16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men… “ (Matthew 10:16,17 ESV)
Elisha’s servant Gehazi’s eyes must have opened very wide when he suddenly saw how much there was OUT there. He thought he knew reality, but then God showed Gehazi the angel-armies, too. I imagine Gehazi’s increase in awareness to be something like what I have experienced when I suddenly notice a termite incursion, or the rust growth beneath my car, or the weeds growing instead of lettuce. I suspected something was there, but I didn’t know how much!
But this, “Fear Not” is not derived from Gehazi. At this point in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus is sending His disciples out into the countryside. And He begins by opening their eyes to the dangers they will face. And while He could have warned them about any of His enemies, Jesus digs right down to the thing that will be most scary to the disciples.
Jesus says they will encounter trouble from the very community that to those disciples normally provided comfort, refuge, and hope. The community of the disciples was the source of information, security, safety, and even love. And Jesus warns them that their community was going to turn against them.
Today our comfort, refuge, and hope are usually found in more narrow places. We find such things in our checkbook balance, our education, our leisure, and our job security. But Jesus could be warning us, too. It’s not merely that Covid-19 has threatened our peace as humans, but the combination of disease, government over-reach, and economic disaster threaten our peace as God’s People. Social distancing threatens churches, which work best through community interaction. Government over-reach threatens God’s people as religion seems to be particularly under their thumb. And economic disaster threatens God’s people as money might be seen as the fuel that energizes God’s work.
Jesus could be telling us, too, there are monsters out there. This is going to be rough.
In the next verses of Matthew 10 we find some particular, “Fear Nots.” I plan to look at them over the next few days. But Jesus isn’t scaring people just for the fun of it. He opens the eyes of the disciples for the purpose of encouraging and challenging them.
And already in the beginning of His warning, He gives them an answer to their fear.
The answer to fear lies in wisdom.
Remember that wisdom is not being clever, or having common sense, or knowing what to ‘do.’ (Although I have recently heard all of those false definitions.) Wisdom, according to the Bible, is listening to God. The world’s way is foolishness. God’s way is wisdom.
We’ll see how that plays out in Jesus,’ “Fear Nots” over then next few days… but His opening salvo is on target. When every source of comfort is threatened, Jesus presents wisdom (God’s Way) as the answer.
Among other things, God’s Way includes the verses we’ve been thinking about regarding fear. Every time He has told us to, “fear not,” He has been saying, “Choose Wisdom.” God’s Way offers hope because God is our only reliable hope. God’s Way offers peace because all other peace fails. God’s Way offers comfort because only God has power enough, knowledge enough, and love enough to truly help.
But most of all, God’s Way centers on Jesus. Wisdom is exchanging our will for His. Wisdom is listening to Him. Wisdom is trusting Him. Wisdom is Him.
Fear not, be wise.