was a BLESSING, then they would be at the mercy of the CURSE. That’s exactly what happened. And they recognized it. They didn’t blame God. They didn’t wonder why it was happening to them. They saw that their own failure to obey opened the door to trouble, and they acknowledged it. They repented. They humbled themselves. They returned to proper worship and reliance. As a result, they were delivered.

When we deny God’s authority over us, we are rebelling against the order God set into place. We are rejecting the proper functioning of life. Nothing good comes from that. Disobedience NEVER brings peace. Or joy. Or helps us to enjoy the BLESSING. We can’t receive from God’s outstretched hands when we are turned away, moving away, or filling our own hands with whatever nonsense we’ve picked up. God isn’t being cruel or a dictator or petty. God laid out the framework of how life works right from the beginning. He has never forced us to comply, but has worked tirelessly from love to get us to see the truth and respond to it. Only the truly foolish hears the message and rejects us. And only those who harden their hearts reject His correction when it comes. It is human to step off the path. It is foolish not to listen to Him, repent, and get back on.

Summary

With God everything is possible (Matthew 19:26). Without Him nothing is possible (John 15:1-5). Nothing worthwhile anyway. We need to listen to God. We need to heed His correction. We need to obey. Not delay in obeying, but to obey when we hear Him. This is what Jesus did every day of His life. In Jesus, this is what we can do as well. There is no excuse. We KNOW the voice of God (John 10:27). It always agrees with the Word. Things will always work out according to His will when we obey. Things will always go poorly when we disobey. This is the same lessons we teach our own children. Why do we think it doesn’t apply to our relationship with the Lord? We teach our kids to obey as a shadow of what God is trying to teach us. Obedience isn’t bad. It isn’t restrictive. It is FREEING. Jesus came to give us ABUNDANT life (John 10:10). Isn’t it about time we started accepting it?