Lately I’ve been thinking about two distinct ways to react to fear. It’s human nature to react the first way. It’s God’s grace that allows us to react the second way.
Abraham’s behavior in Gerar (Genesis 20) demonstrates the first way. Fear was the center of his decision-making, and indeed of his life at this time, and his cowardice and lies are especially shocking juxtaposed with the innocence and God-fearing attitude of Abimelech, the Philistine king. While it’s reasonable to fear Philistines, Abraham goes so far as to give Sarah, his “sister,” to live with their king. As Pastor John pointed out in his sermon on Sunday, how can Sarah bear Abraham’s child if she has been taken into Abimelech’s house, and as far as they knew, this arrangement was permanent, a marriage? When fear takes root in the wrong thing, it makes us not only self-obsessed, but also forgetful and nonsensical.
A different reaction to fear involves acknowledging the fear while remembering God’s power and care, and acting in trusting obedience to him without full knowledge of what’s next. Jonah’s decision to obey God and warn Nineveh contrasts greatly with Abraham’s behavior in a naturally fear-inducing situation, with Jonah’s situation being possibly scarier. Since Nineveh was known for brutality, it was obvious Jonah would be in danger if he told them something they didn’t want to hear. Whereas Abraham appeared to be afraid of the unknown culture of Gerar (I’m not sure how brutal the Philistines were in Abraham’s time, or if he would have known this), Nineveh’s culture was very known. Yet since Jonah warned them, they had the opportunity to repent, and did so (Jonah 1-3). Although Nineveh as a city would eventually fall into deep sin again and be subsequently destroyed (Nahum 2-3), the people in Nineveh at the time of Jonah accepted God’s invitation to repent, underlining the fact that we should be slow to assume anyone is too different from believers to repent out of fear of God.
So much hinges on memory, and it is human nature to forget. Part of God’s provision is a scheduled time to rest with him, to be reminded. God, in his grace, calls to us, and we respond: every seven days we return, remember again. God promised and provided – He is providing – He will provide.