The fear of death Week 39, 2015

That’s the strategy Satan has used to keep people in bondage to him; down through the ages. They were like slaves all their lives because of their fear of death Heb2:15(ERV). Why did Esau sell his birthright? He was afraid of death. "Look! I'm about to die." Esau replied. "What good is this birthright to me?" Gen 25:32(ISV). The fear of (death by) hunger has made many a servant of God compromise. That makes a blessing come when a rebuke, nay a warning should have come. That makes us put in high places of honour those who need to sit in the ashes and dust of repentance. Is it not this fear that makes a virgin submit the priceless for the hollow promise of financial aid and security? But we must face this fear of death, we must continue to encounter and overcome these real threatening situations so that real Christian living can manifest. While we are alive, we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be clearly shown in our mortal bodies 2Cor 4:11(ISV). No other way exists.

Recall Esther? It was her fear of death which made her initially reluctant to help out her uncle and her people when their very lives had become endangered. It took a readiness to die for her to say I'll go in to the king, even though it's against the law. And if I perish, I perish.Est4:16(ISV). It was the fear of death that King Nebuchadnezzar used to manipulate all people to worship his golden image: Anyone who refuses will at once be thrown into a flaming furnace Dan 3:6(CEV); all people except Shedrach, Meshach, and Abednego who were ready to die. Many out of fear of the furnace have nothing to do with unrighteousness around them alright, but won’t say a word of reproof. Yet: Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them Eph5:11(NIV) is the biblical injunction. In the day Samson was ready to die, in that one day he did much more than in twenty years Jdg 16:30. 

Those who have served causes well, good or evil, have had a readiness to die. Religious extremism is very difficult to manage because the extremists want to die. Al Qaeda is credited with the statement “You can’t stop us… we are as interested in dying as you are in living”. Man of God, daughter of Zion, are you expecting that when your enemies come to apprehend you fire from heaven will come down and consume them? Think again if you are not afraid of death. For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death Ps 48:14 (KJV). Those who fear death are open to compromise, to bondage. It was the fear of death that pushed Peter to deny three times in one night that he ever knew Jesus; yes the very night Jesus would not permit him strike the enemies with the sword. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell Mat 10:28(GNB).