Two Kinds of Fear

The Fear That Traps

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Exodus 1 is full of fear. “They were in dread of the children of Israel” (1:12). The Egyptians, with their great army and their cities, were afraid of the slaves they had made.

Fear made the king cruel. The king's fear did not stay a feeling. It became a plan. First he made the people work harder. Then he told the midwives to kill the baby boys. Last of all, he ordered all his people to throw them into the river. Each plan was worse than the one before.

A trap. The Bible has a name for this kind of fear: “The fear of man brings a snare” (Proverbs 29:25). A snare is a trap for catching animals. Fear of people traps us, because it makes us do things we know are wrong.

What it looks like today. We may never be kings, but we feel this fear too. We are afraid of what friends will think. We worry about being left out or laughed at. So we go along with things we know are wrong, or we stay quiet when we should speak up.

Fear of losing control. Pharaoh was afraid of losing his power. Many people are afraid of not being in charge. They want to control what happens, and they will hurt others to keep control. That is how fear turns into sin.

Fear never gets enough. None of Pharaoh's plans made him feel safe. Israel kept growing, and the king kept getting more afraid. Fear of people always wants more. It never says, “Now I am safe.”

The way out of the trap. The rest of Proverbs 29:25 gives the answer: “But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.” The answer to the fear of people is not to stop caring about anyone. The answer is trusting God.

Two women who were not trapped. The midwives had every reason to be afraid of the king. He was powerful, and he gave them a direct order. But they were not trapped, because a bigger fear filled their hearts. “The midwives feared God” (1:17).

Fear and sin. The first time the Bible mentions someone being afraid, Adam was hiding from God after he sinned. Sin makes us afraid, and fear makes us sin more. We cannot break that circle by ourselves.

Jesus breaks the trap. Jesus came to “release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:15). He died for our sins and rose again, so the worst thing anyone can do to us is no longer the end of the story.

What to do. When you feel the fear of people pulling you toward wrong, stop and remember who God is. Pray, “Lord, help me trust You more than I fear them.” Then do the right thing, even if your voice shakes.

Exodus 1 uses two different words for fear, and they lead to two very different lives. In 1:12 the Egyptians “were in dread” of Israel. The verb is quts (say: KOOTS), to feel sick with loathing and alarm. In 1:17 the midwives “feared God,” with the verb yare' (say: yah-RAY).

Dread that grows. Pharaoh's dread grows through three stages: forced labor (1:11-14), secret killing (1:15-16) and public killing (1:22). Each fails, and each failure makes the next step harsher. Fear that is not brought to God tends to grow, not shrink.

The snare. Proverbs 29:25 names the pattern: “The fear of man brings a snare.” The Hebrew moqesh (say: moh-KESH) is a hunter's trap. The one who fears people is not free. His choices are set by whatever he is afraid of losing.

The fear of man today. For most of us it is not a king but the crowd: the group chat, the team, the friends whose approval feels necessary. The trap works the same way. It makes approval the thing we cannot live without, and then it tells us what we must do to keep it.

Fear and the fall. Genesis 3:10 is the first fear in the Bible: Adam says he was afraid and hid himself. Fear entered with sin and alienation from God. Fear of people is often a sign that something other than God has taken the center.

Peter's example. The disciple who later said “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) had once denied Jesus three times out of fear (Luke 22:54-62). The difference was the cross, the resurrection and the gift of the Spirit. Fear of man is not cured by trying harder. It is replaced.

Freedom from the fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15 says Jesus took on flesh and blood “that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” The fear of death sits under every other fear. Christ removed its power by dying and rising.

The safe place. The second half of Proverbs 29:25 says, “But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.” The word for safe means set up high, out of reach. The midwives were safe in that sense even before Pharaoh's palace, because their lives were in God's hands.

Application. Name the people whose disapproval you fear most. Then ask what you would do if you feared God more than them. That question is often where obedience begins.

The Fear That Frees

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There is another kind of fear in Exodus 1. “But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them” (1:17). This fear did not make them cruel. It made them brave.

What it is. To fear God means to see how great, holy and good He is, and to honor Him above everyone. It is the feeling you get looking at a huge mountain or a starry sky, but even bigger, joined with love and trust.

Where wisdom starts. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). Before we can be wise about anything else, we need to know who God is. The midwives may not have been famous or educated, but they were wise.

It makes people smaller. When you fear God, people do not seem so scary anymore. Jesus said, “do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do” (Luke 12:4). God is greater than any king.

It brings good things. “Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him” (Psalm 34:9). God took care of the midwives and gave them families. Mary sang, “His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation” (Luke 1:50).

Other brave people. A few years later, Moses' parents hid him, and “they were not afraid of the king's command” (Hebrews 11:23). Later still, three young men told King Nebuchadnezzar, “we do not serve your gods” (Daniel 3:18). Each time, fear of God made people brave before a king.

Brave, but not proud. The midwives did not brag or make a show. Fearing God makes us humble. We know we are small and God is great, and we depend on Him.

God says “Fear not.” It may sound strange, but people who fear God hear Him say again and again, “Fear not.” “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God” (Isaiah 41:10). When we honor God, we do not need to be afraid of anything else.

Fear and love together. Does fearing God mean God is mean? No! The Bible shows that God loves us deeply. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We honor Him because He is great, and we trust Him because He is good.

Through Jesus. On our own, our sin would make us right to be afraid of God as Judge. But Jesus died for our sins and rose again. Through Him we come to God as forgiven children, full of awe and full of trust.

What to do. This week, when you face a choice, ask: “What would please God?” Let that question matter more than “What will people think?” That is what it means to fear God.

The verb in 1:17 and 1:21 is yare' (say: yah-RAY). It can mean plain fright, but with God as its object it usually means reverent awe: the right response of a creature to the holy Creator.

Wisdom in Proverbs. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). It is the starting point for wisdom, not a later stage of it. The midwives had no learning or rank that we know of, yet they were the wise ones, and Pharaoh was the fool.

Jesus on rightly ordered fear. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:4-5). In the next verses Jesus speaks of the Father's care for sparrows.

A line of faithful refusers. Hebrews 11:23 says Moses' parents “were not afraid of the king's command.” Daniel 3:17-18 records the answer of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego: God “is able to deliver us… But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods.” In Acts 4:19-20 Peter and John say, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.” The pattern is the same each time.

Blessing on those who fear Him. “Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him” (Psalm 34:9). Mary's song applies it across history: “His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation” (Luke 1:50). God “dealt well with the midwives” (Exodus 1:20).

The paradox of “Fear not.” The God who is to be feared is the God who most often says “Fear not”: “Fear not, for I am with you” (Isaiah 41:10). To fear God rightly is to be freed from every lesser fear.

Fear and love. 1 John 4:18 says perfect love casts out fear, meaning the fear of punishment. That is not a contradiction of Proverbs. The terror of condemnation is removed in Christ, while reverent awe remains and deepens.

The cross. Romans 5:8 shows us why: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Christ bore the judgment we feared. His resurrection shows it was accepted. The believer now fears God as a son or daughter, not as a condemned rebel.

Application. The fear of God is shown in small choices: honesty when lying is easier, kindness when cruelty is popular, speaking up when silence is safer. Two midwives at birthing stools are the Bible's example of it.

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