What are you scared of?
I mean really frightened of?
For some time now I have carried around a secret dread of having to deliver a baby in a taxi. Fortunately for me, some years back, one of my brothers furnished me with a copy of the ‘worst case scenario” survival handbook. Its been invaluable. Now, I know that I must never enter a taxi, or indeed any vehicle with a heavily pregnant woman, without a supply of clean towels and a serviceable shoe lace.

Earlier today I was rather surprised to find myself preaching at church. I don’t get asked all that often. It was an honour. I almost got through it without crying at all… but not quite.
I spoke about fear. This is some of what I said. It is based on the following passage from:

Exodus 1:8-21
Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly….

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own”

What would your worst case scenario be? – fending off a shark, jumping from a moving car, disabling a bomb or escaping from killer bees?

There are types of fear in this passage.
Fear of Man and fear of God.
1. Pharaoh – has a terrible case of “fear of man” which literally controls him.
Fear of man means that we are afraid of what others think, feel, say, or do and this consumes us. Some people might call it “people pleasing” but it is actually “people fearing” in disguise.

And when we fear anyone or anything other than God, then that will become our temporary God. And what do we always do with our Gods? We serve them.

Fear makes this pharaoh concoct a hideous, and rather ill-conceived plan to try and get the Hebrew midwives to kill the baby boys they deliver.

2. Fear of man makes us despairing.
The Egyptians are filled with dread. “If war breaks out they will join our enemies and fight against us.”

The sons of Israel and their families numbered 70 (v. 5) when they arrived in Egypt, a mere clan. But when they leave Egypt, they do so as a great nation. 600,000 adult men were counted. Their population doubled every 25 years of their 400 year slavery.
Scholars estimate that they would have numbered 2 million people, compared with an entire Egyptian population in 1250 BCE of around 3 to 3.5 million. Marching ten abreast, and without accounting for livestock, they would have formed a line 150 miles long.

No wonder pharaoh was scared! He took one look at these strong people getting stronger and got himself some sleepless nights.

He tries to steal, kill and destroy the prospering, strength and fruitfulness of the Israelites. Who does he remind you of?

For me, he is a picture of the devil.
The devil despairs of you.

Like Pharaoh the devil lives in fear. How do I know?

1 John 4:18 “Perfect love casts out fear.” There is no love in him, therefore the opposite is true.

He is driven to everything he does by fear. What about you?
What drives your decisions?