Fear emanates throughout the Bible 336 times. Every character from Noah to Abraham and from Ananias to Paul experiences fear. No one is immune.
Fear forces a decision:
“Will I follow God more closely or nudge God further away?”
Joseph’s world flipped upside down when he discovered Mary’s pregnancy. An angel appears and flips Joseph’s world again.
But sometimes we forget the gritty details of what’s left unsaid.
We don’t know if Mary told Joseph of her pregnancy or if Mary’s family approached Joseph’s with a shameful request to end their marriage agreement.
As Luke tells Mary’s story, just after her conversation with the angel, she journeys to see Elizabeth, whom she stays with for three months. Perhaps when she returns, she’s already got a baby bump. However it happened, the angel didn’t tell Joseph about the baby. He only told him what to do as a result.
“The angel tells Joseph to shatter the confines of the old law in order to keep the new law. Will Joseph remain ‘a righteous man’ in the old sense, or will he respond to God’s new act and become a genuinely righteous man walking God’s new path of obedience?”1
The story of Joseph challenges us.
Are you going to follow God in the old way or in the new?
Are you going to follow God in what’s familiar or follow the uncharted course in obedience?
If your fear challenges you to listen more intent, trust more full, turn and progress instead of turn and run, then you’re working yourself into a brand new thing.
Joseph isn’t the same again.
“Joseph is transformed by the announcement of the angel; he is astoundingly responsive to this new and strange deed of God. He followed not the old commandment, but the new: He took Mary as his wife, and he named the child Jesus. . . He has moved, as Matthew hopes all of his readers will move, from his own understanding of righteousness to God’s.”2
What’s more, when we next hear of Joseph after Jesus has been born in Matthew 2, his fear is gone.
After the Magi left on their way home, Joseph had another dream and the angel says, “Get up and go to Egypt because you’re in danger.”
Six verses later, Joseph has still another dream and the angel says, “Get up and go home because you’re safe.” Joseph is no longer afraid of angels and he’s not afraid to follow God.
Fear is the reason so many are not experiencing the abundant life that Jesus offers to His followers. I have been a victim of fear and now realize that I am my own worst enemy. To trust God when all seems to be desperate and dangerous, is the best place to grow in faith and find God’s peace and protection. I am praying for a friend who is going through a terrible divorce and her fear is tangible and debilitating. She knows what God wants her to do and fear paralyzes her. I’m praying that she would experience the strength, wisdom and peace during this week as she goes to court. This article is so timely for her and a reminder to me to put my trust in God alone and believe His promises.