“And I said to you: ‘I am Adonai your God; you are not to be afraid of the gods of the Emori in whose land you are living.” But you paid no attention to what I said!'”-Judges 6:10
Verse 10 of Judges Chapter 6 goes to the heart of why Israel rebelled.
It’s because they feared the gods of their enemies.
That’s why they decided to bow down to them in the hopes of appeasing them.
Remember, in the ancient world, it was assumed that a nation’s power came from their gods.
Therefore, much more than military power, it was a nation’s gods that were feared.
“If we bow down to and respect our enemy’s gods, then maybe they’ll leave us alone”.
That was the reasoning going on inside the Israelites’ heads.
Unfortunately, it never worked.
When you act out of fear instead of faith, you end up compromising your values.
In Israel’s case, their compromising led to the open worship of the gods of their enemies.
This led to God’s judgement and their oppression.
Keep in mind, the Israelites never thought they were abandoning the Lord.
In their minds, they were simply calculating the risks of the situation and being strategic.
However, the truth is they were acting out of fear.
It’s been a long time since fear has so paralyzed the world as it has today during this crazy pandemic (this is being written in February 24th, 2022).
I know a lot of friends who didn’t wanna take the V but did so simply out of fear.
Fear of losing their job.
Fear of being ostracized by all their friends who took it and pressured them to take it.
Fear of dying over a virus that has like a 99.9% survival rate.
And now after seeing how ridiculously ineffective the eniccav is (3rd and 4th boosters anyone?), many of them regret their decision.
We see the same fear dynamic at work in how Western leaders go out of their way to rationalize that Islam is really a peaceful and loving religion.
Why?
Because they’re fearful of violent reprisal from Jihadists.
Heck, many of the most prominent church leaders in our time have gone on record as declaring that the God of Islam is the same god as the God of Israel.
And even a portion of the religious leadership in Israel has supported this notion.
Why?
Because of fear.
Of course, they’ll never admit that.
They’ll say they’re doing it for the sake of peace.
But the real reason is because they’re afraid of offending a group of people who may turn to violence to express their disagreement.
This is one dependable way to know whether you’re in God’s Will or not when it comes to making a decision on some matter.
Simply ask yourself, am I doing this out of fear and faith?
Deep down inside, your heart will tell you the truth.
If you’re ever tempted to act out fear instead of faith, remind yourself that nothing good ever comes from making decisions out of fear.
Here in verse 10, the Lord is telling His people that the perfect cure for fear is trust in Him.
Because fear is the tool Satan uses to draw us away from the Lord.
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