Earlier in the series, I mentioned that in the King James Version of the Bible there are 89 instances of people being commanded to not be afraid – either with the phrase “fear not” (63 instances) or the phrase “be not afraid” (26 instances). This should give us pause to consider that fear is one of the most often forbidden and/or rebuked attitudes in the entire Bible – the veritable enemy of faith.
Interestingly this verse about comfort doesn’t seem to indicate that we should be comforted that God won’t let anything hurt us or that everything will go in a really easy-to-chew-off sort of way. In fact, the promise of comfort here is found in the very midst of suffering. But that is indeed a digression from the overall theme we are exploring here, which is the 89 times that people are told to not be afraid in the Bible.
There is one instance where someone is clearly commanded not to be afraid in scripture: when Joshua as a military man is told to “be strong and courageous” and God indeed said, “Have I not commanded you?” Military generals expect to be commanded by their Captains. But the next part, where Joshua is told, “Be not afraid, neither be dismayed; for YHWH your God is with you wherever you go,” is again a tone of encouragement there – of soothing, and comfort, backing up the earlier command with some emotional sensitivity.
So why do people preach about fear as if God is always commanding we avoid it, as if it’s a sin – when instead He is more often depicted scripturally as speaking soothing words of comfort to His people? There is something messed up about taking things that God has meant for encouragement – kind words, words of help, words of emotional strengthening – and turning those very words into a burdensome command for the anxious.
So if perhaps “faith” and “fear” are not really enemies, as some teach, I would suggest that the real pair we ought to be examining is “fear” and “hope.” Hope is somewhat different than faith – faith looks at an unseen reality in the here and now, but hope is looking for something in the future. Fear also looks towards the future. So while faith speaks to fear, with words of consolation, it is fear and hope that I believe are really in tension with one another.
It is hope that makes us look at a fearful decision and decide that we can brave the risk of stepping out in our faith. And hope comes through the comfort and encouragement of faith, bolstering our emotions into a place of readiness where fears dissolve or at least give way to greater emotional narratives, but not through demands that we put our feelings aside. The ministry of encouragement of the scriptures and the Holy Spirit emboldens us, and strengthens us so that we can walk over our fears. But unlike what Roosevelt said, we do not need to fear being afraid. God does not demand that we are without fear – He soothes and encourages us to get past our fears so that we can overcome them by His grace and help – not by some work of mental gymnastics by which we demand that fear be silenced. He treats us as whole beings – with feelings that He respects and works with in an understanding dialogue.