Faithful Fear

Photo by Tim Trad on Unsplash
How do we get rid of fear? I’m not just talking about fear of monsters in the closet (though that applies as well), but fears that are evergreen: our health, our grades, our friends, our finances, our children, our pain. How do we get rid of fear? Believe it or not, the goal actually isn’t to get rid of fear. Fear is a good thing, when it is directed properly. There is only one place— one Person—to direct our fear towards, God. 
Why am I saying it that way? Wouldn’t it be better to say, “Trust in God”? Trusting in God is certainly good, but if we are going to faithfully use our fear, directing it where it needs to go, we need something additional than trust. You see, we trust things all the time. We trust our car’s brakes, but how many of you stand in your driveway in loving awe of your brakes, stunned at their ability to stop a multi ton vehicle? How many of you fall to your knees in reverent worship before your wheel wells? Unless you’re an engineer this morning, probably none of you. And the reason that you don’t is that brakes occupy a very small portion of your life. If they fail, there are numerous other systems to make up for them. 
In contrast, you should be in awe, in reverent worship, and yes, a little bit of terror, of God. He makes and continues to sustain everything before your eyes. He is so big. He measures the universe—the UNIVERSE— with His hand. He doesn’t even need both hands. Have you sat with that? Have you dared meditate on the raw power of God? Who do you think you are to not be at least a little unsettled by a Being with that kind of power? Now, yes in His mercy He doesn’t destroy us, but that is literally the only thing holding Him back. Nothing can stop God. 
When we grasp something like that, the rest of the things that we fear fall into place. That is faithful fearing, but let’s see how this might play out in real life by looking at our text this morning. We are going to walk away with one point: Fear of God doesn’t let us fear anything else

Fear of God Doesn’t Let Us Fear Anything Else
Refreshing where we are in the story, Jacob has left secretly from Laban’s house to head back to the promised land. Laban, being a man with eyes, notices this and gives chase. After a little over four hundred or so mile jaunt, Laban has caught up with Jacob, and in verse 26 Laban (along with other members of his household) confront Jacob. 
Ah, family confrontations. We’ve all experienced this to one degree or another, haven’t we? So much is at risk. Some families actually dread get togethers because they know what is coming. The cutting words, the guilt trips, the bringing up of old hurts real or imagined fill us with dread, do they not? 
So how does this play out in the Bible? Laban launches into a monologue titled “Jacob Stinks,” and the family is here to hear it. He starts out with all kinds of wild accusations, almost none of them true: “You lied to me and dragged my daughters away like they were prisoners of war! If you had just told me you wanted to leave, I would have gladly sent you with snacks, well wishes—I would have written songs for you! But you haul off and leave without so much as letting me kiss my kids goodbye, you fool! I oughta knock you out for what you’ve done!” And Laban’s sons are all standing there, arms folded, nodding along, as a tangible proof that Laban really could do what he threatens here (v. 25 “kinsmen”) (Matthews). He’s come prepared. He’s an actual threat. 
Sound familiar? The things that scare you are not fake. Health problems are real and can show up at any time. Friends can totally betray you. It happens every day. Jobs are lost and money gets used up. This is fallen earth, not heaven. Things will never be ideal for long. The things you fear are as real as Jacob’s super angry father in law with an axe to grind.
But there is one more piece of information that will change everything for Jacob and us. In this moment, halfway into verse 29, Jacob doesn’t know what Laban and we know: God has already moved. God was way ahead of this. He came to Laban already and said, “You better not harm Jacob.” Jacob may be scared of Laban (v. 31, Phillips, 227), but guess who Laban is scared of? God. Oh, Laban wants to harm Jacob, but he won’t because God told Him not to. 
Now, you may say, “Well, that’s wise of Laban, but my family isn’t scared of God at all. They don’t even know who He is.” You could apply this same logic to nuclear war or your MRI results. Those things don’t even have emotions, how is this verse comforting to me? 
Well, all of those things (like Laban) are controlled by God. God is controlling Laban here, keeping him at bay. Now Jacob didn’t know that until just now, and whether you realize or not, all those things that you fear are being controlled by God, too. God is way bigger than Laban and his kinsmen. God is way bigger than whatever it is that you fear. That should keep things in context. 
But now the story is about to turn. Laban throws one more accusation that comes way out of left field for Jacob: he stole Laban’s gods. Jacob answers the first set of accusations that he left the way that he did because he was afraid of what Laban would do (the same word for fear that Adam uses running from God in the Garden). Jacob, just like Abraham and Isaac, was afraid that a local chieftain would steal his wives. We just have to make that same mistake one more time, but Jacob isn’t really focused on that just yet. He feels that he really has the upper hand here when it comes to the stealing the gods thing. He knows—or thinks that he knows—that no one stole anyone’s gods. In fact, he is so sure of this that he starts puffing out his chest a little, too. Laban isn’t the only one that can think up a good threat. Jacob is so sure that no one stole the gods, that he will say, “Anyone who has your silly gods will be punished with death.” Whoa! Who’s the big man, now, Laban? The gangster glasses slide over Jacob’s eyes. He’s confident in what he knows. 
