Meriam Webster's Dictionary defines Fear as; "An unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger" or "Anxious Concern"

Amidst the current Covid-19 pandemic, globally and particularly in the US, "fear" and "anxiety" are emotional responses we're all quite familiar with.  As defined, we feel strong, unpleasant emotions resulting from our awareness of the dangers posed by the virus and our anticipation of those dangers becoming a reality for ourselves, and our loved ones.  Our experience of these emotions is only intensified by our modern 24/7 news cycles, where we hear from every pundit; from those predicting the end of humanity to those suggesting a conspiracy behind the outbreak, to those suggesting that it's all overblown and we need not take it seriously.  If the grocery store shelves are any indication, "Fear" is clearly motivating many of us across the Nation.

As Christians, perhaps battling our own fearful impulses, and certainly trying to live through the many adjustments brought about by the onset of the Covid-19 Virus we may be asking ourselves, "How should I understand and conduct myself in such times as these?"  "How does my faith inform my understanding and behavior in times like these?"  In times of relative ease, we might have provided reasonable and even Biblically sound answers to these and many other questions, but there is something about times of crisis that make the answers more difficult.  I would suggest that this is because we are acutely aware that the stakes are higher!  We can give an answer in times of ease more readily because we don't anticipate being challenged to live accordingly.  In the crisis, the answers are more difficult because we recognize that their validity will be tested "by fire!"  We're more careful of the accuracy of our answers because we hope they will be found to be true and life giving in the crucible of suffering.

Rightly then, we look to the inspired, inerrant word of God!  There are many passages that speak of "fear" and not all negatively or as something to be thrown off as contrary to Christian character.  For instance we are exhorted to "Fear" God. (Proverbs 9:10)  So when we consider the subject of "fear" we first need to determine whether or not the "fear" we are considering is an appropriate spiritual or emotional response or if it's one to be resisted.

I want to encourge this sort of consideration today as somewhat remedial to the exaggerated and indiscriminate expressions of fear so obviously prevalent in the current Corona Virus Pandemic.

We read of the danger of "Fear" in the following Scripture:

"The fear of man brings a snare..." (Proverbs 29:25a) 

I'd like to share several observations from this text, which I hope will equip us to manage our inclinations to fear in the present circumstances.

First, is the phrase "The fear of man" 

It is "fear" that I would call you attention to first.  It is not indicated in the text if the fear arises from an imagined or a real danger.  I think that's because the warning is not conditional upon one or the other.  The writer is warning of "fear" itself, irrespective of the circumstances which might provoke it.  Real or imagined, the resulting fear is real, and the warning given is to the end that we might be made aware of the dangers inherent in that "fear."

Secondly, is the phrase as a whole..... The fear of man.  I've heard this applied with an emphasis made toward not being fearful of men...presumably men or persons that would do us harm.  A paraphrase might be "don't be afraid of those who would harm you!" I think the writer would agree that there is an application along those lines, but his emphasis, evident in this phrase and by contrast to the phrase following in the verse, is not upon "the man" or "men" who might be feared, but rather upon the fear that arises "within" a man or the man.  To simplify, it is "my fear" that I am warned about in this text.  It is your fear!  The writer expends no effort at all in defining what is or what isn't a justifiable cause for fear.  This is not his aim at all!  This is a word of wisdom to men about their propensity to be fearful.

The next phrase is of interest as well. "...brings a snare"

The word "brings" suggests a relationship between the "fear" and the "snare."  More than that actually!  It links the two together in a "cause and effect" relationship. The logical reversal of this would imply that one will not exist without the other....at least in terms of the individual's own contributions.  The word "brings" also suggests that there is a progression in the effects of our fear.  It suggests that the snare is not present at the onset of fearfulness, but that the fear, if left unchecked will become a snare in the path of the one who fears.  This is not too difficult to conceive of since fear, so often leads to panicked, hastily conceived plans that only later are realized to have exacerbated the problem.  This compounding of the danger in a crisis, I believe is what the writer means by the word "snare."  A snare in its essence simply arrests further progress.  The rabbit caught in a snare is essentially prevented from going on his way. 

If I might provide another analogy.... I have friends and relatives who occasionally deer hunt in the eastern lowlands of NC.  Unlike here in the foothills, the predominate method of hunting there is by using several or more dogs to drive the deer.  A group of hunters divide themselves into two groups, the one group releasing the dogs at one end of a tract of land, the other group taking up concealed postions at what they anticipate will be the escape route for the deer at the other end of the tract.  The dogs are released and race into the underbrush, barking and crashing through branches with great excitement.  The deer, hearing this are frightened and instinctively bolt in a direction away from the clamour and right into the shotgun blasts of the awaiting hunters.  In other words, "fear" compelled the deer into an almost unconscious reactionary flight which in turn compelled them forward into the "snare" laid for them.  In the simplest of terms, it was not precisely the hunters or the dogs that "caused" the entrapment of the deer.  It was the "fear."  The hunters and the dogs might have been the danger causing the fear, but it is the fear that drove the deer.  Of course deer are not men so we can hardly imagine that the deer might have checked its fear, and considered its options, and chosen to execute a flanking manuever (which they sometimes do).

Nevertheless, the writer of this wisdom verse seems to have in mind an inherent danger not very much different from that of my analogy.

But what about the curent Covid-19 Crisis?  How is this relevant?

First:  be on guard against fear within our hearts! There is a danger inherent in it. 

Second: Don't be surprised by it, but rather, anticipate its presence. Our vulnerabilty to fear is a part of what it means to be a son of Adam...living in a fallen world and even for the Christian, battling constantly a fallen "old man" prone to fear.  

Third: Be aware that circumstances, whether they're real, as in the case of the effects of the Corona Virus, or imagined, as in the case of much of what is droned on endlessly about on the network and cable news outlets, are not what ensnare us, but it is our "fear" itself and our acting impulsively and exclusively upon it that brings the snare.

Fourth:  Remember!  Our fear and the snares are inseperably related.  Be on guard against fear, for fear unchecked cannot but bring with it a snare which like the rabbit, arrests our progress!

The Alternative to Fear

(Proverbs 29:25) doesn't leave us with only the warning.... Wisdom gives us the alternative!

"...but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted."

This is not merely "an" alternative!  It is the only alternative!  You can see in the text that trust in the Lord is contrasted with the fear of man.  Fear of man = snare / Trust in the Lord = exaltation.  We can't try and find a balance between the two.  They are two distinct and very clearly defined courses of action in every circumstance.  We can operate or be driven by our fear, or we can operate out of a deepening trust in our God and His love, power, and mercy!  These two I believe are mutually exclusive.  Either will cancel out the other.

With God's grace, and the nearness of our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that we might all find His grace sufficient and that we might remember the Apostle Paul's exhortation to the young Timothy in (2 Timothy 1:7)

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and a sound mind!"

For the Glory of His Name,

Pastor Larry Holleman