25 Do not be afraid of sudden terror
or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes,
26 for the LORD will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from being caught. - Proverbs 3:25-26 (ESV)
Introduction
There are some healthy types of fear. For example, if we have a porch with no rail, we may be fearful that someone may get too close to the edge of the porch and fall off of it. Or maybe we are afraid of stumbling in the nighttime darkness, so we keep a flashlight beside our bed. And, of course, the fear of the Lord is healthy. We know that God is able to rightly judge us and that our sins justly qualify us to spend eternity in hell.
Unfortunately, though, there are many other ways in which we don’t handle fear very well. We have fears - sometimes uncontrollable fears - that are unhealthy because our faith is out of kilter and we lack the proper perspective.
Proverbs 3:25-26 gives us perspective on lives and how we handle fear. We could probably guess that the key to understanding this passage is Jesus, but let’s dive in and make sure.
“Do not be afraid of sudden terror”
In the first line of this passage, the writer of this proverb gives us an important instruction:
“Do not be afraid.”
This is a refrain heard frequently in the Bible. Many times people in the Bible - and us - are told “do not be afraid,” “do not fear” and for many of us, when we hear these words, our minds go right to a specific verse (and today’s verse could be one of those). A great example is when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water. What was their response? They were frightened. And what was Jesus’s reply?
20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” - John 6:20 (ESV)
The reality is there are a lot of things that we experience in life that cause us to be afraid. A couple of these examples are also mentioned in this passage:
“Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes.”
Bad, and often terrible, things happen. “Sudden terror” type of things like a ship crashing into a bridge. Or planes being flown into buildings. Or enemy forces launching a surprise attack. Or a car crash.
We don’t always know the reason in God’s sovereign plans for these events, though He uses all things for some type of good (Romans 8:28). Sometimes the purpose of these things is to “bring ruin to the wicked.” The Bible reminds us that we are all sinners, but the wicked are considered a special category of sinners. This classification of sinners consists of people who are specifically opposed to God and who go out of their way to be against Him, His people, and His purposes. This does not mean that the wicked cannot eventually be saved, but it does mean in their current situation they are against everything that is of God.
Though eternal judgment is promised to everyone, and after passing through that judgment the wicked will be sentenced to eternal damnation, it is not out of God’s power or ability or purposes to stymie the wicked in the here and now. Sometimes that comes through “sudden terror” or through “ruin.”
Those types of things also happen for reasons we do not know.
Things just happen. Sort of like the situation Jesus mentioned in Luke 13:
4 “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” - Luke 13:4-5 (ESV)
God is sovereign over everything. All things - even these events - will be worked for good for those who love Him, but these things still affect us. We would not be human if they did not.
So how we handle life’s events becomes very important.
Some of us will experience these events and simply turn away from God. They will say that if there is a God, He certainly is not good, because a good God would not allow things like this to happen.
Some of us will turn our focus inward and make life totally about ourselves. We will take the “eat, drink, and be merry” approach and reason that if trouble is up ahead we may as well do what we want to do until it gets here.
Some of us will be afraid. The terror and ruin that we see and experience during life will have a multiplied affect on us and we will live our lives filled with fear and anxiety. (This would be my category.)
These are not all of the ways that we could possibly handle life’s bad events, but all of them have something in common. They are not the best way. They are not the way that God has designed for us.
“For the LORD will be your confidence”
God’s way is this:
“For the LORD will be your confidence.”
This does not mean that trouble will not come, but this part of the passage does remind us of the perspective that a relationship with God should bring. And through this relationship we are brought God’s confidence.
For some help understanding this, let’s take at several of the verses that precede today’s passage:
21 My son, do not lose sight of these—
keep sound wisdom and discretion,
22 and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.
23 Then you will walk on your way securely,
and your foot will not stumble.
24 If you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. - Proverbs 3:21-24 (ESV)
“Wisdom and discretion” as mentioned in this passage refer to trusting in God (Proverbs 3:5-6). Making the decision to trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior is the wisest thing that we will ever do and a blessing of this relationship is the wisdom and perspective that is provided for every day living.
In this passage, the writer is reminding us that if we keep “wisdom and discretion” in front of us at all times, our lives will be different. They will be “life for your soul.” They will provide security for us and a peace that is so great that when we lie down we won’t be afraid, but will instead will have sweet sleep!
Living life this way provides us with the confidence that “will keep your foot from being caught.” There is nothing like having a bunch of clutter around your feet. Something like scattered children’s toys all over a room, or vines covering a pathway, or something trying to trip us takes our eyes off of the future and forces us to look down. And in these situations, we cannot confidently take a step forward without looking down and taking our eyes off of the future.
Application
The contrast here is stark.
We can choose to experience the “sudden terror” and “ruin” of life and lean into the panic, fear and anxiety that so many do, or we can choose to lean into God and experience His confidence.
For many reading this, the intellectual choice is easy. We choose God. We want that peace and we want that confidence. And we want to get rid of the fear and anxiety.
The choice may be easy, but the doing is different. Practically speaking, we are living our lives looking down for what is tangling up our feet and, therefore, we cannot confidently approach the future.
The message, or the fix for this problem, is simple. Fix our eyes on Jesus. Listen to His word that He has given us in the Bible. And no matter what keep leaning into His promises.
This is a simple fix, but it works. We will either preach to ourselves a message of lies, or a message of the truth. And the truth is only found in God’s word. So not what, turn back to what God says. When the doubt comes, when the fear comes, when the tangles are around our feet, keep turning to what God says.
And eventually we train ourselves in such a way to rely on God’s word that the truth automatically drowns out the lie of fear and anxiety.