And that nearly kills Rachel. How ironic! The one thing he feared, losing his wives, he almost caused by putting stock in his ability to threaten rather than in God. Don’t be confident in anything but God. 
Let’s pick up the drama in verse 33. Can you imagine what must have been going through Rachel’s head in this moment? She is the only one who knows that she stole the gods, and now her dad is going tent by tent looking through everything. The author is holding tension for us as we go one by one. 
Finally we get to Rachel’s tent. We are told exactly where the idols are, under the camel saddle, which Rachel is currently sitting on. Laban is feeling all around the tent (the same sense that Isaac was fooled with earlier), but he can’t find them. It seems as if there is only one place left to look, and that is under Rachel who hasn’t moved. It looks like the jig is up, but Rachel has one last trick up her sleeve. She pretends that she is on her cycle, and thus can’t stand up. It would have been the proper thing for her to do just by her father entering the tent, but she lies to him by pretending to respect him. She apologizes that she can’t show the expected respect, but she lying! That is some next level deception. 
Why does God let her do that? Well, one, God is merciful to sinners all the time, and this would hardly be the first time that someone in Abraham’s family lied. Two, this makes these household gods look so silly. They are dishonored multiple times. One, how pathetic is it for a god to be helplessly stolen? The worshiper having to rescue the god? How preposterous. Two, camels were considered unclean in Jewish conception, so these stolen gods are being hidden by an unclean animal. Disrespect on top of disrespect. Finally, if Rachel was telling the truth, their fate would have really rendered them unclean (Matthews). 
The only thing more laughable would be the person who believes in such gods. 
But we mustn’t laugh too hard. Laban is clearly going to great lengths to get his gods back because he sees them as truly valuable. What do you value? That question is answered by what you worry about. What increases your anxiety when it goes missing? What makes you angry when you lose it? To put it in line with our theme here, what do you fear? 
Show me the object of your fear, and I will show you what you worship. Remember our exercise at the start of our message today, thinking about how big our God is? Why don’t you fear Him more than whatever it is you do worship? 
What does it look like to fear God? There is a level of intimidation present in how big He is, but the majority of our emotional response to God is that of awe. Before you get there, though, you MUST wrestle with the mighty God who tells you, “Don’t fear those who can kill the body, but fear the one who is able to destroy the body AND the soul.” Jesus said that, and He is talking ultimately about Himself while looking at you. 
You have to start here, because if you don’t you will miss seeing the blazing glory of the cross. The same God who is able to destroy your body and soul and it be an act of justice had HIS body and soul destroyed for you! Your punishment was placed on Him! He got out of His seat in heaven to make room for you. And it wasn’t because you deserved it but precisely the opposite. 
And in so doing, Jesus rises from the grave, conquering death itself, redeeming a multitude from every nation, tribe, and tongue, kicking off the redemption of the entirety of the created cosmos, and promises to be your God, and you His people whom He will never leave nor forsake for all eternity, forever and ever, amen. Feel that? That’s the beginning of wisdom. That’s the fear of God. Awe, respect, love, and yes, maybe even a little terror. That’s what keeps your other fears in perspective. 
Don’t cling to little gods that can be hidden under soiled saddles. Gross. Instead, marvel, fall to your knees every morning that God is still your God. 
So when fear grips your heart, when that icy anxiety crawls over your chest, ask yourself these three questions: 1) Is the God of the universe in charge of this? The answer always being yes, move on to the second question, 2) “Did I get here because of my disobedience?” Maybe you are worried about not having enough money because you spent it all in greed. Maybe you are worried about a test going badly because you were lazy and didn’t study. Maybe this question doesn’t apply because you are worried about something like a health problem. But No matter what the answer is to that second question, the third question is, “Am I being obedient to Him now?” If you get yes, no, and yes, Then you have nothing to be afraid of. Fear God and await His deliverance. If you get no, yes, and no, then whatever you are fearing isn’t nearly as bad as your own disobedience and unbelief. Turn from that false god, and embrace the beauty that is the God on the universe. 
If your mind is so tormented, you can’t even get past question one, take a second. Breathe, and then turn over in your mind who it is you worship. Remember His power and His love for you and what the future will be. Yes, the pain may be so bad that you are actually doubting that God loves you. Maybe you do think that He has forsaken you. Not so. Jesus took that for you. And because of that, you are going to a world that has no crying or pain. That is a God worship worshiping. That is a God worth fearing.