Fear of Man

"The fear of man lays a snare,
    but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe." Proverbs 29:25

A few years ago, I heard the term "fear of man" in a service at The Village Church, and I had NO idea what they were talking about. Are you asking yourself "what the hey-honk is fear of man"??

Let me borrow Edward T. Welch's definition of the biblical term "fear of man" from his book, When People are Big and God is Small:

"..the fear of man can be summarized this way: We replace God with people. Instead of a biblically guided fear of the Lord, we fear others. Of course, the 'fear of man' goes by other names. When we are in our teens, it is called 'peer pressure'. When we are older, it is called 'people-pleasing'. Recently, it has been called 'codependency'."

Here is a list of "symptoms" that Edward gives for "fear of man": "struggle with peer pressure, over-committed (hard to say no to things), you 'need' something from your spouse, self-esteem is a critical concern, you feel you might be exposed as an imposter, you second-guess decisions because of what people might think, you feel empty or meaningless, you get easily embarrassed, you tell white lies, you're jealous of others, other people often make you angry or depressed, you avoid people, you diet (the desire for the praise of men), you compare yourself to others (even if you feel more successful than others)."

Now, that you know what I'm talking about, I can share how God has been convicting me of my "fear of man" issues through 1 Samuel. I literally have a list of over 20 verses that I highlighted during this bible study, but these were the "big" ones that God used to convict me of my "fear of man":

**And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 1Sam. 8:7

 

 **If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well.  But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. 1Sam. 12:14-15

**And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?” And Saul eyed David from that day on. 1Sam. 18:8-9

The Israelites demanded that Samuel provided a king to reign over them, because they wanted to be like the other nations. Fear of man! The Israelites rejected God, and chose to idolize man and the other nations that they so desperately wanted to be like. Fear of Man! Samuel warned the people "fear the LORD and serve him and obey his voice...or else...the hand of the LORD will be against you and your king", but the Israelites didn't care. They chose a king over God. Fear of man! Saul is jealous of an Israelite song because it makes David look better than him...seriously??? A song creates jealousy and then Saul ends up hating and chasing David...he wants to kill David over a song?!?! Fear of man to the highest power!

And every time I read a verse like the ones above, I felt God say "this is you, you are like Saul". Yes, I fear man more than I fear the Lord. God has been working on my heart with this issue for the past year and a half, but has been heavily convicting me of this sin through 1 Samuel.

It's time to fear the Lord, to serve Him, to worship Him alone. Period. May He forgive me and heal me out His mercy and grace.

"Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
    and makes flesh his strength,^[a]
    whose heart turns away from the Lord.
⁶  He is like a shrub in the desert,
     and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
    in an uninhabited salt land.

⁷  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
     whose trust is the Lord.
⁸  He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Jer. 17:5-8 

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