I did a word study a year or so ago on the word “fear” in the Bible. We are told not to fear anything, and yet we are to be fearful before the Lord. The common explanation would say to determine which subject of fear makes the greatest case for your continued dread. I won’t discount this, but I found that the original languages often referred to the fear of the Lord in terms of respect and obedience, while the fear of man had more to do with the common definition we would give this word. Regardless, if you fear man in a powerless sense, you will one day fear God with the greatest force behind the word. Let’s look today at a fear of man that came from those who did not fear God.
Luke 22:1-2
Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people.
The priests and scribes were well acquainted with scripture. They understood that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and they knew that they should have no other fear if indeed God was with them. Of course, their gaze was directed outward and not inward when they taught the scriptures. Did they manage to communicate so much truth to others and never apply it to themselves? In many cases, they did.
They placed as much, if not more, emphasis on their own traditions than they did on the word of God. They feared man from the beginning, leaving them no fortitude to leave the desires of the people unchecked. It was this fear that led them to look for ways to condemn a righteous man to the death by any means possible. This shows a direct correlation from fear to sin. In many cases, fear begets sin! No wonder we are told throughout scripture that we are not to fear evil but to trust in the providence of God.
What fears are out there, causing you to stumble? If the revealed will of God communicates His desire for us to tell others of the good news and to make disciples, but we decline as we “look for a better opportunity” is that just a matter of us looking to our own fear? If we allow fear to become disobedience, do we have any right to speak of those who let fear drive them toward murder as if we are without sin? Not to sound too conversational, but the answer would be both yes and no.
Yes, we are to use the example of the Sanhedrin as one that we should not emulate, but no, to condemn any man to Hell based on a snapshot of information we have in the Bible is hypocritical. If Christ came to save sinners, then we must hope that some of these men believed in Jesus before their three score and ten were done. Paul, the chief of sinners, is one example of a Pharisee who came to saving faith. There were others, but in most cases it is not my place to separate the sheep from the goats.
Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.
This passage is sufficient to dispel the myth that Jesus asked Judas to betray Him. If Judas were able to serve two masters, then he either betrayed Jesus by the request of Jesus or the influence of Satan. Satan led Judas to the priests during their time of fear and set what he thought was his grandest trap. The murder of the savior of the world! It says here that Judas approached them, not that they called for him. The fact that he took a payment says that he was bartering with them for the life of Jesus, but I believe he would have been the betrayer even if there was no financial gain.
Then why did he take the money? First of all, he did so to fulfull prophecy. It had been foretold that Messiah would be betrayed for a price. Also, the potter’s field was purchased with blood money. The matter of Judas accepting a payment, even the correct amount of a payment, was already written in stone.
He also took the money to show His love for this world and his disdain for Jesus. Why do I say this? Thirty pieces of silver was the price that one would pay if their ox gored another man’s slave according to the Law given to Moses. What a slap in the face! Jesus suffered indignity even before He was arrested.
How do we show our love of this world through our money? Do we see a paycheck as the final reason we do our work? If we teach in the church, do we preach a message contrary to the Bible because it will help our job security? Both of these are rooted in the fear of man, you must realize.
I also do want to point out that the arrangement was for Jesus to be arrested when He was away from a crowd. The Sanhedrin knew that Jesus was popular, and that was their main fear. They didn’t want a revolt from their own people over this, and they knew that their cause was not just. If they believed that God had blessed their efforts to silence this man, they would have acted out of obedience, no matter the cost. It was their fear on several levels that brought them to this point.
My friends, do not let fear be a motivating factor in your life. It will cloud your judgment, cause you to take actions contrary to the will of God, and lead to your own downfall. Pride is a sin, so is envy. These sins will lead you to greater sin and so will fear. Do not give in to the temptation to be carried along on your fear, for it is an evil motivator.
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
[...] I was reading earlier today at Doug’s blog – which I typically do every day – and came across his post “From Fear to Sin.†It is an interesting read in itself but it also reminded me of a verse and an ensuing study I did this week; the study, in turn, reminded me of a statement of Faramir in The Two Towers. The verse – Ps 99.1 – first: The LORD reigns, let the peoples tremble; He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake!†[...]
How could the most perfect specimen of man, the divine inspiration set forth to be our guidance and example sin, by having fear that his father our lord had forsaken him? Who owns fear? Why does God let fear persist in man? Choice is our curse and fear is a choice, but if we abandoned all fear, it would surely be our downfall as well. Again, how could the most divine, with all that he knew was his calling from his father, which extreme sacrifice he embraced and accepted as his duty to the extreme point of death still cry out in appearant fear or despiration? And why is this called a sin?
When Jesus lacked faith for a split second, what more was expected?
Key word is “apparent”. If Jesus had lacked faith at any point in his life, He would not be the spotless lamb and all hope would be lost. He was tempted in the wilderness as well, but was without sin.