Fear and Faith

Stage fright is a very common fear. Many people are afraid of standing in front of a crowd to deliver a message. Clammy hands, a flush face, and a tepid demeanor hide a deeper inner turmoil of roiling emotions and mental anguish. We all have been in situations where an uncomfortable heat rises in our chests, leaving us looking for an exit strategy as our circumstances create fear.

My daughter has a particularly strong aversion to being in front of crowds. Even the anticipation of being on stage at some future or hypothetical moment causes consternation. Such is her fear that no amount of encouragement can bring her comfort. She has said “no” to playing sports, acting in plays, and singing in choirs because the fear of performing in front of others controls her.

Now, most of us don’t get paralyzed by fear in quite the same way as my daughter but we all have ways we let fear control us. In some way we all identify with the creeping sense of dread that comes unbidden to our hearts and minds.
• We might avoid a hard conversation with a friend or loved one because we are afraid of what it might cost us.
• Or we may become paralyzed in the face of a major life decision filled with ambiguity.
• Injustice or suffering can leave us crippled and fear for when the next blow will come.

Abram is rightly remembered as a man of faith but he didn’t always get things right. Fear controlled him in powerful ways at times even as a man of God’s promise. Genesis 12 is one place where we see him acting in a fear-filled way.

God’s promise to make a great nation from Abram’s offspring, to bless him and all nations through him, and to give him a place to dwell are tremendous. With the beauty of those promises fresh in mind, Genesis 12:10 finds Abram leaving Canaan to go to Egypt. Great famine in the promised land leaves the reader, and perhaps Abram, thinking that perhaps God had given Abram a bit of a lemon with his promises.

Rather than making lemonade with his lemon, Abram turns to Egypt to preserve his life and flocks. He further complicates the picture and compromises the promises by essentially selling his wife Sarai into Pharaoh’s house. Abram desires that it will “go well with him” and takes matters into his own hands as fear for his life takes over.

Abram understood his desperate situation in Canaan and left for Egypt, perhaps out of wisdom or perhaps driven by fear. Then as a sojourner in a foreign land, Abram would have felt tremendously vulnerable. He had no home, no legal recourse, and was a social outsider. Fear for his life in the face of Egyptian power was legitimate. Sarai’s status as a women with exceptional beauty would have drawn the kind of attention that could and did complicate things for Abram.

Fear seems quite an understandable reaction to such a set of circumstances. However, Abram was the man of faith and promise, with assurances from God. What are we to make of this narrative as Abram attempts to preserve his life by essentially selling Sarai to Pharaoh? Fear of Egyptian power or of losing his life don’t fit well alongside God’s promises.

Abram, comes to be gripped by fear for his life and well-being. Abram’s fears were partially justified as Sarai gets taken into Pharaoh’s house. At the same time we know that God made promises to him that should have quelled those fears. Rather than acting in faith to God’s promises and what is unseen, Abram trusts himself and acts out of fear.

Abram’s foolishness and faithlessness and Pharaoh’s fear-inducing power are proven to be no match for God’s merciful intervention. God sends both judgment and wisdom to Pharaoh’s house. Judgment for playing part in wickedness is seen in the plagues. Wisdom is seen as Pharaoh calls Abram to account for his misdeeds.

God shows himself to be far more powerful than that which Abram fears. God also proves himself to be faithful to his promises even as Abram seems to jeopardize them. A God such as this is certainly worthy of a deep and abiding trust. Abram was not secure in the promises of God or the character of God and acted from fear of what was seen and not from faith in what is unseen.

We too, often let our lives and decisions be controlled by fear because of what we see in our circumstances. This passage shows us that God can be trusted, his power on our behalf is real, and his promises will be fulfilled. While often unseen, we can take great assurance in God’s promises.

Even as Abram bungles up his situation we see a beautiful ray of gospel light shining in. God is always faithful to fulfill his promises even when faced with our foolishness and the powers of this world. In mercy, God acts in power on the behalf of his people, redeeming and restoring them.

Most powerfully, God has fulfilled all his promises in and through Christ. Trusting in the already-fulfilled and being-fulfilled promises of God is an invitation to rest in freedom and joy and hope found in Christ. Through his Spirit, we know that God is with us, for us, and working all things together for our good.

At the end of that day that is the fulfillment of God’s promise: he will be our God and we will be his people. That is what our hearts long for. In trust that is what we can experience. We don’t need to fear because God is indeed with us always to the end of the age. Jesus has assured it.