A Mosaic Call to Fearlessness: Part 1

When I was a young man, there was no shortage of action films drawn from fictionalized versions of history. One such film was Troy, in which Brad Pitt portrays the legendary Achilles, who is not a big fan of the king that he serves (Agamemnon). Agamemnon uses Achilles to settle wars by way of one-on-one combat. In one such scene, Achilles walks away from the tyrant king to fight Boagrius. Achilles remarks: “Imagine a king that fights his own battles. Wouldn’t that be a sight?”

Well, in the Lord, we have a King who fights for His men (Deuteronomy 3:21). And that fact should produce fearlessness in our hearts. In Deuteronomy 3:1-22, God bookends the passage with a divine command: Do not fear. It’s not a suggestion. It’s not pious advice. It’s not a recommendation. It is a command. And for Israel, knowing and believing the Lord who fights the battle produced within them an unwavering courage—a godly fearlessness. 

Brothers, we must not fear man. We must not fear our circumstances. We must not fear anything except the Lord. This is Christian piety: the fear of God in practice. And there are blessings that we miss if we fear other things instead. One blessing is the faithfulness of fighting for the Lord.

After defeating King Sihon, Israel turned to take on King Og. The Amorite people went down, but there was still one to go. They were completely faithful as they committed all of Sihon’s people to total destruction before the Lord, and in Deuteronomy 3:1, they had to do it all over again. There are three lessons for us to take away as we walk in fearlessness.

First, faithfulness does not grant us time off from faithfulness. Faithfulness to God required Israel to destroy one enemy and immediately obey again. When it comes to being obedient to the Lord, there are no days off. We don't get to be satisfied with our obedience from today and yesterday and allow ourselves to have a little bit of disobedience tomorrow. The reward for being faithful today is that we get to wake up tomorrow by God's grace, in God's world, as God's people and continue to serve Him as those who have been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus. This generation of Israel here is a model for us in Christian tenacity. 

Other people may live as if a little bit of obedience to God can be rewarded with a little bit of sin. But not you. You are those who fear and follow the Lord. And faithfulness does not grant us time off from obedience. 

Second, faithfulness is no pass to halfway obedience. Deuteronomy 3:3 tells us that God was doing to the people of Og what He did to the other group of Amorites: delivering them into the hands of Israel. And like before, Israel had to be fully faithful in battle. There was no halfway obedience here. They did what they were supposed to do: “We smote them until no survivor was left.” And you'll notice in verse 6, the language of full obedience: “We utterly destroyed them.” There was not a single time that they arrived at a sleepy little Amorite hamlet and said, “You know we're just tired today. My right shoulder is a little sore from all the smiting I've been doing, so we'll let the women and children of this town live.”

They did not use the full obedience of yesterday as an excuse for halfhearted obedience today. But this is sometimes how people view sin and the pursuit of holiness, and this mindset bleeds into other aspects of life. We look at ourselves and say: “You know it's okay that we're not as mature as we could be in these areas, because overall we're doing alright. It's okay that we're a little slack in our parenting because compared to the rest of the world, our kids are doing pretty good.” Brothers, that is not faithfulness. 

Third, faithfulness can lead to bigger challenges. Life is a testing ground for us to take on the bigger things in life. Men are faithful in little things, and then they get the opportunity to be faithful in bigger things. The tasks get bigger and bigger. The challenges get greater and greater. This is true of church office. If men are faithful in their homes, and they show skill and character in various ways, they can be entrusted to serve in the midst of the flock of Jesus. 

After defeating a normal sized king and his fortified cities, these men who had been tested get to turn and take on the Giant Og. In verse 4, we are told they had 60 cities that were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; and in addition to those 60 fortified cities, there were numerous unwalled towns (v. 5). And as you see in verse 11, not only was this a bigger land mass to be conquered, but the king himself was a much bigger foe to bring down. King Og according to this text had a bedstead that was like a Twin XL scaled up for a giant! This was 6 feet wide and over 13 feet long. This was a titan of a man. But it doesn't matter how big they are—the arm of God is bigger. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and God is magnified in his might all the more. And these men got to take part in the victory.

Brothers, if we walk in sinful fear, we will miss out on the joy of faithfully fighting alongside God in the battle. But trusting Him leads to fearlessness, and fearlessness leads us to the blessing of following him into the fight again and again. It is a blessing to be faithful day after day, from one war to the next.

Nate Xanders is the pastor of Christ the King Church (PCA) in Louisville, TN and serves as an editor for Reforming Men.