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Fear In The Bible Analysis

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Stories Of Fear In The Bible

There are stories of fear in the Bible - Moses was afraid to leave his comfortable shepherd’s life behind and confront the terrible Pharaoh; the ten scouts who Moses had explore the Promised Land were afraid and caused the Hebrews to wander for another 40 years; Jonah was afraid of God’s command, so ran to the edge of the sea where he was swallowed by a fish; and how David must have trembled before the mighty Goliath!

Yes - even Jesus Christ himself experienced fear. In the Garden of Gethsemane, hours before he was seized by the Romans for execution, just like his temptations in the desert, God allowed his Son to experience every form of human suffering. Jesus was tempted in every way, including with fear, but …show more content…

However, the most repeated command throughout the Bible is “Do not be afraid.” Doesn’t that sound like a contradiction? Not quite! Fear itself doesn’t displease the Lord - it’s how we react to fear, and the motivations behind our fear. Neither is our God’s perfect will for you and I to be afraid. The differing commands also depend on the context in which they were given - it is good for us to fear God and be obedient, but it’s sinful when that fear is focused on our own wellbeing.

The kind of fear that Adam felt in the Bible is an example of the wrong fear. There are several other examples of this fear in the Bible:

(Revelation 21:8) we see in the King James Version that the “cowardly” will burn forever in the Lake of Fire
(Matthew 25:25) the evil servant hid his coins in the ground claiming that he was “afraid” of the master, who represents God
(James 2:19) Jesus tells us that it isn’t enough to merely believe in the Lord - because even the demons do so, and they “tremble.”

What then is the proper kind of fear? We are afraid of many terrible things: war, crime, losing a loved one, becoming infected with disease, losing our jobs, or even being late for a meeting. But these are fears of earthly things, and if we act on that fear, it will hold us back from all the good God has in store for

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