The Promise (1)
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 NASB
Fear– Actually, I’m not afraid in the usual sense of the word. I’m not even afraid to die. In fact, I consider death a relief. No, it’s not naive yārēʾ that bothers me. But yārēʾ casts a pretty wide shadow, one that just might include my real concern. “ . . . biblical usages of yārēʾ are divided into five general categories:1) the emotion of fear, 2) the intellectual anticipation of evil without emphasis upon the emotional reaction, 3) reverence or awe, 4) righteous behaviour or piety, and 5) formal religious worship. Major OT synonyms include pāḥad, ḥātat, and ḥārad as well as several words referring to shaking or quaking as a result of fear.”[1]
Did you notice that only the first use of yārēʾ focuses on emotion? The rest seem to be either intellectual anxiety or the opposite, i.e., proper religious behavior. Let’s focus on the first meaning. In order to develop this idea, it’s useful to consider the synonyms.
“ḥārad – quake, move about, (be) startled, tremble, (be) afraid”[2] Genesis 42:28 is an example. In that passage Joseph’s brothers discover that somehow the money for the grain has ended up in the bags. “What has God done to us?” they proclaim. This is disaster since they will now be viewed as thieves. Yes, “quake” indeed! This is fear, the emotional onslaught of panic. “Most occurrences refer to trembling from emotional agitation before an unusual circumstance.”[3]
Then there’s ḥātat, “(be) broken, abolished, afraid, dismayed.”[4]“The basic is ‘to be broken’ from which other abstract and secondary ideas are derived such as ‘be abolished’ or ‘be in panic.’ Four ranges of meanings are attested for this word and its derivatives: 1) literal breaking, 2) abstract destruction, 3) demoralization, and 4) terror.”[5] Some unique derivations are found in Genesis 35:5, Job 6:21 and Ecclesiastes 12:5. Job is a prime example. Calamity, misfortune and irreconcilable tragedy seem to fit the scene.
Finally, pāḥad. “pāḥad serves as a strong verb of fearing with emphasis either on the immediacy of the object of fear or upon the resulting trembling. The verb may refer to the kind of fear aroused by a paḥad ‘terror’ . . . Most of its occurrences are in poetic passages so that it could be considered a strong, poetic synonym for yārāʾ(q.v.). . . unlike yārāʾ, it is not used for the abstract, intellectual apprehension of evil.”[6]
Now we have the picture. I’m not afraid of the inevitability of death. That’s merely an intellectual understanding, a projected reality. My fear is found in the emotional destruction of my life, in those places where I feel intense abandonment, quantitative shame, and piercing guilt. I know the terror of not being good enough, the demoralization of hypocrisy, the adrenaline panic of humiliating overload. That’s yārēʾ for me. When God tells me not to fear, I want to feel the security that keeps these experiences at bay. I don’t need to know that when I die there will be pie in the sky bye and bye. Heaven isn’t consolation for a life of panic here. What I want to feel is safety, belonging, purpose, worth. To not fear for me is to know that I am acceptable and accepted now, even if I’m full of mistakes, pretenses and failures. This is the stuff that needs healing. Really, heaven can wait.
So here’s the first part of this verse of promise. God promises that these terrors of emotional living will not destroy me, that He will heal my wounds and I will be acceptable to Him. Without this first step the rest is pretty much useless.
Topical Index: yārēʾ, pāḥad, ḥātat, ḥārad, fear, promise, Isaiah 41:10
[1]Bowling, A. (1999). 907 יָרֵא. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 399). Chicago: Moody Press.
[3]Bowling, A. (1999). 735 חָרַד. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 321). Chicago: Moody Press.
[4]Bowling, A. (1999). 784 חָתַת. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 336). Chicago: Moody Press.
[6]Bowling, A. (1999). 1756 פָּחַד. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 721). Chicago: Moody Press.
