The Fear that God Might Be Against You

I calmed myself until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones.Isaiah 38:13Hezekiah feels as if he is being mauled by a lion, and he fears that the lion may be God Himself! And if God is against him, what hope does he have?Why would this godly king fear that God might be against him? A godly man knows that even at his best, he falls far short of what God calls him to be.We can be thankful for the honesty of these verses. Hezekiah does not say, “Well, I was sick, and I prayed, and God healed me!” No! He tells us how he felt. “I felt fragile. I was anxious. I was weary.”And he tells us what he feared: “I feared being separated from loved ones, I feared being cut off, and I feared that God might be against me.” This teaches us something important: Christians experience anguish! If Hezekiah, the most godly king, felt this way, so will we.This was the experience of a man who walked with God, and you find the same in the New Testament. Paul says, “Our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within” (2 Cor. 7:5). If the Apostle Paul knew what it was for fear to rise up within him, so will we.Even the Son of God said, “Now is my soul troubled” (John 12:27). At the Last Supper, we read, “Jesus was troubled in his spirit” (13:21). And in the Garden of Gethsemane, His soul was “very sorrowful” (Mat. 26:38).If Jesus, the holy Son of God, knew what it was to be overwhelmed by sorrow, so will we.Reflect on this statement: “If Jesus, the holy Son of God, knew what it was to be overwhelmed by sorrow, so will we.”