Real Fear

 October 16, 2020

People are living in fear these days. COVID has many in a panic, and government sure knows how to manipulate panic. As a prominent politician stated in the Obama years, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Whole segments of society have been forced to shutter, livelihoods have been destroyed, all due to fear.

The greatest fear seems to be death—no surprise there—when there is no hope of eternal life; when this life is all there is, people cling to it desperately.

In Luke 2:9, the shepherds were the unlikely recipients of a message of hope that strangely enough, terrified them. It wasn’t the message, but the messengers, who appeared in the midst of “the glory of the Lord” that shone around them like a nuclear glow. They were used to hardship; these men were rough and tumble, not easily cowed, yet they were afraid of this glory! What did they know that eludes us today? Perhaps we are afraid of the wrong things. 

In 1 Samuel 3:1, we are told that “the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.” The context of that statement tells a sad story of societal disarray and general decline...much like today. The word, the revelation of God is rare these days, and his glory is hidden from our view. If that glory were revealed, we, like the shepherds, would be terrified. Even as Christians, we have but small understanding of the fear of God. We’ve bastardized the Incarnation to the point where God is to us more of a buddy—an equal—than the Almighty. We would do well to be afraid as were the shepherds., for without such fear, how can we receive with joy and relief the Good News of a Savior who has come to deliver us from all other fears?

There is much in this world that causes fear, but we are fearful of the wrong things, and cannot find deliverance form those fears until we fear that which we ought to fear. Only when we’ve been terrified by the glory of the Lord will we be able to hear the angelic command to “Fear Not!”