Well well well,. Skip guess what, yep. I’ve been trying to put some groundwork to the thought that comes behind the scripture of and we have this hope that does not disappoint. I know we go to heaven that’s our Eternal hope for the grace that has been given us. But it can be taken literally, to Hope in the Lord, in every situation. Wow I’ve been trying to unravel that. Someone once told me. My brother-in-law I think. Who had a great deal to do with us coming to the Lord and growing in Salvation. To be the best, a champion oh, you need the best opponent. Whether it be the devil, which can be an oblivious opponent. Or yourself. You choose. That still haunts me, the devil is real I know. But I am also an emotional basket case. As I deal with my emotions, and surrender them to the Lord. I realize that Satan is bound. I’ll add this verse, as one of my left hand blows, being left-handed is my strongest. Thanks. Skip.
Hi Brother, that sounds like hope and faith to me. What happen if you realize that when you die you don’t go to heaven, you are done and Rest In Peace until Matthew 24th comes to pass?
What makes us afraid? I spent decades living with institutional-grade fear. I had plenty of time to inspect its guts while it was vivisecting my spirit. Fear and I became intimate acquaintances (of which I am not proud). I think I may have noticed a few things.
First, the exact same word/emotion is used to describe deepest sin as well as purest devotion. What is this? The answer lies in WHAT (or WHO) I fear. Proverbs says that the “fear of man”, for example, “is a snare”. 2Tim. 1:7 says that ungodly fear is a “spirit” not of God. We not only worship God in spirit, we worship (put ourselves in subjection to) things not of God in spirit – “spirits” that He has “not given us” – too. There is only one Spirit from the throne of God: the Holy Spirit, which is how (through which) we are to worship Him. I think worship means to line up our spirit with another spiritual reality: to be in agreement with (obedience to) it. Obedience (submission to) IS how we worship, in fact. All other spiritual “strongholds” (things or others we are submitting our spirits to) over us, therefore, are tormenting spiritual realities not of Him – in other words, slave drivers – of which fear of (fill in the blank with everything else except God) is a false god (power over our spirits) of the first magnitude. This was an extremely hard concept for me to wrap my belief around.
Do I serve fear, or am I afraid enough of anything and everything that keeps me from serving God that I run to Him and cling only to Him: listen only to Him: obey only Him? If not, I am not afraid enough of God to keep me from “letting sin reign in me” (which is a spiritual reality in the same way that letting righteousness reign in me is).
Fear of (displeasing) God, I now believe, is the only fear we are supposed to be experiencing. Any other fear is evidence that we are not choosing to have faith in God (gift of the Holy Spirit) in that place. Fear of things not of God is what we experience when we put faith in things (or others) not of God. Fear, in fact, is a form of faith – trust – that bases the future on another foundation: a foundation that is not built on faith (worship) only in Him.
I watched my faith built on unholy things (and others) of earth crash and burn in horrible ways: ways that convinced me that my faith (belief) is only safe in heaven. Now, if I can only remember that each minute, fear of (fill in the blank) will not be able to steal a march on me. If it does, I know to adjust my trust in that area before I bow down to (believe) what I find in front of my face (or driving me like a slave driver from behind).
P.S. I know now that the Holy Spirit NEVER drives: He only leads, as per promise. This was a huge clue I learned to use to figure out if I was experiencing the prompting of God or that delusive, lying spirit of fear He told me was not from Him. If it is feeling like compelling force, I am learning to stop, drop and roll like Balaam’s donkey, and make a new decision to change my allegiance (fear/trust/faith/belief) in that place. So help me, God. Fear of (putting trust in) any and everything else except God can go and I can stay. I do not have to endure the dominion of fear of anything else but Him over me. All I have to do is repent for unholy fear/faith, for Him to be free to put His true faith (gift to ask for) back in me again. Halleluah!
We should all PRINT THIS AND CARRY IT AS A ROAD MAP IN OUR POCKETS. This is how we overcome
Oh thank you Larreta your life is a rich experience for us who choose to receive the words of light that you speak thank you again for your insights and holding on to the rock that holds you !!!Shalom for many days Baruch
Laurita ?
