Faith or Fear?

Legs dangling off the edge of the roof, his dad urged him to slide off the roof into his arms. The distance from the boy’s feet and his dad’s reach was no more than a foot, but it might as well have been a mile. “Just drop off the roof and I’ll catch you,” his dad kept saying. The boy was unable to climb up, but too afraid to drop.

Minutes passed and he finally pushed through his fear and dropped off the roof...into His dad’s arms. Fearfully vulnerable; ultimately confident.

Fear is the opposite of faith. Fear is one of the greatest obstacles to faith. The Bible is full of testimonies of faith, but faith is sometimes misunderstood.

For some people faith is a belief conjured up in the mind with no reason to believe other than desire. It is as if to say, “I want to believe, so I will believe.” It is the boy with legs dangling, but only imagining that someone will catch him.

Faith in God is not that way.

In the book of Joshua a number of remarkable faith events are recorded:

• Encamped a few miles from Jericho, the Israelites were instructed by God to circumcise all the males, the sign of the covenant between God and Israel’s forefather Abraham. Yet, Israel’s army would be incapacitated. Vulnerable!
• Afterward, Israel was instructed to celebrate the Passover which was followed by a seven-day feast; a celebration while unprotected and in full view of the enemy. Vulnerable!
• Israel traveled to the heart of enemy territory, out in the open and unprotected, to hear a proclamation from God. Vulnerable!
• The Israelite tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh wished to settle in the desirable land to the east of the Jordan River. The arrangement was agreeable, but only if their fighting men would join forces with their fellow Israelites against the enemies in Canaan. The conquest of the land of Canaan under Joshua’s leadership took 5-7 years and there is no indication that the men of the tribes east of the Jordan went home to check on their families. Their families: Vulnerable!

Why? Why did Israel comply with the circumcision, with the Passover, the public reading of the blessings and cursings? Why did the men of the tribes to the east of Jordan leave their families behind for 5+ years? Why did Israel leave themselves vulnerable time after time?

Faith. But what kind of faith did Israel possess?

Israel did not enter Canaan with a made-up desire to believe. They were not motivated by blind faith. They followed their God in faith.

The voice of God that left them in what seemed to be extremely vulnerable situations was the same voice that had commanded the plagues of Egypt; the same voice that commanded Moses as he parted the Red Sea; the same voice that commanded the destruction of the army of the Pharaoh of Egypt; the same voice that provided food and water in the wilderness for forty years; the same voice that defeated the Amorite kings east of the Jordan; and the same voice that parted the waters of the Jordan.

Israel believed in the voice of God who had been their protector and provider. He had kept His promises to them and their forefathers.

This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. 

—1 John 2:25

Fear turns our hearts to the world we see; faith keeps our eyes focused on His promise. When you feel vulnerable and cannot see, trust His voice. He has promised!

Mark Stinnett

May 8, 2022