Be Not Afraid | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 4, 1913

“Be Not Afraid”

“But what joy succeeds the fear, as they recognize the form of the Master treading the stormy sea as tho it were the firm earth, and hear His well-known voice saying, ‘Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.’”

THE words are those of the Redeemer of men, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Upholder of all things, the Master of all the warring elements of earth.

THE occasion when He uttered them is recorded in the Gospel by John, verses sixteen to twenty-one of chapter six. The day previous had been a remarkable one even in the life of Jesus. The great Dispenser and Provider of all good had given to the great multitude the bread of life, had healed their sick and infirm, and then before sending them to their homes had fed the five thousand men and the accompanying women and children with two small fishes and five little barley loaves; and after they were sufficiently fed, twelve baskets of the fragments were gathered. Blessings from the Lord’s hands ever multiply.

THE multitude were astounded, but in their selfish blindness failed to get the spiritual lesson. They did not accept the bread as from God, they did not hunger for the Bread of Life. They saw in Jesus one who was able to supply all they needed in this life. Surely such a man must be their king. If in His humility He will not assume the throne, we will compel Him to be king. But the kingdom of Christ is not of this world. Neither expediency, politics, nor force can make Him king. He will reign in every individual that will truly say, “Thine is the dominion;” but He will never sit upon the temporal, sinful thrones of men either in person or by proxy. When, therefore, He perceived that the people He had fed were about to take Him by force and attempt to compel Him to be king, He despatched His disciples, some of whom were perhaps leaders in the movement, to the other side of the sea. He then sent the multitude away, and He “departed again into a mountain Himself alone,” to pray for a people who cared more for loaves and fishes than for inward holiness. (See Mark 6:45, 46; John 6:15, 26.) So Christ will depart from every man or body of people who desires to make Him an expedient in politics, or sets Him on a political or theological throne of his own devising.

THE disappointed disciples departed. Their cherished hopes had perished, thwarted by the One whom they hoped to honor. The night fell upon the sea, a fierce wind—common to the blue Galilee—arose with the deepening darkness, and beat down upon their frail craft. Labor as they would to reach the other side, they made little progress. “The wind was contrary.” And tho there were but seven or eight miles of the water to cross, the hours of deep darkness preceding the day’s breaking found the strong-muscled men still “in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves.” The progression on the sea befitted their disappointed hopes, and their physical weariness must have brought corresponding depression of spirits.

THE tired fishermen were in a proper condition both mentally and physically to give way to groundless fears. The refusal of their Master to be made king, the sending of them away alone on the stormy sea, the terrible tempest, the swelling sea, made a night of terror, and filled their minds with gloomy forebodings. Peering out into the darkness, they see a human form walking upon the restless, heaving sea. All the old superstitious tales so common among fisherfolk invest the dread apparition with a deadly meaning. It was to them a storm wraith foretokening destruction.

Some one whispers, It is a ghost; and paralyzed with fear they cry out in agony.

BUT what joy succeeds the fear, as they recognize the form of the Master treading the stormy sea as tho it were the firm earth, and hear His well-known voice saying, “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.” They receive Him into the boat; their troubles are over; and directly they have entered safe harbor.

HOW obviously the lessons stand out to the storm-tossed children of earth. God knows our needs. He knew that what the disciples needed was not a temporal kingdom in a world of sin, but a spiritual fitting for an eternal and sinless kingdom. Disappointed as they were, He did not abandon them. Storm-tossed and baffled, “distressed in rowing,” He went to their relief. So He sees us. He knows our needs, knows the troubled sea and our frail craft, knows the furnace heat and the flail of tribulation. He will leave us no longer than is for our good. He is able to save. He died for our salvation. “The sea is His, and He made it.” No storm-tossed deep can overwhelm Him. The rolling waves become rock under His divine tread.

YET how often the very blessings of deliverance frighten us. The Master Himself seemed like a wraith of the sea, an omen of ill; yet He came to deliver. So some of the seeming ills of life are God’s blessings in disguise. “All these are against me,” Jacob moaned; but they were for the salvation not only of him and his family, but of a nation. Sometimes our eyes are too dim with selfish weeping to discern His form; our ears are dinned by the babel of voices, and we do not hear His voice. But He is there. “There is life in a look.” We may hear Him say, “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid,” and we may rest. Let Him into your frail boat of life. But, soul, if you can neither see nor hear Him, “feel after Him, and find Him,” for He is “not far from each one of us.” Nay, more, when the darkness is so great and the senses so benumbed that we can neither see nor feel, let faith pierce the darkness and lay hold of the hand that is ready to help.

“Jesus alone can save From every stormy wave; Trust in His power, Ever, in dark or day, Ever, in peace or fray, Ever, and all the way, Trust every hour.”