The Fearful Church
By Rick Chesher
I have been watching the responses of the church to this whole thing going on with this covid-19 virus. Some are out raged about the Oregon Government response, others are upset that people would be so afraid of the virus itself. As, I looked at this, I began to think about what is the right response we should have on this whole experience. I knew that we would not find the answer in people, their answers are so all over the map that it creates anxiety in itself.
But I do know that the correct answer never starts with man. If we are going to find the answer, we will find it in God, and the place to start is with His Word. There is a good place to start is 2 Tim. 1:7. I know, everyone is going to say “Oh Rick, that’s what everyone says”, and maybe it is but I bet what I am going to say here is going to be different than what you have heard before.
2 Tim. 1:7 says this, “For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.” Now, this is important because most of us would say “I know we are not to be fearful, everyone says the same thing, and once again that would be right. But, that is not what I am going to say, and I would like you to continue to read this with your mind open and ready to listen.
The Greek word used here is deilia and it means fear or timidity, but the word comes from another Greek word which is deilos. This is where it get interesting! This Greek word means to be faithless which is tied into fearful. So, what this means that when we are faithless, we are also fearful. I told you it would be different from what you have heard before.
So, maybe this really should have been interpreted as “God didn’t give us a mind of faithlessness, but one of power, love, and sound judgement.” So, when we look at Israel leaving Egypt they had a mind of faithlessness that led them to be fearful they never had faith in what God said to them about what God’s intentions were for them.
Look at Exodus 5:1-21:
Making Bricks Without Straw
Exo 5:1 Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Let My people go, so that they may hold a festival for Me in the wilderness.”
Exo 5:2 But Pharaoh responded, “Who is the LORD that I should obey Him by letting Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and what’s more, I will not let Israel go.”
Exo 5:3 Then they answered, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, or else He may strike us with plague or sword.”
Exo 5:4 The king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you causing the people to neglect their work? Get to your labors!”
Exo 5:5 Pharaoh also said, “Look, the people of the land are so numerous, and you would stop them from working.”
Exo 5:6 That day Pharaoh commanded the overseers of the people as well as their foremen:
Exo 5:7 “Don’t continue to supply the people with straw for making bricks, as before. They must go and gather straw for themselves.
Exo 5:8 But require the same quota of bricks from them as they were making before; do not reduce it. For they are slackers–that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’
Exo 5:9 Impose heavier work on the men. Then they will be occupied with it and not pay attention to deceptive words.”
Exo 5:10 So the overseers and foremen of the people went out and said to them, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I am not giving you straw.
Exo 5:11 Go get straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but there will be no reduction at all in your workload.'”
Exo 5:12 So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
Exo 5:13 The overseers insisted, “Finish your assigned work each day, just as you did when straw was provided.”
Exo 5:14 Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s slave drivers had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why haven’t you finished making your prescribed number of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?”
Exo 5:15 So the Israelite foremen went in and cried for help to Pharaoh: “Why are you treating your servants this way?
Exo 5:16 No straw has been given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ Look, your servants are being beaten, but it is your own people who are at fault.”
Exo 5:17 But he said, “You are slackers. Slackers! That is why you are saying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to the LORD.’
Exo 5:18 Now get to work. No straw will be given to you, but you must produce the same quantity of bricks.”
Exo 5:19 The Israelite foremen saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You cannot reduce your daily quota of bricks.”
Exo 5:20 When they left Pharaoh, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who stood waiting to meet them.
Exo 5:21 “May the LORD take note of you and judge,” they said to them, “because you have made us reek in front of Pharaoh and his officials–putting a sword in their hand to kill us!”
Exo 5:22 So Moses went back to the LORD and asked, “Lord, why have You caused trouble for this people? And why did You ever send me?
Look at Exodus 6:1-5
God Promises Deliverance
Exo 6:1 But the LORD replied to Moses, “Now you are going to see what I will do to Pharaoh: he will let them go because of My strong hand; he will drive them out of his land because of My strong hand.”
Exo 6:2 Then God spoke to Moses, telling him, “I am Yahweh.
Exo 6:3 I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but I did not make My name Yahweh known to them.
Exo 6:4 I also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land they lived in as foreigners.
Exo 6:5 Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are forcing to work as slaves, and I have remembered My covenant.
Exo 6:6 “Therefore tell the Israelites: I am Yahweh, and I will deliver you from the forced labor of the Egyptians and free you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.
Exo 6:7 I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am Yahweh your God, who delivered you from the forced labor of the Egyptians.
Exo 6:8 I will bring you to the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.”
Exo 6:9 Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor.
Exo 6:9 Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor.
Now Look at Num. 13:25-33;
Num 13:25 At the end of 40 days they returned from scouting out the land.
Num 13:26 The men went back to Moses, Aaron, and the entire Israelite community in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for them and the whole community, and they showed them the fruit of the land.
Num 13:27 They reported to Moses: “We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey, and here is some of its fruit.
Num 13:28 However, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified. We also saw the descendants of Anak there.
Num 13:29 The Amalekites are living in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan.”
Num 13:30 Then Caleb quieted the people in the presence of Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land because we can certainly conquer it!”
Num 13:31 But the men who had gone up with him responded, “We can’t go up against the people because they are stronger than we are!”
Num 13:32 So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size.
Num 13:33 We even saw the Nephilim there.” (The offspring of Anak were descended from the Nephilim.) “To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.”
And maybe that is some of the problems that exist in the church today, and are trying to live this life with a mindset of faithlessness, which leads us to being fearful.