In Holy Fear
As I write this morning the world is in what is called a “global pandemic.” A vicious virus named “Covid 19” seems to have started in China, and has been spreading apparently silently and rapidly across the world. It has now arrived in the United States. If we did not believe before that we are a global society and not just living on a global economy that reality has now hit us square in the face. All of us together live in a world that someone originally created for us all to live in. At least for me that seems like a bedrock truth.
For most of my life I have been a reader of the Bible. Of late I have been pondering anew the 11th chapter of Hebrews in the New Testament which I like to call “The Hall of Faith.”
To my great surprise this morning I found a story that is dissimilar and not dissimilar at all to this global pandemic we are now in, and it has to do with fear. It is found in Hebrews 11:7 and it reads:
“By Faith Noah when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.”
Noah was told a pretty fearful thing! The whole human race was going to be destroyed! (Genesis 5:7) What I had not noticed with such impact until this morning was that it was in holy fear that Noah built the ark. Until just now, in this our world pandemic, and the fear we see demonstrated all around, I do not think I have realized the depth and weight of those words. I just must write them again, holy…..fear. Somehow it just calls to me this morning, drawing me in close. In the part of the world I live in I am seeing the panic and terror of fear displayed by empty shelves in the grocery stores emptied by the terror in people. There seems to be nothing holy there at all! Now others can’t find those basics on the shelves, will there be enough to go around?
So, once again I am drawn to Hebrews 11 and taking a deep look at all of the people mentioned and finding their back-story and realizing that every story has a bit of mine too. In fact every big and little story in the Bible gives me a glimpse into how my little story is not that much different from everyone else’s in the world. The reality that comes down to me in this “unprecedented time,” as heard over and over again on the news, is that our current story is really not “unprecedented” at all! It has all been lived and told before.
What will be the end to all of these stories? At some level I believe it depends on our choices……..doesn’t it?
Perhaps this is a time for us all to ponder anew the age old story of the Biblical account of the creation of the world and take stock not of our shelves, refrigerators or freezers, but of our very own lives. You can find it to read or review in the very first book Genesis and perhaps it might read a little different in this time of global pandemic. Perhaps you too could be convinced like Noah and believe God’s account of things.
I close with the first three verses of Hebrews 11 as rendered in my NIV Bible:
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
My question today is “Is my fear holy? How about yours?
Where does my faith lie? How about yours?”
Scripture References:
Quotations from the NIV Bible
In Holy Fear
As I write this morning the world is in what is called a “global pandemic.” A vicious virus named “Covid 19” seems to have started in China, and has been spreading apparently silently and rapidly across the world. It has now arrived in the United States. If we did not believe before that we are a global society and not just living on a global economy that reality has now hit us square in the face. All of us together live in a world that someone originally created for us all to live in. At least for me that seems like a bedrock truth.
For most of my life I have been a reader of the Bible. Of late I have been pondering anew the 11th chapter of Hebrews in the New Testament which I like to call “The Hall of Faith.”
To my great surprise this morning I found a story that is dissimilar and not dissimilar at all to this global pandemic we are now in, and it has to do with fear. It is found in Hebrews 11:7 and it reads:
“By Faith Noah when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.”
Noah was told a pretty fearful thing! The whole human race was going to be destroyed! (Genesis 5:7) What I had not noticed with such impact until this morning was that it was in holy fear that Noah built the ark. Until just now, in this our world pandemic, and the fear we see demonstrated all around, I do not think I have realized the depth and weight of those words. I just must write them again, holy…..fear. Somehow it just calls to me this morning, drawing me in close. In the part of the world I live in I am seeing the panic and terror of fear displayed by empty shelves in the grocery stores emptied by the terror in people. There seems to be nothing holy there at all! Now others can’t find those basics on the shelves, will there be enough to go around?
So, once again I am drawn to Hebrews 11 and taking a deep look at all of the people mentioned and finding their back-storie and realizing that every story has a bit of mine too. In fact every big and little story in the Bible gives me a glimpse into how my little story is not that much different from everyone else’s in the world. The reality that comes down to me in this “unprecedented time,” as heard over and over again on the news, is that our current story is really not “unprecedented” at all! It has all been lived and told before.
What will be the end to all of these stories? At some level I believe it depends on our choices……..doesn’t it?
Perhaps this is a time for us all to ponder anew the age old story of the Biblical account of the creation of the world and take stock not of our shelves, refrigerators or freezers, but of our very own lives. You can find it to read or review in the very first book Genesis and perhaps it might read a little different in this time of global pandemic. Perhaps you too could be convinced like Noah and believe God’s account of things.
I close with the first three verses of Hebrews 11 as rendered in my NIV Bible:
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
My question today is “Is my fear holy? How about yours?
Where does my faith lie? How about yours?”
Scripture References:
Quotations from the NIV Bible
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