I think traumatic experience can ruin our faith and trust, but I think it does it by convincing us that we must ‘serve’ the POWER of the trauma. In other words, our fears are reset around the overwhelming force we experienced AS IF IT WERE GOD. This does knock us out of the last fear/trust that we had (for good or ill), but it gives us a new set of “trust issues”. I believe fear in our lives is evidence that we are not connected properly with love in that place: we are putting trust in lying realities that derive all their reality (identity/existence) FROM US. In return, we remake ourselves in the image of (identity of) fear – we literally become fearful – but I believe now that the power of fear over us is the power we ‘give’ it, for sin/evil has no power (identity) of its own. This, of course, is because evil has no place other than created beings in which it can exist.
I think fear is where something unholy convinces us to give the power we have of trust (belief/faith) to it. Trust in God is where we make a new choice to re-give our “blessing and honor and glory and POWER” only “to Him that sits on the throne” in heaven. May we learn how to not serve (give power of choice to) the sin of fear (over us) in our mortal bodies, is my prayer for all of us. May I choose to let only God (not fear) make (will) my choices for me this day. Amen.
May we learn how to not serve (give power of choice to) the sin of fear (over us) in our mortal bodies, is my prayer for all of us. May I choose to let only God (not fear) make (will) my choices for me this day. Amen.
Thanks Laurita for sharing your education on fear. It has given me a new found confidence in my lifelong battle that I can overcome fear too. I pray every day to be a blessing to someone that God places in my life each day, and you have been a blessing to me today. Thanks. Now to go out and find that person to bless today. The strange thing is that I may not be aware that I have blessed someone until they tell me later which might be months or years later.
I’m enjoying reading Watchman Nee’s classic “The normal Christian life” agin. It might sound tright or glib, but dead people can’t be afraid. “Oh it is so real to me ! …I have never since doubted the finality of the words “I have been crucified with Christ “. It is not that I recon my self to be dead, and therfore I will be dead. It is that I am dead -because I see what God has done with me in Christ” Dead people have nothing left to fear….
For me, the preceding verses give this word, this phrase understanding and make it applicable to me. In them, I’m being told I was gathered from the ends of the earth, then selected to be a servant, and won’t be cast off for any purpose.
For me, that’s in my service.
So, in my call to serve, “Fear not”. Why? Because He is with me. And who is He? “I am your God”. Is it any wonder why it’s important to know Him? He’s not my uncle, not a friendly neighbor, nor just my healer, not just my supplier, that and more, He is God, my God.
My service requires obedience, and that is challenged by my fear. I serve with varying degrees of efficiency and effectiveness, but in spite of that He won’t cast me off.
Oh, the hugeness of “Me”!
“Me” is so all-consuming it has virtually no room
for anything or anyone else.
“Me” is a world unto itself. Walls surround it.
But deceit and fear invade it.
Outsiders may think the world of “Me”, but secretly
my world is crumbling a little more each and every day.
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this
body of death? Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 7:24-25
Reading Laurita Hayes “P.S. I know now that the Holy Spirit NEVER drives: He only leads…” brought to mind a Va’era parsha teaching from alphabeta by Beth Lesch entitled, God’s Names and their meanings. When speaking of Kel Shakkai – Our Shepherd, she said the following:
I got in touch with a friend of mine who is an animal scientist. She gave me a primer on sheep behavior, and I walked away with a really startling theory about what this metaphor, this central religious metaphor — God is my shepherd — about what it might mean.
First of all, Jacob — and Rabbi Yochanan, for that matter — were spot on about the analogy. Sheep really do “walk in front of” their shepherd. If the shepherd tried to stand in front of his sheep and say: “Sheep! Go!” — the sheep would just look at him, amused. Sheep only follow other sheep.
So that puts the shepherd in a bit of a pickle. You see, a shepherd doesn’t want to let the sheep decide where to go. Sure, their instincts are usually good, but not always. Sheep could get themselves into all kinds of danger.
