Faith and fear ...

This morning I read from two separate areas of Scripture: Numbers and Mark. They were written centuries apart from each other yet it seemed as though they were in conversation together.

Numbers 17:12-13 told of the fear that people, at times, have in their heart. (What is in parenthesis is added.) There the Israelites say to Moses:

"We are perishing; we are lost, and all of us are lost!

Everyone who approaches the tabernacle (a tent used as the dwelling of God while Israel traveled) of the LORD will die.

Are we all to perish?"

And in Mark 4:40 I hear an indirect answer from Jesus:

"Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"

In Scripture the opposite of fear is not courage as much as it is faith -- a trust in God. To trust God is not to be afraid to follow God.