Human Response 244: Dread and Fear of God’s People

Deuteronomy 2:25 This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.

The Lord God is beginning to use His people to wage a holy war against the demon gods and devil worshippers of the pagan nations of the world. The kingdom of God cannot grow and advance to take over the hearts and minds of earth-dwellers for their good until the spiritual enemies that have blinded the hearts of people are driven out. Positive spiritual growth and goodness does not happen until the rulers of this world are unseated from their places of authority.

Therefore, the Lord will cause the unbelieving people that He wants to save to respond with dread and fear, trembling and anguish. The world’s people may not even know they are afraid of the goodness and righteousness of the Church, and they don’t even know why they hate Christians. They can’t even give a cogent reason why they crucified the Christ. One hidden reason is that the Romans, the Jews, the crowd, and sinners like us were afraid of Jesus. Today, this fear shows up in the unbelievers who ignore, avoid, despise, and even mock the Church’s preaching of the Gospel.

Israel brought the Son of God into the world to violently overthrow the ruling authority of Sin, Death, and Satan through the violent victory of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Unbelievers should be afraid, for the mighty power of the Gospel is being preached to the final destruction of the world’s kingdoms.

The believer responds with victorious shouts of joy. We win! Life is good!