The shepherd’s gotta guide them. So he does it from behind. When a shepherd stands just behind the flock, do you know what happens? The sheep at the very back of the flock is able to perceive the shepherd, just barely, through his peripheral vision, and the sheep’s instincts tell him: “It’s time to move.” So he moves, and he gently bumps into the sheep in front of him, who gently bumps into the sheep in front of him… and before you know it, the whole flock has changed course. The shepherd is leading, but from behind.
How cool is that? The sheep, it seems, don’t even realize that they’re being guided by the shepherd. From their perspective, they just feel the pressure of the sheep behind them. But the shepherd is there the whole time. He’s watching them. He’s guiding them. He’s protecting them — from predators, from poisonous plants — and if he’s good at his job, they’ll never even know that he was protecting them.
So if we’re right about this sheep metaphor, that the shepherd leads, subtly, from behind…And if we’re right about that Jacob verse – that “walking before God” means that God is your shepherd – then maybe we’re in a position to understand what, exactly, the Almighty meant when He told Avraham: “Walk before Me.” Maybe He was saying something like this:
Avraham, I’ve made all of these grand promises to you: about your birthing a nation, about inheriting a homeland. But here’s the thing: these are long-term promises. You might not realize this yet but… you’re not going to see them fulfilled in your lifetime.
And because you don’t see those promises coming true, Avraham, you may feel as if I’m not there with you. That I’m absent from your life.
Avraham — that’s because I’m behind you, just like a shepherd is behind his sheep. Of course you can’t see Me. You’re not seeing Me saving you, miraculously, from harm. You’re not seeing that I’m guiding your life. You feel like you’re at the mercy of all of these mundane influences: now there’s a famine and you’re off to Egypt, now you’re getting sucked into this war so you can save your nephew Lot — you feel like your whole life, you’re just being pushed around by the “sheep” behind you.
But you’re not. I am standing behind you, making sure that you get to where you need to go. I am your shepherd. And I need you to keep on walking, fearlessly, before Me.
Maybe “Kel Shakkai” is a shepherd — and He asks us to be His sheep.
Nicely explained. Thank you for sharing. Patricia.
where’s the love button?
I saw that same Parsha Patricia and was equally moved by the explanation of how sheep follow the shepherd
I’m revisiting this page a few days later and this – thank you so much, Patricia – ties to all of the “behind you” pictures in other places, imho. Yah BEHIND us! The future BEHIND us. We’ll hear Him (and know his voice BEHIND us). Moses was a shepherd; he knew how to lead from behind. So when Yah moved behind? (the text says “before”) him on the mountain – you cannot “see” my glory… my head’s swirling… WOW!
From her article: “Like Kel Shakkai (literally translated as “El Shaddai,” but the convention is to say and write “Kel Shakkai,” out of respect for the holiness of God’s name).”
El Shaddai is usually translated “God Almighty”. The root, according to Strong’s, is shown as shadad: “A primitive root; properly to be burly, that is, (figuratively) powerful (passively impregnable); by implication to ravage: – dead, destroy (-er), oppress, robber, spoil (-er), X utterly, (lay) waste” But it is interesting to me to look at Hirsch’s Etymological Dictionary and see that the next root in the list is shadah (plausible because ‘heh’ does become ‘yod’ in variations): produce nourishment, being productive, breast, field, vineyard; with the cognitive meaning of “search for sustenance”.
Are we seeing the paradigm of the “difference” between the “terrible” God of the “OT” and the “loving” one in the “NT”?
I watched her whole video and her closing considerations were well worth it!
Thank you, Leslee Simler as well as, Seeker and Tami, for your thoughtful way of mediating upon the unfamiliar explanation Beth Lesch put forth. Right now, at age 82, my focus is learning to read and write contemporary Hebrew. However reading biblical Hebrew words and interpretations from Skip is helpful as are the alphabeta parshas. My struggle grows as June approaches for I will be joining my grandson in Jerusalem for 6 months.
Since I am responding to you on Skip Moen’s site, let me once again thank Skip for having given to me the opportunity to journey by bus throughout God’s Land with him and Rabbi Bob Gorelik. Skip is a guide/teacher par excellence!
It happens quite a lot, Skip, that I read your blog and I feel such a connection. Thanks so much.