Words of Wisdom #276: What You Fear May Cause You to Stumble
For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep me from going the way of this people: Do not call everything an alliance these people say is an alliance. Do not fear what they fear; do not be terrified. You are to regard only the Lord of Hosts as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be held in awe. He will be a sanctuary; but for the two houses of Israel, He will be a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and captured. Bind up the testimony. Seal up the instruction among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will wait for Him. Isaiah 8:11-17 (HCSB)
Fear is a natural response God created into our being for our own good. Fear causes us to both stand our ground and fight with extra strength sometimes or sometimes to flee with unusual stamina and speed. Self-preservation is at the root of most of our fears. Fear is the emotion that boosts our levels of adrenalin to handle stressful and dangerous situations. However, often we realize that our fear response is not enough to overcome our fears and we seek help from other sources to help us overcome our fears. And here too God has provided a solution, yet we too often look for our alliances and solutions.
Man has relied upon alliances with others thinking that when you combine forces you have what is needed to prevent your fears from overcoming you. However, most alliances are only deterrents for some fears, but not all. There are fears that will overcome you and you ally, or cause you and your ally to turn on one another in the middle of the battle because in the end everyone seeks self-preservation. Friends turn on friends when their own lives are at risk, or some other selfish motive overrides the alliance. In the passage from Isaiah, the Israel nation tried to think their alliance with Aram (Syria) was sufficient to overcome their fears and they turned against Judah which tried to ally itself with a weakened Egypt, however they all were conquered and destroyed by the Assyrians and the Assyrians later by the Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians).
There is only one alliance or relationship that God has made available that is dependable – God Himself! He is the undefeated Champion of all time. God went to Isaiah to share with the people to warn them against relying upon their alliances and false sense of security. Only those who ignored the alliances of men and placed their faith in God for their protection, preservation and provision will never need to fear for their life. All the Lord requires is that you place your fears in His hands and you turn from trying to deal with your fears on your own. God warns our fears will be our own stumbling stones and our solutions to our fears will only crush us if we continue to ignore Him. There is but one genuine “fear” that no man may ever overcome – the fear of losing the Lord’s love and mercy for our life.
Do you seek God’s will, God’s ways, and God’s wisdom according to God’s Word everyday and does that ease the fears we face each day? Are you in the habit of placing your fears, challenges and doubts before Him, and found that God reveals what we feared was nothing that God could not handle for you? What would have changed in history had Israel and Judah would have repented and turned to the Lord as His people? Instead, they suffered from exile and living in their fears for the rest of history. Their fears even led them to crucify and not recognize the very Son of God when He came to them.
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. But Israel, pursuing the law for righteousness, has not achieved the law. Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written: Look! I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over, and a rock to trip over, yet the one who believes on Him will not be put to shame. Romans 9:30-33 (HCSB)