Do Not Be Afraid

By George “Chip” Hammond

Depending on the translation of the Bible you are reading, the words “Don’t be afraid” occur 365 times in the Bible. As someone put it, that is once for every day of the year.

By now you’ve heard the news that the chairman of Tyson’s food has made the public statement: “The food supply chain is breaking” because of wide-spread outbreaks of the virus among food processing workers with a reported thirteen deaths among them so far. Today the news began reporting about the possibility of widespread food shortages.

It’s important to understand that for most of us, what this means is that the food we are most used to eating will either be more costly, or unavailable. It means your diet may need to change. It does not mean that starvation is waiting in the wings, as one reporter I heard would lead people to believe.

" Let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt us at the proper time " (1 Peter 5:6).

I cannot stress how important it is at this time to begin your day with prayer and God’s Word. The world is not reeling out of control. It is still in control of the God who sent his Son to die for us to reconcile us to himself so that we could become the children of God, so that we could call him “Father” with all of the benefits and blessings that that entails.

Today my reading was from Jeremiah 17:1-18, and it was an important reminder. Jeremiah had the unhappy task of telling a people who had become stiff-necked that things were not rosy, they were not going to get better any time soon as they had come to count on things being “good” and “better.” They would not be killed, but they would be held in captivity and have their freedom inhibited.

All God’s people would suffer this, but not all would suffer it the same. There were those whose idolatry had become so strong that they loved their idols as much as their own children ( Jeremiah 17:1-2). The people of Jeremiah’s day were flocking toward those who promised them a quick end to their hardship, but they were deceived because what had come upon them was decreed by the Lord (17:5) due to their hearts being far from him, despite their outward conformity to God’s ways (17:4).

Through their situation God was winnowing his people. There would be those who would groan under God’s providence and discipline, and so would not ever recognize the real prosperity (rather than their idolatrous prosperity) that came to them ( Jeremiah 17:6). For them to live, they would experience their situation as living in a stony waste, a land of salt without inhabitants (17:6).

But there would be others who would experience the situation much differently. They would be in the same hard situation as the others but would experience it differently. The difference is that these would trust in the Lord, and so would have a deep tap root and would not wither even in the time of drought ( Jeremiah 17:9).

All of God’s people thought they were fine, but God said to them: “The heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked; who can know it?” ( Jeremiah 17:9). So God would test hearts to reveal what was there, and each would experience the situation “according to his ways” (17:10).

I pray that God will use this situation to bring many people to himself, but this passage has no application to United States as such. Its application is to the church. It was written not to the nations, but to Israel.

Our situation has been emotionally exacerbated by a dark, wet, and cold April. Most of the politicians seek to be prophets of cheer. I suppose that’s their job. But I am quite certain that harder times are ahead. Let us as God’s people see our situation as coming from the hand of the Lord, and to ask with Job: “Shall we accept good from the hand of God, and not evil?” (Job 2:10). Let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt us at the proper time (1 Peter 5:6).

I want to encourage you if you have gotten out of the habit of beginning and ending your day with God that you renew your efforts to seek the Lord. The reality that you live in the coming weeks will be largely determined but what you believe to be true. The words of man cannot manipulate and create reality, no matter how much one may want them to. The Word of God tells us the truth about who God is, who we are, and why and how we may live in confidence in times of adversity.

A winnowing is occurring and our response to this situation will reveal our hearts. God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, but you are not. If your heart has been drawn off by idols, if worldly security and earthly comfort have become your idols, you can repent, and God calls you to do so.

The prophet Habakkuk wrote: “I heard and my inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of calamity . . . But though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines; though the yield of the olive should fail, and the fields produce no food; though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he has made my feet like hinds' feet; he makes me walk on the heights.” (Habakkuk 3:17-19).

May Habakkuk’s confidence be yours through Christ our Lord.