fear's power

Today we finish up Genesis and move into Exodus. CLICK HERE for the OT reading, and CLICK HERE for the NT reading.

A terrifying thing happens as we transition from Genesis to Exodus. A new king takes over, who didn't know the Israelites. And in the process, he takes away their humanity. He begins to treat them as slaves. He turns the people of Egypt against them. He starts murdering their children. All of the typical things that a society does when it is afraid.

And that is the motivation we read about. The Exodus account tells us that the leaders of Egypt saw how plentiful and thriving the Israelites were, and grew afraid. The fear took over their minds, and they thought that the Hebrews would turn against them and overpower them. So they dehumanized them and took away their wealth and started killing them.

Does that sound familiar? These are the things that people have done because of fear throughout history. Two notable examples are the holocaust and the abortion epidemic today. In both cases, people were afraid. In WWII, poverty had stricken Germany, and they were desperate for a solution. Hitler provided one, and so they turned against the Jews (the same people as in Exodus, incidentally), dehumanized them (comparing them to rodents), and began murdering them.

Today, people are afraid that their life dreams will be taken away from them due to unplanned pregnancy. So they dehumanize the tiny humans living inside of the mothers, and murder them.

This is one of the many horrible results of fear. So how do we counter it? Through love. Perfect love casts out fear. Teaching mothers to love their unborn babies. Teaching people around the world to love their enemies, rather than dehumanize them by referring to them as categories or demonizing them.

Love casts out fear. Let's learn to love, and teach other to love. Then fear loses its power.

God, please help us drive out fear with Your love.