Are you afraid?
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Then the officers will also say, ‘is anyone here afraid or worried? If you are, you may go home before you frighten anyone else.’
Deuteronomy 20:8
In Hebrew thought, the heart was the center of human reason, personality, and character. Before they had modern science, they attributed the heart to intellectual experience. They didn't even have a word for the brain. A heart for them was where you think and reason. The heart was also where you feel and experience. Many phrases and sayings in the Bible allude to this analogy of the heart, such as David asking God to create in him a clean heart or people talking about hearts being made new or hearts of stone turning to hearts of flesh.
What’s the difference between “feeling afraid” and “being afraid”? It’s one thing to understand the risk and the potential problems behind something, we can call that “feeling afraid”. But in Hebrew thought, “being afraid” would look more like making a conscious decision: fear over faith. Faith and fear are very similar. Faith is believing in the positive that will come in the future and fear is dwelling on the negative that may come. We don’t know what the future has for us, but we must all choose whether we lean towards it having either a positive or negative outcome. That mindset is the difference between faith and fear. We can decide if we will mentally put ourselves in a place of expected defeat or be reminded of the God who will make all things work out for our good.
Before this verse in Deuteronomy 20, God instructs the Israelites to put away fear:
“When you go out to fight your enemies and you face horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, do not be afraid. The Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you! When you prepare for battle, the priest must come forward to speak to the troops. He will say to them, ‘Listen to me, all you men of Israel! Do not be afraid as you go out to fight your enemies today! Do not lose heart or panic or tremble before them. For the Lord your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory!’
Deuteronomy 20:1-4
God is giving the Israelites instructions concerning war. God tells the Israelites that when they notice a war is on the horizon or feel threatened, they need to remind themselves of who their God is and has been. When they prepare for battle, a priest goes before them and reminds them of the God fighting for them. He reminds them of the miracle that is their liberation from Egyptian slavery and oppression. There is no reason to be afraid or lose their inner resolve because God will win the battles for them just like he has done before.
After being reminded of who God is, officers would then be able to ask if anyone was still afraid or choosing fear and basically say, “if you're afraid or worried you can leave”. (Some translations use “faint hearted” here because the Hebrew phrase is pointing to people losing their resolve, will, or confidence.) This is interesting. It’s not if you're weak or if you are unqualified. It’s not if you are broken or if you’ve made mistakes. God can work with all that. But He is not working with people who are faint hearted. See, choosing fear didn't mean you didn't see the battle. It meant you were choosing to see it as bigger than God despite what God had done for you in the past. If you saw the stats and the facts about your God and still decided to place your will and confidence in the potential negative of fear instead of the potential positive of faith, you were asked to leave the army.
This battle isn't about how good you are. The passage says the armies would be greater than them. They would not win if they fought on their own. But with God, they would. Your battle is too big for you alone. But with God, it is light work. Don’t choose to put your faith in anything other than Him. Don’t choose to put your will and heart into anything else. Give it to God even if you feel a little uneasy. Recognizing the battle is bigger than you shouldn’t cause you to cower in fear, it should give you the presence of mind to give it back to God.
The Bible tells us to not be afraid at least 365 times, one for each day of the year, and these statements are usually accompanied by a “because”. Don’t be afraid because I will hold you up. Don’t be afraid because I will fight for you. Don't be afraid because your fear may frighten others. The officers and the priest instruct the people to put away fear—not just because it doesn't make sense with God’s track record—but because their decision to choose fear may cause others not to trust.
I have so many friends that have told me they struggle with fear because of their parents. For example, friends have told me they’re afraid to drive because their parents seemed afraid. Fear oftentimes rubs off on people and you never know who may be watching you. If you don't think God will get you through college, don't let that mess up your little cousin’s freshman year. If you have trouble believing God will fight for your relationship, don't rain on your little brother pursuing the person God put on his heart. Your lack of faith will reinforce other people’s fear and lack of faith. You can't help but be an influence so be intentional about being a good one.
God's plans for you are bigger and better than what you can imagine. You can't even comprehend or fathom the impact God wants your life to make (Isaiah 55). You are an influence, you have power. Do not lose heart. Do not lose your resolve. There may be worries, there may be anxieties. Weapons will form, battles will come and they will be bigger than you. That’s a real part of life, but you can decide to put your faith back in the God who will never leave you. You can choose to put your faith in the God who will provide and wants better for you. God doesn’t change. So the outcome of the battles He fights won't either. There’s a special confidence that comes from really remembering who God is. Take the time to remember. Ask Him to help you remember how He has been moving so you can have better faith next time a battle comes.
Are you afraid?
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