fear of God means not being afraid

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from 2 Kings 1:1- 2:25. It's a powerful scene. The king of Israel asks the priests of Baal if he will recover from the disease he has. Elijah hears about this and tells the king that because he asked Baal instead of asking God, he will die in the bed he's in. This makes the king mad, so he sends 51 men to arrest Elijah. Elijah says, "If I'm a man of God, you're about to die from fire." And fire came from the sky and burned them all to death.

The king isn't the brightest, apparently, so he sends another 51 men. More fire from heaven, more dead soldiers. So the king comes to his senses and stops sending men to his death. What? No. He doesn't. He sends ANOTHER 51 men to arrest Elijah!! So you see, we are not the first ones to have stupid people for our leaders.

The commander of this last group of soldiers, however, is a smart man. He knows what happened to the 102 men before him. So he says, "Elijah, I know you can kill us with fire. Please don't. Have mercy on us and come with us to talk to the king." So the soldiers learned that they needed to respect Elijah and his God. They found the beginning of wisdom - fear of God.

And from what happens next, you get the impression that Elijah was about to fry 51 more men. Because God intervenes (notice that God is merciful to these soldiers when Elijah probably wasn't going to be) and tells Elijah not to be afraid, but to go with them.

Now let's stop right there and notice something huge. God doesn't say, "Don't be mad." He doesn't say, "Don't hate them." He doesn't say, "Don't give them what they deserve." What does He say?

"Don't be afraid."

And that's a huge lesson for us to take home. MOST of the time, the opposite of love isn't hate. It's fear. When we are afraid, we are less likely to love people. That's why perfect love casts out fear. So God loved those soldiers and saved their lives by telling Elijah not to be afraid.

He tells us that, too. Don't be afraid. Don't let those who try to scare you succeed. Most of the mainstream media these days is trying very hard to scare you. Don't let them. Trust God. Love people.

God, thanks for teaching us to love You and to not be afraid so we can love others.